"Austrian forage hats" Topic

Did the Austrian's use the same type of forage cap as the French used?

no

This is from W.J . Rawkins 'The Austro-Hungarian Army 1798-1814:

"Fatigue caps were of two patterns and were white for the German Regiments and sky-blue for the Hungarian Regiments. The first fatigue cap, issued initially in 1769 was cloth and similar in appearance to the kasket hat with round, soft top and stiffened cloth false front. The second pattern, issued around 1795, was similar to the French bonnet-de-police with wide headband and short pointed crown. Both patterns would appear to have been in use throughout the Napoleonic period."

The above refers to infantry fatigue caps. The short-lived light infantry battalions (1798-1801) appear to have worn light grey caps; the uhlans wore fatigue caps in their coat colour piped with the facing colour; dragoons (and possibly cuirassiers?) wore white caps.

(I finds Rawkins work to be very useful but apparently he isn't always totally reliable so it might be worth seeking confirmation from another source.)

SJDonovan

Thanks – I had a closer look, there I assumed that only the 1767 pattern was around – the typical thing was that the front could be put down to create a visor , and the rear and side parts to go over the ears and neck.

It seemed that the patterns varied a bit, similar styles of them can be seen at the plates by Klein.

However, I agree – also the French type bonnet de police (old style before the Bardin regulations) existed – confirmed by Bolliot – interstingly with a visor (I cannot determine if it was of cloth or leather) as well.

There Bolliot shows mainly 1815 style – both Holzmützen style (with variations) must have existed side by side.

Hi vW,

I haven't seen the Klein and Bolliot pictures. Are they available anywhere online?

In the Osprey compendium 'Armies of the Napoleonic Wars' edited by Chris McNab, there is an illustration of Austrian recruits which shows them wearing fatigue caps with what appears to be a black leather peak. The hats stand up high like the French bonnet de police but then the top flops over and ends in a tassel like an old-fashioned sleeping cap (the kind of thing Scrooge wore). Unfortunately, the compendium doesn't include any footnotes so I don't know the source for this.

Klein you might get by ASK Brown collection, you can see the Holzmütze at the plates with the waggons, Bolliot unfortunatly burried in the Heeresgeschichtlichen Museum at Vienna

So the version that the Perry's have modeled with their plastic Austrian infantry, would be the earlier version, from the 1760's – is this correct?

Thanks vW,

I found this illustration of an example of the early style fatigue cap in the Mollo/Mansfield prints online at napoleon-series.org. link It shows a cuirassier in stable uniform.

@Ligniere

I haven't seen the Perry's figures in the flesh but judging from the pictures on their site it appears to be a later-version fatigue cap. It is like a bonnet de police but it has a lower crown than the French version.

link

the ones I did see in illustrations are much higher, much more like the French but narrowing more to the top, the Perrys' one seems to be one of the many variation of the lower cap

@SJDonovan
Yes that is the style, seemingly to vary as well, that one in the plates of the regulations show how the front could be turned down to form a visor, maybe cavalry and infantry had different ones.