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Uniforms of 1809 Compiled by Keith McNelly. The following has been collected from a variety of sources when I starting forming elements for my 6mm armies for the 1809 Campaign. It is a simple guide only and was created to support the details in the Volley & Bayonet 1809 scenario book. Special thanks to Arturo Lorioli, Aris Kosionidis, Andrew Nicoll. The article is divided into several parts:
Uniforms of the Army of Italy: In theory the line infantry changed from dark green coat to white in 1808, and at all times wore white trousers. The shako was used from 1808 in the line infantry. It would appear that there were four Italian light infantry regiments, it is possible that the light infantry retained the green coats until 1811. The 4th light infantry was not raised until 1811 so does not appear in the V&B 1809 scenario book, I'm not sure on other formations status in 1809. The Dalmatian Regt refered to in the 1809 book as part of Fontanelli's division (Baraguey d'Hilliers Corps), I believe it also served with IV Corps in 1812, was part of the Royal Italian Army, recruited in Dalmatia. Uniform was a green jacket, Austrian cut. Green breeches, Hungarian cut, white waistcoat. Leather sandals with cross-stips over off-white leggings. Red facings, but yellow collars for the Voltigeurs companies. Black "Korsehut" hat with green plumes, red for Grenadiers and yellow for Voltigeurs, until 1808, then black shako with similarly coloured pompons. Horse Artillery (Line) : Jacket - dark green, long tailed, white breast loops, black facings with red piping, pointed cuffs, white belts. Pants - dark green, with short black gaiters piped and tasseled in red. Headgear - Polish-looking czapka with green-over-black round woolen "pompon", brass chinscales. Black shako 1811 on. Foot Artillery (Line) : Jacket - dark green, long tailed, black facings with red piping, red cuff flaps, pointed cuffs, white belts. Pants - dark green, with short black gaiters. Headgear - black peackless shako. From 1810 red plume an cords. Artillery Train (Line): Brick-brown jacket with crimsom facings, white pants with short black gaiters, black shako. Royal Guard Horse Artillery: Exactly as the French Imperial Guard Horse Artillery. Royal Guard Foot Artillery: Dark green, long tailed jacket, black collar and lapels with red piping, red cuffs and cuff flaps (French cut), red turnbacks and epaulettes, green pants with black boots, black "Ourson" (bearskin cap) with red plume and cords and white-over-red cross back patch (no plate). Royal Guard Artillery Train : Grey jacket with dark green collar, turnbacks and cuffs (Polish cut), buff pants with black boots, black chapka with red plume plus pompon and brass chinscales, white belts. Venetia Guard Artillery (municipal guard, not Royal Guard!!!) : Dark Green jacket with dark green facings piped red, white pants with short black gaiters, black shako. Naval Gunners: Dark Green jacket with scarlet piping and epaulettes, dark green one-piece gaiter-trouses, black round-hat with black fur trimming and red plume. Limbers, caissons and carriages in Grey, polised metal fittings and barrels (left dull in the field) Chasseurs uniforms were basically as French, although darker green. White belting. White metal buttons, etc. facing colours:1st (Reale Italiano) deep yellow; 2nd (Reale Principale) scarlet; 3rd orange; 4th claret. Horse blanket dark green edged white. Now to Italian standards. The Italian flag was basically similar to the French one, with green instead of blue. The main differences were: The "front" face of the flag (the one with the stave on the left side) did not have any golden wreath on the coloured corners. The "back" side did have golden wreaths. That's for line infantry. The Royal Guards had plenty of gold everywhere! Instead of simple lettering, like the French flags the inner white lozenges had quite colourful designs. A large bright blue sun with golden rays and lettering and golden wreaths on the front side, the Royal Shield on the back side. There is some doubt that all the Regiments did get the new 1809 pattern flags in time for the campaign, but AFAIK they all did. If not, they should have carried the old 1802 pattern Republic of Italy flags, as the intermediate 1805 pattern Kingdom of Italy (virtually identical to the French pattern, but with green instead of blue) were never actually delivered to the Regiments. The 1802 pattern was still of the french lozenge pattern, but with all red corners. Inside the white lozenge, and touching the edges of the red corners, was a green square, with golden wreaths around a golden scale surmounted by crossed sword and palm branch. Again, there was a lot of letter on the front side. Forming a Saxon Army in 6mm: A selection of figures from Heroics and Ros figures for the Saxon contingent of 1809. Grenadier infantry: Use Napoleonic Austrian Grenadiers. Though not perfect as close as you'll get. Line infantry & Schuetzen skirmishers: Both the same in Prussian 1806 uniforms. The Schutzen were an innovation drawn from the line regiments for the first time early in 1809, and through the campaign continued to wear their white line uniforms. Gives you a good excuse to paint each figure in the Schutzen Bns in different facing colours! Garde du Corps & Carabiniers: Prussian SYW Cuirassiers. Hussars & Chevaulegers: For Chevaulegers Prussian SYW Dragoons are probably your best bet, or perhaps MSN4. Unarmoured and in bicornes is what you want anyway. You don't need Hussars because they're factored into one of the Cuirassier brigades. If you want to show them, you need figures in Mirlitons rather than busbys. Foot Artillery & Horse Artillery: Prussian 1806 artillery will do. Horse and foot were uniformed virtually identically. The Hesse Darmstadt Artillery in 6mm: The 1809 scenario book deals with basic infantry uniforms but doesn't cover the artillery. There seem to be several versions on uniforms. One source mentions in 1810, the Bicorne was replaced by the Shako, but according to Rawkins the Bicorne was widely retained in the field after this date. In 6mm the French artillery pieces are suitable. Austrian and early Prussian crews will have the wrong sort of coat - a short-tailed coat of the infantry pattern was introduced in 1807. However in 6mm early Prussians crew are a reasonable fit. Another source (Knoetel) shows them in shako (except for the officers) during the 1809 campaign. Judging from his illustration, 1809 French will do, if you paint knee- instead of mid-thigh- high gaiters. Officers will probably be closer to 1806 Prussians. The Osprey book shows H-D artillery in Shako in 1809. Baden Infantry Standards: One flag per regiment. Normal "Prussian-style" flags, with rather thin corner rays. In the centre the Baden Arms (yellow oval with a red stripe from upper left to lower right), surrounded by a green wreath and under a gold crown. Corner "devices" and little grenades as in Prussian Flags (in 6mm, probably a gold dot in the corner will suffice). Colouring was:
The 2nd may have still carried its Leibfahne, which was in reversed colours. The 1st (Leib) Regiment carried a different flag. It had a yellow cross with red corner rays "piped" in gold. The reverse had a small circular light blue field surrounded by a green wreath and including a gold cypher and crown in the center of the cross (diameter of the field was about 1/3rd of the flag). The obverse had the Baden arms on a shield, surmounted by a gold crown. Around this was a circle of gold, with a small red cross under the Baden arms. For additional details refer to the Warflag Website. Austrian Insurection Troops: There are no details on the uniforms for Insurection troops at Raab within the 1809 scenario book. Apparently the Insurrectio cavalry wore normal Hussar dress: black shakos, blue dolman and breeches (possibly a pelisse of the same colour) and a red sabretasche. Lace on shako and sabretache was usually white. There were exceptions to this, but the Haidik do not seem to be one of them. At this stage I don't have details on the artillery. |