"Napoleonic Russian Artillery Uniforms." Topic

Hi guys,

I'm trying to figure out which artilelry regiments my artilelry batteries are from so i can paint the shoulder straps correctly.

according to the source i was using, the shoulder straps were coloured by regiment as follows in 1812:

1st regiment: Red
2nd: White
3rd: Yellow
4th: Raspberry
5th: Turquoise
6th: Pink
7th: Light Green:
8th: Blue
9th: Orange:
10th: Straw
11th: Black

unfortunately I have been unable to figure out which batteries were in which regiment. anyone have a source for that?

I'm specifically looking for the following batteries:
26th Heavy Company
47th Light Company
48th Light Company
12th Heavy Company
22nd Light Company
23rd Light Company
8th Light (possibly horse) Company

all of which were with Raievski's 7th Corps at Borodino

Cheers,

Steve

This might be helpful:

link

that actually made it worse lol. i went and looked through few other sources i had forgotten and one mentions that in 1806 the regiments(of 2 battalions) were reorganized into 18 brigades(by the end of 1807 there were 23) which correspond loosely to the size of the old artillery battalions(which was about 10 batteries each).

That corresponds to the napoeon series orbat, and the number of batteries correspond to other sources I've looked at. also makes sense since a division is supported by a brigade of artillery.

don't see any mention of uniform changes.

can anyone else help?

Do what I do when all of my "reliable sources" contradict each other. Go for the prettier one.

Try these:
link
link

And cite your source so the rest of us can avoid it;-)

Commanding the artillery of 7th infantry corps : general-major Otto Ivanovich Bukhgol'ts

With 12th infantry division of 7th infantry corps
12th field artillery brigade : lieutenant-colonel Yakov Ivanovich Sablin
- 12th battery artillery company * : lieutenant-colonel Robert Antonovich Vinsp'er ***
- 22nd light artillery company * : lieutenant-colonel Karl Krest'yanovich Girsh (killed in action at Bordino), then staff-captain Ivan Ill'ich Kuz'min
- 23rd light artillery company * : (lieutenant-colonel Sablin), staff-captain Petr Stepanovich Karnovich

With 26th infantry division of 7th infantry corps
26th field artillery brigade : lieutenant-colonel Gustav Maksimovich Shul'man-2
- 26th battery artillery company **** : (lieutenant-colonel Shul'man), staff-captain Petr Mikhaylovich Zolotilov
- 47th light artillery company : captain Gavrila Tikhonovich Zhurakovskiy-3
- 48th light artillery company * : lieutenant-colonel Petr Andreyevich Eriks-1

Also attached to 7th infantry corps, from the 3rd reserve artillery brigade
- 8th horse artillery company ** : lieutenant-colonel Zakhar Sergeyevich Shusherin

* initially posted to the reserve of the Left Wing at Borodino
** assigned to the 4th cavalry corps at Borodino
*** in action at Shevardino Redoubt and lost 2 guns – Vinsp'er had previously been the commander of the company as a captain, promoted lieutenant-colonel he had not yet departed for his assignment to the 19th field artillery brigade
**** posted to the Raevskiy Redoubt

Now, for shoulder straps ….
From January 1808, all artillery lower ranks were to have red shoulerstraps with the number of the brigade in yellow worsted cord and the company grade officers gold epaulettes with a red cloth field and the number in gold embroidery.
In our examples :
12.
26.
3.Р.
(the letter "P" here is Cyrillic capital letter R, for reserve)
In early 1812, this was changed to have the company designated (the initials are for "battery", "light" and "horse" in Russian)
12.Б.
22.Л.
23.Л.
26.Б.
47.Л.
48.Л.
8.К.
The dots (.) shown with the initials may have been either absent or represented by two centered dots, like the colon (:), judging by similar markings on forage caps. I have shown the letters as Russian printed capitals, but likely they were really Russian cursive capitals, as shown here:
link
"battery" "B" – top row, third from the left
"light" "L" – 3rd row, first from the left
for horse, "konno" in Russian "K" – 2nd row, farthest to the right

- Sasha

P.S. I used, among other sources, the same those linked by Hew Johns.

This is the most confusing thing in the Russian Uniform Department. I've tried. I also suggest John's answer. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to who went to what regiment from what I can tell.

the only source I have that references the shoulder straps of the artilelry at all is an old painting guide from 19th century miniatures, written in 1998 by Stephen A Thomas and Steven Jamieson. It's generally very accurate but apprently not on this note.

thanks for those links. the 2nd one especially is very useful. I'll publish those on my blog so as to make them slightly more accessible then they are(i'd never seen them)

I will admit in trying to figure this out in the middle of painting a unit I just sort of made up what regiment it was in figuring what the number was, maybe knowing what it's neighbor was in and just declared it must be in such and such. Prove me wrong I guess.