"Did Cossacks have pennants on their lances?" Topic

As the title asks, did Cossacks have pennants on their lances? What would this look like if they did?

I'm painting some just now that have been sitting in the lead mountain. They are Old Glory 15mm Ural Cossacks.

Also, did these carry a unit flag, and if so does anybody have reference?

Thanks,
Colin

No

Some units were known to carry an icon, but in general, they had no standards

Cossack flags often covered here. Even Googling the two words brings up much. Try this;

TMP link

I know nothing on the subject, but got much help here on Ural and Garde Cossacks to escort the Tsar. Never did give them a standard though!

Mine did not have pennants but remember red lances and longer than French/Prussian/Austrian

Red Lances? Doh!!

I found standards online, but wasn't sure if they were real or fiction. The Old Glory figures I have come with one rider who has a longer lance, which I assumed was for a standard.

Thanks for the help guys. I'll go repaint my lances now.

I would do a double check before you do any repainting. I don't think all cossacks had red lances. Andre Jouineau's plates in Hourtoulle's books show Ural cossacks with brown/wood-colour lances. (He shows the Guard cossacks with red lances and Bug cossacks with blue)

Which cossacks?

The guard rgt

The semi regular ones

The opolchenie levies

From where. Not sure. If any one has handy zveguintov book he mihght have the answer.

This blog too

cosaques-emchane.skynetblogs.be

Will ask in Russian. Our knowledgeable Russian colleague here could know if he shows up.

Never seen pennons on illustrations.

Kind of remember regional flags carried by ataman pulk. Might have scans of Don and Ural.

Ok found something:

Lances non regulation as provided by himself till end of 19 th cty.

Black sea and Crimean tartar painted red
Rgt ataman Ural light blue
Others ofter as uniform, or not.
So blue or green ( ataman of don rgt was uniform light blue)

And on pics some have pennons. Probably own choices?

link

Pics

link

I have written three books on Cossacks. No the Cossacks or Leib Cossacks did not have lances.

Some of the Opolchenie Regiments that styled themselves as Uhlans did.
link
link
link

Stephen

Lances pennons you mean for sure!

Cannot load your stuff, too bad weirdly asks to " manage my address book" hell it will.
Very interesting it would be! Snif.

He does mean lance pennons. I have his book on the Garde Cossacks and invaluable it was……..lances they did have, no swallow tailed flags!

Much research needed on your chosen unit, before you paint the lances or select the pennons.

Good luck……..

How do one get these books?

The Ural Cossack host was organized as 10 regiments (each of 5 "hundreds"). Only 6 of these were liable to service with the Army, the others were for local defense of their settlement region surrounding Ural'sk (a town, now city, in modern Kazkakhstan) and along the Ural river. The host was not named directly for the Ural mountains. Total combattant strength for all 10 regiments was established at 6134, officers included. Additionally, there was one "hunded" that served with the Russian Guard. Interestingly, they included quite number of Moslem Tatars and Chuvash people and some animist Khyrghiz, and likely would not risk offense by bringing an icon on campaign.

The 6 regments that could be called to service with the Army were issued a set of flgs – one flag each – on 19 April 1799. These six regiments were:
Called to service in 1807 for service with the Army in Moldova and Bessarabia, and after heavy losses returned to the settlement area for rebuilding in 1811:
--- 1st Ural Cossack regiment of voysko starshina (Cossack major) Akutina-3
--- 2nd Ural Cossack regiment of voysko starshina Borodin
Called to service in 1810 for service with the Danube Army and returned to the settlement area in 1815:
--- 3rd Ural Cossack regiment of lieutenant colonel Mikhaylov
--- 4th Ural Cossack regiment of voysko starshina (later promoted lieutenant colonel) Nazarov
Called to service in mid-1812 and returned to the settlement area in 1816:
--- 5th Ural Cossack regiment of colonel Burenin
Called to service in 1813 and returned to the settlement area in 1816:
--- 6th Ural Cossack regiment of lieutenant colonel Borodin

None of these were the regiment of the ataman because …. there was no host ataman. The host had mostly risen as part of Pugachev's rebellion in the late 1770's and was not accorded another host ataman, who might have the honor of an ataman's regiment, until after the reign of Alexander. The military ataman was the general-major David Martem'yanovich Borodin.
See :https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Бородин,_Давыд_Мартемьянович

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The flags for these regiments (1 each) were as follows :
Made of white cloth with images painted on both sides with oil paints: the Uncreated Savior, the Archangel Michael, St. Mercurius the Martyr, and St. John the Warrior. In the space between the images, like the shape of a cross and edged with sky-blue material, were sewn five gold stars and four gold monograms of EMPEROR PAUL I, under crowns. Between the edges of the cross and the images was a border of gold galloon with likewise gold inscriptions: "Симъ знаменіемъ победиши". Around the whole flag was sewn, also in gold, a brocade border with gold fringe along it on three sides. The pole, spearhead, cords, and tassels were exactly like those for regular cavalry standards. The poles were green with gold stripes. The spearhead was gilded and had a two-headed eagle. The base was gilt The cords and tassels were silver with black and orange silk.

Good luck painting this in 15mm!

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The lances were of normal Cossack type and were painted black after 1803.

Pennants were not typically used by Cossacks – although adding enemy pennants (such as Polish) was a rather common trick in the field.

- Sasha

Fantastic information guys. I'm trying not to get too much caught up with the Cossacks, but ended up buying a couple more packs to see how they looked.

A couple of pack reviews with comparisons are now up on my blog. I'll add a link to this thread there as well.

My blog is here… link

Thanks,
Colin

Colin,

Very nice painting and photography! I could actually "see" the figures for once in a blog post.

Thank you!
- Sasha

The Lieb Garde Cossacks is available from Ken Trotman Ltd. and the other two should be available from Caliver Books.
Stephen