"Need info for Hessian Army during the WAS circa 1745-48" Topic

Does anyone have information on the organization of the Hessian army for the War of the Austrian Succession 1740-48?

My sense is that the infantry was organized in single battalion regiments. Pengel & Hurt only cover the SYW and mention an organization of 10 companies plus one company of grenadiers as of 1754. P&H does not provide an organizational data for the Hessian cavalry either.

I have the book by Karl Trenkle on the Hessian army 1730-1789, but this does not appear to provide manpower information or organizational data.

Any help would be most appreciated.

regards,

Fritz

Jim,
I don't think there is much available on the subject. I think you are right with one battalion regiments, composition as you have stated. Duffy in 'The '45' mentions a Hessian contingent of 6,000 sent to Britain to replace the Dutch and these were mostly infantry although there is mention of a captured Hessian hussar (look in the index).
The rest may well be guess work unless someone else has something from a German language source.
Nigel

I looked in the following books and couldn't find anything on the Hessian organization:

Fit for Service – Holding
Fontenoy – Skrine
History of the British Army – Fortescue
Peter Wilson's book on German armies in the 18th century
Duffy's The '45

I'm thinking that if we could find an order of battle for Rocoux or Laufeldt that listed the number of battalions in each unit (Nafziger?) then that would at least determine whether or not there was one or two battalions in the regiment.

@DAF,

I think Hessian WAS organisation was near similar to 7YW up to 1760.
I'm at work now, will look at my books later. I have the one by Eberhard Witzel
But it should have been 1 bat. of 10 coys & one grenadier corps with a near 1.000 men per regiment.
link
Page 32 ff. seems to include some information. Google has only limited preview. So, just hold on for a while. I'll get back to you.

I think Christian (crogge1757) is right.
1 batallion for an average size of 800 to 950 men.

Look at Morier for uniform colors during WAS…

On the SYW Journal, vol. VIII, 2 and 3, there is the Peter Lenders article on the Dutch Army in WAS which gives the following info:

1747 campaign: 3 Hessian btns (each of 10 coys)
1748, camp at Waalwijk 9 Hessen-Kassel btns, 5 H-K sqdns, 18 arty.

at Rocour:

Hessian Mansbach battalion
Hessian Regiment Donop
Hessian Regiment Garde
Hessian Regiment Prinz Frederich
Hessian Regiment Grenadiere
Hessian Regiment Prinz Max
Hessian Cavalry regiment Leib
Hessian Cavalry regiment Graffendorf
Hessian Cavalry regiment Isemburg
Hessian Cavalry regiment Prinz Max

The source is Austrian General Staff history of WAS ( something like "Osterreische Erbfolgekriege… we could look at Google). There is a breakdown of single lines/wings with the battalion subtotals which shows how the "regiments" where indeed 1 battalion strong.

Present a Lawfeld:

Hessian Regiment Garde
Hessian Regiment Prinz Georg
Hessian Regiment Konig
Hessian Regiment Prinz Max
Hessian Regiment Isemburg
Hessian Regiment Baumbach

Hessian Cavalry regiment Leib
Hessian Cavalry regiment Graffendorf
Hessian Cavalry regiment Isemburg
Hessian Cavalry regiment Prinz Max

The number of Hessian battalion is not given: however there are 16 Hannoverian and 14 English battalions and some aritmethics on the total strenght gives 6 Hessian battalion. The average strenght is estimated in 600 men.

I will go with Christian hypothesis. I'll try to search more.

I'll ad on to Altefritz & Frédéric's information:
The above Witzel book doesn't help much. WAS period is very obscure here.
No clear WAS organisation apparent. Seems to be peacetime breakdowns. Not wartime. A 19th c book on the history of the Hessian army states Hessians contributed a corps of 6.000 men to the english crown as per subsidies contract of 1741 ("Stamm- und Rang-Liste des Kurfürstlich Hessischen Armee-Corps vom 16ten Jahrhundert bis 1866" at google lib). It was 4 regts of horse (8 esc) and 6 bats. That is the below regiments in order from right to left as per their camp near Hameln same year (based on Marburg archive maps):
Leib- regt. horse (red facings)
Gräfendorff horse (green facings)
Each 1 bataillon (numbers as per kronoskaf.com ranking:
Grenadier regt. No 6 (red facings)
King's regt. No 5 (red facings)
Prince Max. No 3 [Maximilian] (red facings)
Prince George No 9 (red facings)
Prince Frédéric No 7 (yellow facings)
Garde No 1 (red facings)
Count Ysenbourg horse (light blue facings)
Prince Max. horse (dark blue facings)

Hope this helps,
Christian