"Flags of German battalions in the AWI." Topic

Not that familiar with this. Does each German battalion carry two colors? I ordered flags for the Fusilier Regiment, Von Lossberg from the flag dude a while back and received two flags which look identical to me. Should I use them both in with this unit?

Each German Battalion carried a stand of five flags, one lieb flag & four ordinary flags for the five companies of musketeers or fusiliers or garrison troops. The sixth company(grenadiers) of each battalion carried no flags when on duty in the converged battalions. The Lossberg Fusiler Regiment's Lieb flag appears to be almost the same as the four ordinary flags.

Thanks Tom,

My Von Bose Battalion has two different flags one with a white background and one with a light blue background. What through me off here is that they look identical. But if the flags are the same then so be it, I will use both of them.

Normally the "white" flag was the lieb flag and the "colored" one was the ordinaire flag.

Jim

As Tom Collins points out, the "problem" is that each regiment had 5 company flags, but they were not flown by each company.
they were grouped on the "command stand". Sionce most wargamers' Hessian regiments are nowhere large enough for 5 flags to not look too "busy", we generally settle for 2.
Now, if you wish to model at a 1:1 scale, with 480 figure regiment/battalions, then it will not look so weird.

I hand painted my von Bose regiment many years ago, and the 2 colors look nothing like the deescription given above. I may have got my information wrong, but they have fought too well for me in the past to even think about taking their flags away to give them a "correct" stand of colors. I am afraid they would mutiny on me.
I painted one with a light blue field and dark blue "flames" and the other was the opposite.

Once you have some lucky flags never change them out. Thanks for the informantion guys.

The Lossberg Lieb and ordinary flags are virtually identical, well according to the pics I' ve seen of them. I think the Lieb flags of the Hessian regiments were not all white until after the war, but varied, and the Ordinary flags were derived from them. IMHO.

The Lieb colors were all identical across all the regiments for the war. (And before)

And yes, 5 colors per battalion, at least for the Hessians.

Your the authority on these matters Sulentic, so I suggest people go with your conclusion.

Would the Brunswick troops also have carried a white Lieb flags during the war ? Hessian Liebs, although identical, would the color of the wreath ( for want of a better word ) vary between silver and gold, depending on the regiment ?

I have also come across the suggestion that the flag poles were white for the Lieb and black for the company, with the company flag having a black sleeve. Or were they the colour of the flag's field ? Thanks in advance.

Brunswick Regiments Prinz Friedrich, Rhetz, Riedsel & Specht had a stand of five flags. One Lieb & four ordinary for their five musketeer companies. Their sixth company (grenadier) attached to the four company Breymann converged battalion did not carry a flag. Brunswick Regiments Lieb flag were not white, the colors of the Brunswick Lieb flag
were the reverse of the ordinary company flags.

Thanks Tom. I've already painted up my Brunswick troops, I'm glad I do not have to re do the flags. Good job I haven't started my Hessians yet !

The only Hessian grenadiers to carry colours were the two battalions of the Land-Grenadier-Regiment (one battalion was in America as "Rall") and one battalion of the Garde-Regiment zu Fuss, which stayed in Germany. With the
exception of Rall, no Hessian grenadiers in America carried colours.

I copied and pasted this from the Revlist – the poster was Joseph Malit

For cryin' out loud guys, it's a Leib Flag, not lieb!! Leib means 'life' (as in the King's standard), while 'lieb' means love!!

My Hessian musketeers have four stands of six figures, with a a separate 'command' base having two musket armed color guards, one ensign with the white and three with colored flags. This looks OK and makes them different from the Brits with two flags and two guards on a 4 figure stand.