This is the most accurate map of the battlefield that has been made. Do note that the Imperial-Leaugist army deployed on a considerably wider frontage however as they deoployed their infantry in much shallower formations than the 30 rank deep ones drawn on the map.
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Here are the actual order of battles for Breitenfeld.
The Swedish Army: Gustav II Adolf
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The actual command structure is a bit unclear. Horn writes that Gustav Adolf commanded the Right Wing with Baner as 2nd in command. Monro writes that the King commanded the infantry in the centre and Baner writes that he himself led the Right Wing.
The artillery: Colonel of the Artillery Lennart Torstensson
Four 24-pound Demi-Cannon
Eight 12-pound cannon
Regimental artillery.
Each brigade had six regimental cannon attached for artillery support, a total of 41 3-pound regimental cannon and 1 6-pound regimental cannon were present at Breitenfeld.
The Right Wing: General of the Infantry Johan Baner
1st Line: General Johan Baner
· Stålhandske's squadron (Finns): 400 Horse
· Wunsch's squadron (Finns): 300 Horse
· General of the Cavalry Åke Tott's regiment of Horse (2 squadrons): 800 Horse
· Erik Soop's regiment of Horse (Swedes, Västgöta ryttare): 400 Horse
· Per Brahe's regiment of Horse (Swedes, Smålands ryttare): 400 Horse
· Sperreuter's squadron of Horse (Swedes, Östergöta ryttare ): 150 Horse
Commanded shot
· 4 detachments from Johan Banérs regiment (Germans), 860 musketeers
Notes:
Brahe's regimet was led in the battle by his major, Karl Joachim Karberg.
Soop's regiment was led by his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Knut Soop.
2nd Line: Rheingraf Otto Ludwig
· Rheingraf Otto Ludwig's reigment of Horse (3 squadrons): 700 Horse
· Claus Dietrich Sperreuter's regiment of Horse: 300 Horse
· Sigfrid von Damitz regiment of Horse: 150 Horse
· Ernst Dönhoff's squadron (aka the Courlanders, Cuirassiers): 200 Horse
· Jürgen Aderkas' squadron (aka the Livonians, Cuirassiers): 300 Horse
The Centre:
The Battaile: The King's Major-General Maximilian Teuffel
The Yellow brigade:
· The King's Lifeguard company
· The Hovregiment (the "Court regiment" aka the Yellow Regiment, Col. Maximilian Teuffel)
Åke Oxenstierna's Swedish brigade:
· Axel Lillie's Upplands and Närke-Värmlands regiment
· Åke Oxenstierna's Dalarna regiment
· Hastfehr's Finnish regiment
Erik Hand's Swedish brigade:
· Erik Hand's Östgöta regiment
· Karl Hård's Västgöta regiment
· W. von Salzburg's Dals regiment?
· The Red regiment (Geisbrecht von Hogendorf)?
The Blue brigade:
· The Blue regiment (Hans Georg aus dem Winckel)
· The Red regiment (Geisbrecht von Hogendorf)?
· Chemnitz's regiment
Reserve of the 1st Line:
Col. James Ramsay's regiment of foot (Scots): 350 musketeers
The Count of Ortenburg's regiment (The King's German Liferegiment, Col Georg von Uslar)
1st squadron: 250 Horse (Cuirassiers)
Monro of Foulis regiment of Foot (Germans): 400 musketeers
The Count of Ortenburg's regiment (The King's German Liferegiment, Col Georg von Uslar)
2nd squadron: 250 Horse (Cuirassiers)
John Hamilton's regiment (English): 260 musketeers
Notes:
Maximilian Teuffel was acting as "the King's Major-General" a ranke which is often mistakenly shortend to simply Major-General. The King's Major-General was chief of the General Staff and as such Teuffel outranked all other Swedish officers except Horn.
On the eve of battle the Swedish infantry mustered 14 742 men. An outbreak of plauge shortly before the battle forced Gustavus to reform 8 brigades into 7. Hence th e strenght of the individual brigades is not known as regiments and parts of regiments were mixed to create the brigades used in the battle. The Swedish General Staff calculated the brigades had a strenght of 1568-1578 men. (216 Officers, 488-498 pikemen, 576 musketeers and 288 commanded musketeers) But this assumes all brigades had exactly the same number of troops and I'm not entirely sure that this was achived.
There is some debate about the placement of the Yellow brigade and the
Oxenstierna brigade, of the four important sources two have the Yellow brigade
in the place of honor ((the first position on the right) while two have the
Oxenstierna brigade in that position. I tend to belive that the Oxenstierna
brigade held that position as Gustav Adolf did deploy Kyle's native Swedish
brigade in that position at Lutzen with the Yellow brigade holdning the next
position in line. But I have yet to prove this beyond doubt.
There was no 'Red Brigade', Guthrie has invented that name for Erik Hand's
brigade. There is some debate wether Hogendorf's 'Red regiment' was part of
Hand's brigade or fought alongside the Blue regiment in Winckel's brigade.
Some of the evidence can be interpreted in both ways and the Red regiment had been a part of Winckel's brigade as alte as 4 days before the battle. It would be unusual but not unheard of for Gustav Adolf to mix German and native Swedish troops. I belive that Hogendorfs regiment was split between Hand's brigade and the Blue brigade.
It is unclear wether von Salzburg's swedish regiment took part in the battle
or not, if it did do so it only did so with one company of 150 men, the 3
other companies were detached from the army.
Chemnitz small regiment had been a part of the Yellow brigade 4 day before
the battle but several sources has Chemnitz as a squadron commander in the
Blue brigade. None list Chemnitz with the Yellow brigade at the battle. I belive that surplus
troops from the Blue and Red regiments joined with Chemnitz men to form the
3rd squadron of the Blue brigade
The Reserve: Col. John Hepburne
Thurn's brigade:
· Graf Hans Jakob von Thurn's (Black) regiment
· Adolf Dietrich von Effren-Hall's (Black) regiment
· Sigfrid von Damitz' (White) regiment
Hepburne's or the Green brigade:
· The Green regiment (Hepburn, Germans, Prussians to be precise, not Scots!)
· James Lumsdaine's (ex-Spens, Scots)
· Mackay's regiment (commanded by Monro) (Scots)
· Unknown German regiment(s)?
Vitzthum's brigade:
· J. Ruthven's regiment (Germans)
· Johann Vitzthum's (Orange) regiment)
· Mitschefall's regiment
Reserve of the 2nd Line:
Jaroslav Schaffman von Hemmerless' regiment of German Horse: 400 Horse
Andreas Kochtitzky's regiment of German Horse: 300 Horse
Note:
The composition of the Green brigade is not clear, one source lists the 3rd
squadron as 'Dargitz' but this regiment was in the town of Brandenburg and
not present. Another source lists 'Lovenstein' as commander of this 3rd
squadron but there was no such commander in Swedish army at this
time. Could be an otherwise unknown officer of one of the German regiments
in the army (a Lt-col or major). The Green brigade may have had two, not one squadrons of Scots. There certainly was enough troops to form two squadrons of Scots troops.
Vitzthum's brigade had been reinforced by troops from other regiments to
bring the brigade up to strenght
The Left Wing: Fieldmarshal Gustav Horn.
1st Line: Fieldmarshal Gustav Horn.
· Horn's Lifeguard company (Cuirassiers): 100 Horse
· Moritz Pensen von Caldenbachs regiment of Horse (2 squadrons): 550 Horse
· Wulf Heinrich von Baudissin's regiment of Horse (3 squadrons): 600 Horse
Commanded musketeers
· Waldenstein (Aka Wildenstein) 360 musketeers
· Oxenstierna (Swedes) 280 musketeers
· Hand (Swedes): two detachments, each with 300 musketeers
Notes
Horn's Lifeguard was part of one of the squadrons formed by Caldenbach's regiment.
The detachments of commanded musketeers from Hand's brigade also contained musketeers from Hogendorf's Red regiment.
2nd Line Col. Adolf Didrik von Efferen-Hall
· Col. Adolf Didrik von Efferen-Hall's regiment of Horse( 2 squadrons): 800 Horse
· Col. Nicolas de Courville's regiment of Horse: 250 Horse
Notes:
Gustav Horn's rank was Fieldmarshal, not "Royal Marshal". The later rank did not exist in the Swedish army. Guthrie has probably invented it as a translation of "Fältherre" (From the German "Feldherr"), the Fältherre was the commander in chief of the army and outranked only by the King. As Gustavus Adolphus commanded his army in person the rank was not used after 1629. (Jacob de La Gardie was allowed to retain his title as Fältherre even after he laid down his command as a sign of respect for his great services to the Crown.)
Guarding the bagage
Col. Georg Kristofer Taupdel's regiment of Dragoons: 400 dragoons
The Saxon Army at Breitenfeld
CinC: Elector Johann Georg of Saxony
The Right Wing: Fieldmarshall Hans Georg von Arnim
· Hans Georg von Arnim's lifeguard, 2 companies: 200 (400?) Horse
· Liferegiment of Horse (Dietrich von Taube), 6 companies: 600 Horse
· Eustachius Loeser's regiment of ‘Ritterpferde': 700 (800?) Horse
The Centre:
· Liferegiment of Foot (Hans Casimir von Schaumburg), 3 companies: 600 men
· Hans Georg von Arnim's regiment of Foot, 10 companies: 2184 men
· Hans Melchior von Schwalbach's regiment of Foot, 10 companies: 2180 men
· Dietrich von Starchedel's regiment of Foot, 10 companies: 2180 men
· Eustachius Loeser's regiment of Foot, 10 companies: 2180 men
· Hans kaspar von Klitzing's regiment of Foot, 10 companies: 2180 men
· 1st Free company (Daniel von Schlieben) 318 men
· 2nd Free company (Albanus von Brandenstein) 444 men
· 3rd Free company (Calus von Taube): 350 men
The Artillery:
10-20 cannon
See below
The Left wing: Major-General Hans Rudolf von Bindauf
· Johann Wilhelm von Sachsen-Altenburg's regiment of Horse, 8 companies: 1000 Horse
· Hans Rudolf von Bindauf's regiment of Horse, 8 companies: 1000 Horse
· Wolf Adam von Steinau's regiment of Horse, 5 companies, 500 Horse
(Possibly only 3 companies/325 men took part in the battle)
· Caesar Pflug's regiment of Ritterpferde, 6 companies, 700 (1000?) Horse.
Notes on the Saxon army
The Infantry
The Saxon infantry consisted of 6 ordinary infantry regiments, the Electors Liferegiment of foot and 3 ‘free companies'
The Liferegiment of Foot commanded by Schaumburg consisted of 3 companies of infantry taken over from Bayreuth-Kulmbach and 2 companies raised locally. The Electors household infantry, the Unter-Guardia, did not take part in the battle. It remained in Dresden were it spent the entire war as part of the garrison.
The regular infantry regiments had 10 companies each. The ‘free companies' are sometimes counted as part of the Elector's Liferegiment but there is little evidence in the Saxon sources for this. Von Arnim considered the free companies to have been poor soliders due to thier lack of discipline.
An Saxon infantry company consisted of 200 soliders (40% pikemen and 60% musketeers) led by 18 officers and staff. The "free companies" were to have 300 soldiers each and were all-musketeer units.
In general the Saxon infantry was well equipped and clothed. The infantry also seems to have worn uniforms. Compared to the dusty and worn Swedes they looked like "painted soldiers" to quote an eyewitness.
The Cavalry
The Elector had his own Liferegiment of Horse led by Dietrich von Taube. It consisted of the "Leibkompagnie Einspännige" and 5 companies of mounted arquebusiers, a total of 6 companies and 600 men. The "Leibkompagnie" was probably equipped as cuirassiers
As Fieldmarshall von Arnim had his own mounted lifeguard of two companies with a total of 200 men equipped as cuirassiers. There is some debate as to the size of Arnim's guards. "Sverige Krig" has it as two companies each of 200 men. Rudert as a single company of 250 men and Opitz quotes a list from a letter in which Arnim's lifeguard is supposed to have mustered 400 men in August.
The main part of the Saxon cavalry were the 3 large regiments formed in 1631, each of 8 companies, with a total of 1000 men and 120 officers and staff. 4 companies were equipped as cuirassiers and the other 4 as mounted arquebusiers. Two of these regiments fought at Breitenfeld, the third (Hofkirchen's) was at Torgau escorting the Saxon artillery train.
A fourth regiment of cavalry was provided by Wolf Adam von Steinau, his regiment had been raised by Bayreuth-Kulmbach but had entered Saxon service when the Markgraf was forced to disband his army by the Emperor's troops. Steinau's regiment was probably equipped as cuirassiers, though I have yet to fully confirm this.
The Saxon nobility provided two regiments of "Ritterpferde" (Aka Lehnsreiterei). Each regiment had 6 companies. In 1618 the two regiments had mustered 1550 cavalry but according to Rudert that they had a strenght of 1800 cavalry in 1631 but no source is named for this number. Opitz quotes a list in which the two regiments of the noble levy mustered 1400 men at Leipzig in August. The ‘Ritterpferde' were supposed to be equipped as cuirassiers but how well they lived up to the regulations is unknown.
The Artillery
The Saxon army had an artillery train of 18 cannon located in the Electors armoury in Dreseden. Twelve 24-pounders and six 12-pounders. It required some 1812 horses, 453 wagons and 906 men.
On the day of the battle the main Saxon artillery train was not present as it had only reached Torgau, which is some 50 km from the battlefield. (It had been delayed by a shortage of horses and wagons. )
Despite this it is reported that the Saxon army had 10 to 20 cannon in the battle. These were probably drawn from the other armouries in Saxon such as those belonging to towns for example Leipzig. Indeed a document does mention "Leipzig artillery pieces" with the Saxon army prior to the battle. The number and types of cannon used in the battle are very uncertain. Catholic sources speak of 19 or 20 cannon, Theatrum Europeaum of 10.
The Saxon deployment at Breitenfeld
As with the Imperial army the details of the Saxon deployment are mostly unknown. It is possible to determine on which flank the cavalry regiments were deployed by using the written sources but beyond that the details are missing.
The saxon army used the modified verions of the Dutch system which had become popular among the Protestant states of Northern Germany in the early 17th Century. The infantry deployed in battalions of 1000 men formed 10 ranks deep while the cavalry used squadrons of 3 to 6 companies
Each company was formed either 10 or 5 ranks deep and there was a gap of about 50 feet between each company in a suqadron in order for the companies to be able to manouvre.
The combined Imperial and Catholic League Army at Breitenfeld
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Estimated strenght 21.000 infantry, 11.000 cavalry. There are considerable gaps in our knowledge of the Imperial-Leaugist armys chain of command. Commanders marked "?" were present but their position is conjectural. "*" marks units whose position in the order of battle is known, all other positions are conjectural.
CinC: Generalleutnant Jean T'Serclaes, Graf von Tilly
The Right Wing Generalfeldwachtmeister Egon, Graf von Fürstenberg
· Wengersky's regiment of Cuirassiers: 6 companies
· Schönbergs regiment of Cuirassiers (CL): 9 companies*
· Alt-Sachsen's regiment of Cuirassiers: 10 companies*
· Cronbergs regiment of Cuirassiers (CL): 8 companies
· Baumgarten's regiment of Cuirassiers (CL): 5 companies
· Wangler's regiment of foot: 10 companies, 1200 men*
The Battile Tilly assisted by Generalfeldzeugmeister Otto Friedrich, Freiherr von Schönberg (?) and Generalfeldwachtmeister Joachim Christian, Graf von Wahl(?)
· Wahl's regiment (CL): 10 companies*
· Comargo-Reinach (Aka Grotta) (CL):unknown number of companies*
· Pappenheim's regiment (CL): 10 companies*
· Goess' regiment: 10 companies
· Savelli's regiment: 10 companies
· Blankhardt's regiment (CL): 10 companies
· Baldiron & Dietrichstein: 11 companies
· Alt-Tilly (CL): 10 companies
· Geleen's regiment (CL): 10 companies, 2000 men
· Chiesa's regiment: 10 companies
· Gallas' regiment: 11 companies
· Neu-Sachsen&Fürstenburg: 10 companies
The Artillery
· Eleven 24-pound Demi-cannon
· Four 16-pound cannon
· One 12-pound 'Quarter cannon'
· One 8-pound cannon (‘feldschlange')
· Two 8-pound cannon ('short' & ‘Wallensteins')
· Two 3-pound cannon ('feldschlangen')
· Two ‘Steinstück' (‘Hailshot pieces')
· 4 ‘small cannon'
Notes
‘Steinstück' were short iron cannon used to fire cannister shot made of stones.
Had short range and were probably used for defence of the heavy artillery at short range.
‘Schlange' was the German name for a cannon with a particlarly long barrel, often 30 calibres long or more. IIRC the English term for such cannon is "culverine".The ‘small cannon' were probably 3-pounder at best and migth very well have been 1,5-2,5 pounders. The 8-pounders might in fact be 6-pounders as a pound had diffrent weight in diffrent parts of Europe. For example a Danish 14-pound cannon would have been a 16-pounder in Sweden. If this is the case the ‘short' Wallestein 8-pounders could be the 6-pound regimental cannon Wallenstein experiemented with in 1629
There was a force oft 1000 Imperial-Leaugist commanded musketeers present on the battlefield, (possibly one of several) these troops probably attached to the artillery as guards .
"Reserve"
· Montecuccoli's regiment of Cuirassiers: 9 companies
· Haraucourt's regiment of Arquebusiers: 5-6 companies
· Erwitte's regiment of Cuirassiers: 8 companies
· Coronini's regiment of Arquebusiers: 5 companies
· Colloredo's regiment of Arquebusiers: 6 companies
The Left wing Feldmarschall Gottfreid Heinrich, Graf von Pappenheim
· Holsteins regiment of Foot: 10 companies*
· Strozzi's regiment of Cuirassiers: 5 companies
· Neu-Sachsen regiment of Cuirassiers:6 companies
· Rangoni's regiment of Cuirassiers: 5 companies
· Neu-Piccolomini regiment(?) 6 companies
· Alt-Piccolomini Cuirassier regiment: 10(?) companies
· Pernstein's regiment of Cuirassiers: 10 companies
· Merode's regiment of Arqubusiers: 5 companies
Dragoons and Croats
Isolano's Croats: 16-17 companies
Isolanos dragoons: 1 company, 100 Horse
