"Free Regiment von Gerlach: Any info" Topic

Hi

I was wondering if anyone knew anything at all about this unit. I stumbled upon it on the grosser-generalstab website. All I know about it is that it was a Hessian free regiment with a pretty green and blue uniform (and I'm not even sure if thats mid blue, light blue, grey blue etc.).

If anybody has any info they could share on these I'd be very grateful (though they seem to be one of the more obscure SYW units). Namely, their service (years and what they were up to), whether they had colours and what sort of blue they wore. I've got a load of Perry Hessian garrison musketeers gathering dust who have the perfect uniform plus a very slovenly demeanour that would suit a free regiment.

Picture:
picture

German description from site:
'Musketier vom Frei-Regiment v. Gerlach, wurde nach dem Siebenjährigen Krieg aufgelöst'

English translation by google:
'Musketeer from the free-Regiment von Gerlach, was disbanded after the Seven Years War'

Thanks
Adam

goldensuninn.blogspot.com

Hi Adam,

It seems a very elusive regiment. Pengel and Hurt show it but give very little information and I think have basically taken the uniform direct from the Sturm picture and the "Heer und Tradition" plate. Middle blue with dark green is their description which matches the HuT plate. Kronoskaf don't mention the unit: link and I can find no mention in Trenkle, Karl: Nix wie weg … die Hesse komme – Hessen-Kasseler Uniformen 1730 – 1789, Marburg 2000 nor in the contents page of Witzel, Rudolf:Hessen Kassels Regimenter in der Allierten Armee 1762, bearb. u. hrsg. von Ingo Kroll, Norderstedt 2007 at: link

Hopefully someone will come along and tell us all! :-)

Cheers,

David
nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com

This is a terrific question and has indeed quite stretched my
German language skills..but fascinating , I have never spent so much time on German wikepedia. before . and my language skills are improving dramatically..

Thanks for checking that out for me, David. It's a shame
that any info about it seems to have been lost in the sands of time, but at least I now know what colour they wore!

Thanks again
Adam

Hi Adam,

Sorry I couldn't find anything very useful! This page: mtsc-hessian.blogspot.com corroborates our conclusion that information on this unit is hard to find (see the bottom of the page) and that the Sturm picture is the only reference which can easily be found (apart from the Heer und Tradition plate I mentioned above).

Did this unit actually exist? Mmmmm… Tantalising, isn't it?

Cheers,

David
nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com

sorry, not in a position to do any digging currently, but do we at least have an idea who the commander, von Gerlach, was? The name's not that unique unfortunately…

No need to apologise, David, I'm grateful that you spent the time looking for info! It's mad that after all that they might not even have existed, and were just something that someone made up to put on the back of a cigarette card. It makes you wonder if any more are made up, or if any (or how many) have simply been forgotten.

I'm still going to paint some, even if they are phantom regiment (or perhaps, BECAUSE they are).

I've (finally) painted one of the little sods up:
link

Gggrrrr…

These are the fellows that started me down the whole Imagination path strangely enough.

Now I have 19 foot brigades and 13 horse brigades and still not finished….

And eye-candy they are, Enteburger!
link