"Russian Miters - Seroga" Topic

I've done a bit of research on this, including some reading of Viskov., and tried to date the wearing of miters by Russian grenadiers in the early Empire Period.

1805 grenadiers in miter:
Malorossij gren. regt.
Vladimir musk. regt.
Staroingermanland musk. regt.

All grenadier regiments formed after August, 1805 wore shakos.

1806 grenadiers in miter:
Pavlov gren. regt.
St. Petersburg gren. regt.
Tauride gren. regt.
Ekaterynoslav gren. regt.
Moscow gren. regt.

My notes are incomplete, and I assume that all the regts listed under 1806 were also wearing miters in 1805.

Does anybody have any better information?
Thanks.

I'm hoping I'm wrong about the Tauride Grenadiers. I've already modeled them in shako!

As in most things, there's a time gap between when units were ordered to change and when they did change. This is based on issuing purchase orders to local hat makers (no single manufacturer in Russia), them doing the work and then getting the hats shipped in multiple consignments to the regiments base depot, the regiment returning to that the regiments depot… You could easily see units in the field a year later still wearing the old kit.

Likewise, a new unit forming up at a regimental garrison would be kitted out in whatever stores were on hand. If they were all the new shiney stuff, then great, otherwise they get what's available.

If you want them in Shako's, go for it. Just remember that if you have a deep yearning for mitres (and who doesn't?), then you can always argue against them.

There are other issues as well. One clue is that new grenadier regiments, created after 1805, were issued shakos. That indicates to me that the Russians had quit making miters.

As for existing grenadier units having their miters replaced by shakos is another story. The Russians didn't really de-mobilize after Austerlitz, and many units were still in campaign mode all the way to Friedland in the spring of 1807. After that we can conclude that all grenadiers but the Pavlovs were issued shakos in the refit-reorg that took place between Friedland and the 1812 campaign.

My concern is that intermediate period from 1805 to 1807. Very complicated and confusing era.

Perhaps Seroga is on vacation. I had hoped for his informed input.

I personally have the following in mitre for the 1805-1807 period:

Pavlov Grenadiers
St Petersburg Grenadiers
Semenovsky Grenadiers

Any other guard Grenadiers I would have in mitre as well. Line grenadiers I have in Shako

I'm pretty sure that none of the guard infantry ever wore the miters, but in the earlier period they wore a Prussian style miter, like Prussian grenadiers in the 1806 period. IIRC, only the first regiment was still wearing them by 1805. After that they wore shako with bushy plume, etc . . .

Ok, I found some other notes on this subject. They cite a web site, but I had renamed it "Russian Facing Colors," and it's gone now. Anyway, this is what I had noted:

The following grenadier regiments were raised after the introduction of the shako, and never wore miters:
Kaluga
Estonia
Mogilev
Kostroma
Odessa
Vilna
Penza

Units credited with wearing miters at Austerlitz:
Narva (all rasberry)
Old Ingermanland (straw/dk grn)
New Ingermanland (dk grn)
Units still wearing miters at Eylau:
Moscow gren
Vladimir gren

Narva was fully refitted after heavy casualties at Austerlitz. Probably issued shakos.

I'll try to re-find the search for this source.