"city militia in the TYW" Topic

I've always felt that the essence of a wargames' army is one composed of a range of units that might go from elite status to barely or poorly trained militia. This thread is seeking historical examples of the latter type.

My Swedish army tends to be a bit of a super-force with Yellow Brigades & Finnish Haakapelitta etc.

I've added some German mercenary foot regiments of average quality but I want some infantry of even poorer quality.
To help with the backstory of such units, I'm envisaging a couple of units to represent the levies a threatened city might add to a defending army such as the Swedes. These units might be pike heavy with an inferior ability with firepower.

Did such units exist? I've done some searching but haven't found anything yet.

Such units always exist but they rarely travel far from home. At the very beginning of the war the Protestants contained many poorly trained units as well. By the time the Swedes arrived poorly trained units either got their act together, were wiped out, or were dismissed.

Unlikely they would be used in open battle with the A list armies. They would get in the way and run off at awkward times.

They would be used to garrison lines of communications and towns and to build fortifications. Maybe a militia unit might crop up with a third rate army in an out of the way theatre. But even then probably not that likely.

I would suggest using a recently recruited "regular" unit instead. It would break easily under pressure, but at least would be drilled.

Isn't that what Saxons are for? Or are they not too bad in this era?

Hello Ochoin,

If you want to raise a unit of city militia take a look at the booklet by Jürgen Kraus entitled Die Fahnen und Uniformen der Reichsstadt Augsburg 1545-1806 published by the Bayerisches Armeemuseum.

From page 32 to page 42 it examines the protestant militia raised in Augsburg to serve as the city garrison under the Swedes from 1632 to 1635. It unfortunately does not mention any uniforms, but it lists the captains of all 23 companies as well as providing drawings and descriptions of each of their flags.

Ryan

I'm not sure if this booklet contains the same info as the book Ryan listed.
It has drawings of Augsburg Militia flags c.1632.

link

Thank you for the link. Yes, this appears to be the source of the information in the Bayerisches Armeemuseum book. The biggest difference is the modern study is a whole lot easier to read.

Like their country based counterparts the "Landmilitia" the various town and city militias were held in low regard by professional soldiers even though their basic training was a usually a bit better than that of the conscripted peasant levies of the Landmilitia. Their military ability had been in steady decline since the 16th Century and while they could be counted on to carry out internal security duties and defend their own homes they had very limited usefullness outside those duties and the preference was to enlist regular troops/mercenaries to carry out tasks outside the city defences.

You would occassionaly see small detachments acting away from the city but then we are talking about skirmish level actions with usually centered on a fixed position rather than the milita joining a field force.

The Augusburg milita mentioned above is a classic example as their main tasks was helping the local garrison defend the walls in case of attack while keeping an eye on the disarmed catholic burghers.

The only milita troops to go on extended campaigns with the Swedes were not a city milita but the Würtemberg "Landmiliz"/"Landesdefensionstruppen", organised into two regiments they saw a fair bit of action in southern Germany but were badly mauled at Nördlingen were both regiments were present.

These units might be pike heavy with an inferior ability with firepower.

Actually it was the opposite was usual the case with militias being shot heavy or even all shot, even fewer men than in the regulars wanted to take on the weight of going into action with pike and armour escpecially as they often had to provide their own equipment. (Larger cities often mantained some sort of central armoury but this never fully replaced private arms & armour except in a few rare cases)
The Würtemberg militia mentioned above had a ratio of 3 shot to 1 pike and that was with the Duke issuing equipment and with regular officers trying to mantain discipline and regulations.

Halberds were still pretty common weapons in the town & city musters but would not see use outside the town as recorded detachments sent out are invariably all shot.

Esias van de Velde has left us a painting of a detachment of Burgerwehr on typical duty outside lying in ambush for marauders or foragers.
link

Considering that the primary interests of an urban burgher guard were probably in defending the walls of their home city, it makes sense to me that they had a preference for muskets over pikes (and halberds could still be quite handy in such conditions).

If I remember correctly, also Swedish garrison troops in Germany (typically consisting of "native" Swedes/Finns rather than German mercenaries) often had pikemen re-armed with muskets while employed in such a role.

When defending the walls of their home city, urban militias could be quite well motivated – it was after all their homes, property, family and friends that were at the risk if the city was stormed by assault. That is, if the city decided to resist an attack rather than to surrender at the sight of the enemy army.

One action where local militia force managed to put up quite stiff resistance against Swedes was in the looting of Prague in 1648. The Swedes managed to conquer part of the city, but could not manage to cross the river to loot the riches on the other side before the peace broke out.

Prauge is a classic example of how well the inhabitants could rally in defence of their homes. Other examples are Kronach which repulsed no less than 3 Swedish sieges with a combination of regulars and the local militia, in the last and most dangerous siege the women of Kronach earned a place in local legend as they helped repulse the Swedish assault troops with cobblestones and boiling water.

A Protestant example is the town of Nördlingen whose milita defeated a very heavy Imperial attack duirng the siege which led to the battle of Nördlingen. Over 1/3 of the attacker were killed compared to a few dozen of the defenders. The militia, Swedish regulars and the civilians did suffer severly from the heavy bombardment though as Imperial mortars rained down hundreds of bombs on to the town while siege cannon breached the walls and reduced towers to rubble. Even after Horn reinforced the garrison in a daring raid through the enemy lines the town could only hold out for a few more days unless the besiegers were driven away. Hence the Swedish-Protestant attack which had such dire consequences.

Another famous example is Magdeburg whose burger guard fought very well against Pappenheim and Tilly even though they could not resist the final assault on the city.

One thing worth keeping in mind is that the urban middle classes (artisans, merchants etc.) were likely to form the core of urban militias. Their wealth ensured that they would be able to afford to buy their own weaponry, and it also meant that they had serious material (as well as social) interests to defend their town. Of course other citizens could also be employed in various roles – wasn't there a unit of university students mobilised in Prague, or am I mixing up things?

Sounds like the London Trained Bands – possibly the best-equipped and drilled troops on either side in the early part of the ECW (when not shooting their colleagues in the back, obviously).

Yes there was what some sources call the "Academic legion" mobilised in Prauge, Swedish General Staff historians describe it as a "free company" of students some 745 strong at one muster.

Prauge is an example of how important private ownership of arms & armour could be as the intial Swedish assault overran the Zeughaus (armoury) which contained a significant part of the militia's weaponry as well as the entire artillery of the garrison (with the exception of a few small cannon)Lack of artillery was one of the reasons why the defenders of Prauge had such problems with repulsing the Swedish siege as the Swedes could push forward their siege works in a more agressive fashion than was usal.