Deadhead,
There is a very good reason why they look so "Polish", but Russian uhlans were not, in almost all cases, "cossacks" ….
Originally, what would become "uhlans" were light cavalry units raised from the recently acquired territories (via the partition of Poland) in modern Poland, Lithuania and western Ukraine. The initiative to make these units a distinct type was largely from Alexander's brother, the Grand Duke Constantine.
Two units were raised in 1797 from the indicated ethnic "nationalities" : Lithuanian-Tatar horse regiment (Christian Lithuanians and Moslem Tatars) and Polish horse regiment.
In 1803, the Lithuanian-Tatar regiment was split into a Lithuanian horse regiment and a Tatar horse regiment, and the Odessa hussar regiment (a newly created unit still in the process of formation) was converted into His Imperial Majesty Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich's uhlan regiment. The latter was the first Russian cavalry unit formally named "uhlans" (but of course not the first Russian cavalry unit to use the lance).
In 1807 the Volhynia horse regiment was raised, in Volhynia, and later in the year all four "horse" regiments were renamed "uhlans".
In 1808 the Chuguev cossack regiment was converted into a regular army uhlan regiment of the same name. This is the only direct connection between "cossacks" and the regular army uhlan regiments prior to 1816. There were then 6 uhlan regiments in the Russian army cavalry – 5 of which were recruited on a "national basis", and 1 of which was of people of cossack ethnic/national status. Also by this time the regiments were modeled on the hussar organization of 2 "battalions", each battalion of 5 squadrons, and one of the 5 squadrons in each battalion acting as a "replacement" (regimental depot) squadron. The army uhlan regiments were typically (administratively) brigaded with a similarly organized hussar regiment – but both the army uhlans and army hussars were most typically individually assigned as light cavalry in support of an infantry corps.
At the end of 1809, the Grand Duke Constantine's regiment was taken into the guards as the Life-Guard uhlan regiment. From this point the recruiting of new uhlans was integrated into the regular army system, and the ethnic/national identity of the army uhlans began to be diminished or diluted.
Starting from the end of December in 1812, the Yamburg, Orenburg, Siberia, Zhitomir, Vladimir, Taganrog and Serpukhov dragoon regiments were converted to uhlans, making a total of 12 army cavalry regiments in this arm of service. These were then organized (administrately) as 3 uhlan divisions, each of two brigades, each of 2 uhlan regiments. In April 1814, each uhlan division was assigned with a same-numbered cuirassier division to form a same-numbered reserve cavalry corps.
In late 1816, 4 Ukrainian cossack regiments were taken into the army as "uhlans" to form the Ukrainian uhlan division. in 1817 2 Bug coosack regiments were also taken into the army. However, this process of taking cossack units into the army after the peace with Napoléon was mostly for the purpose of re-organizing cossacks in areas away from the still "active" Russian southern border, as part of agricultural "military settlements".
- Sasha
ponders nirvana.
