"Help with Hessians" Topic

Hello,
I have a couple uniform books, and a few campaign books from Osprey. I'm still in the dark when it comes to how I should paint Hessians or which would be good 'units' to start with. Please forgive my amateurish questions…

1. From what I gathered, if I have a group of fusiliers, grenadiers, musketeers, and jagers they would all be in different uniforms and from different regiments. Is that right? Regiments were of one type of infantry? It sounds very different than the British system of flank companies within regiments. I feel like I simply have to be wrong on that.

2. Fusiliers. What was their function to be, as opposed to musketeers? Any differences other than the hat?

3. Jagers. Were there separate regiments of these guys? How were they distributed?

4. Was there a battle with all four infantry types present?

Thanks!

Ok.
The regiments were either musketeers or fusiliers. The ONLY difference was that fusiliers wore a cooler hat.
Each regiment had 5 companies. The elite company was the grenadier company. They were almost always stripped from the parent regiment and converged into a semi permanent BATTALION.
Jaegers were sent over in company size units. That how they operated.

A higher grouping of regiments was the brigade. Fusiliers were usually brigaded together, but not always.

Note that at Trenton the Rall (NOT "von Rall") regiment was a grenadier regiment, and not a converged regiment battalion. It's a long story.
The brigade at Trenton had two fusilier regiments and the Rsll grenadier regiment, not battalion.
At Brandywine and Monmouth, and any large battle, all four types would have been present. No reason for them not to be.

Regiments, including Rall, had flags. Converged grenadier battalions would not. Neither would jaeger companies.

Greetings,

I'll do my best to help.

1) Fusilier and musketeer regiments had four "battalion" (musketeer or fusilier) companies and one grenadier company each. As far as Hesse Cassel and Brunswick were concerned, the grenadier companies were pulled from their parent regiments into composite grenadier battalions of four companies each. The grenadiers retained their regimental uniforms, so the look of each composite grenadier battalion was not uniform in appearance.

The Hessians had one standing grenadier regiment, the famous Rall regiment.

2) Hessian fusiliers, like the Prussian fusiliers, were line infantry and fought no differently from the musketeer regiments of both armies. You are correct: their only external difference was their headgear.

3) I stand to be corrected in what I'm about to write, but if I'm not mistaken, Hessian jaeger companies were generally deployed by individual companies, rather than by regiments. If my memory serves me correctly, there were times in the Philadelphia campaign where multiple jaeger companies fought together in battles such as Cooch's Bridge and Brandywine. (Supercilius Maximus, where are you?!?!)

4) Yes, there were battles early in the war where all four troop types fought together. Long Island and other battles of 1776 come to mind, as do Brandywine and Monmouth.

Hope this helps, and I hope this is accurate!

Jeff

The "poor" regiments would have been the garrison regiments, all were musketeer.
Musketeers and grenadiers were usually good troops. Grenadiers were excellent and jaegers were superb.

Jeff and I agree.

link

Good place to start.

Jagers often fought in smaller units than companies, and would often be backed up by bayonet wielding troops, such as grenadiers or highlanders.

The German troops werer regarded as slow, and Howe seemed to blame some of his failurel on the fact he had so many. Other than jagers, he was not a fan.

Dr M,

1) To be a bit pedantic, "Hessians" should really be called "Germans" as there were six contingents, only two of which – Hesse Cassel and Hesse Hanau – were "Hessians" in the true sense. The other four contingents, in order of size, were Brunswick, Anspach-Beyreuth, Anhalt-Zerbst, and Waldeck (none of the Anhalt-Zerbst soldiers saw action). The Hesse Cassel contingent was more than half of all the German auxiliaries sent to America, hence they have become the "generic" name. Note that three of the six rulers of these states were blood relatives of George III.

2) Musketeers and fusiliers (the latter being unique to the Hesse Cassel contingent) had no functional difference – just think of them as "line infantry" – and only the grenadiers and jaeger were specialists. There were other "light troops" in the Brunswick and Anhalt-Zerbst contingents, but it is debatable whether they had any specialist training; the Hesse Cassel contingent did form some ad hoc light companies out of volunteers from the musketeer/fusilier regiments in 1778 and the surviving Brunswickers post-Saratoga may have done the same.

3) Note that musketeers (in all contingents) and fusiliers, had FIVE ordinary companies – not four – and one grenadier company. This is a common error and comes from the fact that the companies were purely administrative and in battle they were re-structured into four "divisions" (each of two platoons), with each pair of divisions making up one wing of the regiment, either side of the colours. In general, the German contingents followed the TOE and practices of the Prussian infantry – some more closely than others. The Anhalt-Zerbst contingent may have been more Austrian in their dress and organisation.

4) Musketeers, fusiliers and grenadiers all had essentially the same uniform and kit, so anyone sculpting "Hessian" troops would only need to make one set of dollies, with three different types of headgear.

5) Rather than the Germans being slow, it was more that the British had learned to abandon European rigidity and typically moved faster – one observer reckoned 100 paces to each 75 of the Germans. Nevertheless, their sub-par performances when given their own tasks (eg Trenton, Red Bank) gave the British a low opinion of them and they were increasingly used as garrison troops as the war progressed, bar the four grenadier battalions and one or two musketeer units. The Philly campaign was the last time all four types of infantry fought together, although only the jaeger saw action at Germantown. The only German troops at Monmouth were the grenadiers, and even they did not see action.

6) As mentioned, jaeger would be listed as companies in the order of battle, but could – and often were – used in platoon- or squad-sized groups in battle, according to need. The HC, HN, BR and AB contingents all had jaeger; the HC and HN units were battalion-sized (the former included two mounted companies and very (very) light artillery), the other two were only a single company each. Again, as mentioned, they would usually be backed up by musket-and-bayonet men because the rifles were slower to re-load and could not take a bayonet (the jaeger had swords instead). The supports were usually provided by the grenadiers, roughly one a 1:1 basis (ie one platoon supporting one platoon).

7) Not mentioned so far, but virtually all German "line" infantry and grenadiers had a pair of battalion guns attached, mostly Swedish-style 4-pdrs, but also 3- and occasionally 6-pdrs supplied by the British, depending on which contingent and whether they were in garrison or not.

8) Finally, unless the forces involved were very small (mainly late on in the war), it was normal for German troops to serve together at brigade level, and the HC contingent was also supposed to be led only by HC generals (again, this was ignored when only individual units were present).

Thank you all for the helpful information, I really appreciate it. As usual it sounds more complicated than it probably is!

It sounds like German mercenaries from different states could end up brigaded together? How do you show that in units of miniatures?

Now for uniform research…

Nevinsrip that site looks really useful for painting purposes.

They are not "mercenaries".
They are regular ordinary troops conscripted or enlisted by the State. The State then goes on to rent the units to Britain.

There are several instances where contingents from different states were in the same force.
At Saratoga, there was a large contingent from Brunswick and a smaller one from Hesse-Hanau.
At Yorktown there were units from Hesse Cassel and from Anspach.

They were not necessarily brigaded together and if they were it would have been only for language.

Okay, I'll keep that in mind. Im sure that some of the books I have refer to them as mercenaries though. Is auxiliary a better term? I'm guessing the Revolutionaries characterized them as mercenaries and it stuck for some authors?

They were indeed mercenaries, though in modern times that word has come to mean individual soldiers-of-fortune. In Eighteenth Century parlance, the word referred to units-for-hire, regardless of source. Privately raised mercenary units would be referred to as free corps (German freikorps, French corps francs).

In the period the term "mercenary" was often extended to any soldier serving for pay – American propaganda often called British soldiers mercenaries, and there was a small outcry in Congress against paying the Continentals and thus turning virtuous citizens into mere hirelings.

It should be noted that the Brunswick contingent also contained a light infantry battalion (v. Barner) in addition to the jaeger company. And Baron von Riedesel, the Brunswick commander, insisted that his men learn "American" drill, so they fought in two ranks like the British.

The Anspach-Bayreuth jaeger company fought alongside the Hesse Cassel jaeger under the latter's CO, Colonel von Wurmb. Ewald's company served alongside them in the South.

As always, lots of great information here. I am on a forced break from gaming while i go back to school, but my interest is still very high on completeing my AWI set up.

Matthew

A lot of good information here, all correct to the best of my knowledge. I only want to add that, as always in the AWI, what is your period and era?

Maximus, Hesse-Cassel contributed the majority of German mercenaries – and yes, they WERE mercenaries even if hot volunteers (BTW I call the Americans rebels because that is what they were, too).

So if you are doing SOuthern Campaign – Hesse-Cassel only.Burgoyne campaign was mostly Brunswicj, some Anspach and Waldeck.

A small extension to Supermax' excellent post. Whilst the Musketeer and Fusilier Battalions would have had 5 companies after their Grenadier Companies were removed, the subsequent Grenadier Battallions each comprised 4 companies.

A nuance I know, but it is important for painting the units as each battalion would have 4 different uniforms per their parent units.

As to mercenaries as a descriptor, I do not think the term should be applied to the German contingents. It was used at the time as a term of abuse, but nowadays, with the benefit of perspective, the term mercenary is misleading. The German troops were regular professional soldiers in the pay of their respective Sovereign States. Their masters were indeed paid for their service, but I do not think that we should call the troops themselves "mercenary" any more than we would apply the term to Pulaski, Armand or the men of Rochambeau's expedition simply because they were not citizens of either of the main protagonist nations.

The Germans were fighting under the own flags too.

I would also point out that in Brunwell's new book on Washington, as patriotic fevor dissapated after 1776, the Congress – at the urging of Washington – had to offer increased payment for men and officers to join/stay in the ranks, and by the end of the war the American army and officer corps looked very much like its British counterpart with paid soldiers, bounties, land grants, and an officer corps largely from the upper classes of American society.

My understanding is that the Waldeck regiment spent much of the war in Florida.

As a matter of interest, does anyone have a clear view on the headgear worn by the Hessian Erbprinz Regt?

Erbprinz seems to have been referred to variously as an "infantrie" or Fusilier Regt. Most writers seem to call them Fusiliers.

However, unlike Regts Von Ditfurth, Knyphausen and Lossberg, who are all depicted by a contemporary on their return to Germany wearing Caps, Erbprinz is shown clearly in hats.

Does anybody have any light to shed? Are there any other Regts in German 18th century armies where the term Fusilier does not mean they also wear the caps?

Erbprinz was a fusilier regiment when it came over and wore a fusilier hat. Around 1780 it became a musketeer regiment. I don't know why.

The Hesse-Cassel troops were long-term allies of Britain, going back to just before the time of Marlborough. During the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-46, a Hessian contingent was sent to Scotland, where they and the locals conversed in Latin, with which both groups were familiar. Riedesel, the commander of the Brunswick contingent in the AWI, was a Hessian by birth, and served in Scotland, as well as being a colleague of Sir Henry Clinton when both served on the staff of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick.

Winston – Interesting. Do you have a source? I completely believe you, just like to know where such excellent info comes from?

It was in a uniform book by the Company of Military Historians. Unfortunately I don't have it anymore.
The plate showed fusiliers with pink facings and musketeers with a much darker crimson.
The notes said the regiment switched around 1780.
No reason given.
One may speculate that it was due to a shipment of replacement uniforms and a tightwad inhaber did not wish to pay for fusilier hats. But that's just a guess.