"Officer's sash colours, in the different Armies" Topic

In the different Royalist and Parliamentarian ArMies.

The Royalist seems straightforward red and/or light blue, was there a regional differences ?

The Parliamentarians and their Associations,
Essex's forces using Tawny Orange,
Waller's friction with Essex his troops and supporter will not have used Orange,
And what about Manchester, Fairfax and the Covenanters what colour sashes did there Officer wear ?

The New Model Army by the end of the Wars have dark red sashes,
What colour were they at Naseby ?(as red would clash with the Royalista) and when did it change?

I've read somewhere that….

…Waller *may* have used yellow sashes. No firm evidence but yellow is the colour of his regiment of Horse's Cornet, which bears his family device.

….Hesilrige's horse with a possible green sash based upon the regiment's green cornet.

…Fairfax's northern chaps *may* have used light blue.

Can't remember where, or if it is wargames mythology, but I wrote obscure notes in my wargames notebook about it years ago.

In Ospreys "Soldiers of the English Civil War 1 Infantry" in the Elite series on page 49 and referencing plate number B2 it says, "The usual practice was to wear a sash in the generals colour"

In Ospreys "The English civil War Armies" in the Men at Arms series on page 27 it says, "At the time of the civil wars commissioned officers and even Sargents seem to have worn pretty much what they want" This is more in reference to coat colour, but I feel this statement as well as the first previous one supports that sash colour was pretty much up to the individual general who was raising the regiment.

Hope that helps

A bit more digging and I found this:
In Ospreys "Soldiers of the English Civil War 1 Infantry" in the Elite series on page 55 in reference to plate number F1 it says this:
"He wears an orange sash which indicates his alligance to the earl of Essex as his general. Since the withdrawal of Sir William Waller's independent commission on 9 October his officers would wear Essex's colour." not sure if that answers any of the queries clearly for oyu or not but there it is all the same.

It would be interesting to know what was meant by "orange". This was a colour that was notoriously difficult to "fix" – and also quite expensive (two of the reasons that the Dutch changed to red in their flag). There are also references to "tawny" – a brownish shade – which could be an alternative to orange.

It would be interesting to know what was meant by "orange".

Well, we have the Fiennes portrait – link – are there others?

To be honest, I wouldn't have thought of that as "orange" without being prompted.

I wouldn't of thought of that as tawny either which rightly or wrongly I imagine to be an autumn leaf colour.

The sash in the painting might be a bit more "orange" in real life.

I've also read somewhere- in an old Mil- mod- that wallers troops may have worn white sashes.
The post fairfax new model wore Red
the Royalist sahes have been described as Scarlet Rose Red pink or even Flesh colouras well as red.
Look at the portraits painted by William Dobson – Charles I " sargeant- painter" he painted many royalist senior officers.

What was proper color for officer's sash in Scots Converters army?

I've read various options including:

Royalist – red, or rose
Essex Army orange or tawny (I'd say the Fiennes portrait sash falls within 'tawny')
Wallers army – yellow
Fairfax army – blue

I suspect there were and awful lot of officers wearing what they already had. Troops often wore field signs like a sprig of greenery or a piece of paper in their hat, in battle. They also had field words so clearly the armies must have looked alike. Has sashes been universally distinctive then neither of these additional IFF measures would have been needed.

I'd be very interested to know where the reference to Waller's troops possibly wearing white sashes comes from.

"What was proper color for officer's sash in Scots Converters army?"

Hi Sebaar, I'm not sure there is much evidence, but if you used blue for Covenanter sashes you'd be following the wargaming trend.

Blue for Covenanters, was mentioned as far back as the Bishops Wars that they wore blue sashes.

As above, red/ pink for royalists, orange tawny for Essex's army are both quite secure.

The light blue sash on portraits of The King, Rupert are order of the Garter

Red for New Model, blue for Fairfax, yellow for Waller are good guesses but I'm not convinced theres clear evidence for them. Would be glad to hear if so!

Any info on the Eastern Association army? Manchester's colour seems to be green, so would that indicate green sashes throughout?