"1870 French naval infantry flags?" Topic

I've got some 1870 French Naval infantry (15mm) almost ready to go. Did they have plain tri-colors, or did they have flags left over from the Empire?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Hi,

If you mean the guys with the pom-poms on their hats, I believe these were ad hoc formations, so would probably not have Imperial period flags. Even if they did, they would be unlikely to carry them once the Republic was declared. If you mean the Marine Formations which fought in the Blue division at Sedan, and who wore Kepis, they did have Imperial Regimental flags.

Mollinary

Thank you Mollinary. I mean the sailors with pom-poms who fought under the Republic. I have based them on snow, even though the rest of the French and all of the Germans are based on grass.

I wil dig up some plain tri-colors.

There was a color with a white field, some sort of repetitive device and a Latin inscription. It was in the Blanford book of flags.

Hmm. I will give them plain tri-colors until I see a copy of that.

Vtsoagames, that was what I plan to with mine.

Russ

And that's what I did with mine – just a plain tri-color flag.

Jim

I like the snow idea -you could use them for the invasion of Narnia.

Doc Ord -that sounds like the flag carried by the Papal Zouaves -another must have Republican unit. I may be wrong of course.

Found it! In "Military Flags of the World" by Terence Wise. The flag is one carried by 14,000 Breton sailors mobilized to defend Paris. The repeated device on the white field is the ermine of Brittany. The motto is "Potius Mori Quam Foedari". I used it for my 3 naval battalions.

I am wrong -thank goodness -can you post a pic Doc?!!

Edit -I just got the book on Amazon for a couple of quid -thanks for the tip.

The actual use of flags for combat units is always debatable. If they had issued colors, were they actually carried in battle, or sent away for safe-keeping when a unit was deployed in the field?

For the purposes of wargaming, I think we can all agree that flags/colors serve an important purpose of identifying units on the table. Even if a unit was never issued its own flag, an argument can still be made that they are justified to assist players.

the flag described, hermines of Britanny plus the motto "Potius mori quam fœdari" is the Army of Britanny's flag given to General Keratry who remained in the camp of Conlie in the Maine, western France, and never reached Paris, the Army of Britanny was mainly raised from Breton National Guards battalions, so this flag has nothing to do with the Fusiliers-Marins (Sailors-Fusiliers/Navy) & Sailors (Marins) Battalions of Paris coming from the Navy, I don't have Terence Wise's book to see if we are talking about the same, so here the Army of Britanny's flag who fought around Le Mans and in the west

Hmm. I have given them Republican tricolors. In 15mm scale they look much like Imperial flags but have slightly less gold braid.