"Spanish Horse Artillery Uniforms 1808-1809" Topic

Did the Spanish Horse Artillery units wear a different uniform and hat/helmet from the foot artillery units in 1808-1809 (prior to the British providing uniforms)?

Thanks, Jeff

Annoyingly they apparently wore the Cazadore shako.

French style bell shako? Any evidence for the leather helmet with caterpillar crest, similar to Tarleton helmet?

Thanks again, Jeff

Hello Jeff!

Yes the foot and horse certainly wore different hats.

The Cazadore shako is probably closer to a short British stove pipe shako but with cords and a plume on the side. The French light infantry wore something very similar for a few years after the bicorn. I don't think the Tarleton looking helmet came into use until the British starting supplying some items.

There is also some suggestion that not all of the horse artillery was uniform, as different regions obtained supplies from different sources, at different times.

Hope this helps a bit.

Best regards,

Glenn

The second chap from the left is recorded as being a horse artillery officer with the Romana Division in Hamburg:

Jose Maria Bueno's Uniformes Militares Espanoles book on the 1808 Spanish army shows a very similar uniform to that shown by Jemima above. I tend to use his reference books as my main source. I would attach the plate but have not got a clue how to do it! I do not know of any figures that are suitable for the horse artillery so there is still a gap in my army.
There is probably a good chance that the horse artillery will be covered in Stephen Summerfields forthcoming book on the early Spanish Cavalry etc noted in an earlier conversation started on 14th March. The infantry volume released earlier by Stephen is excellent and supercedes Jose's work as my preferred reference and will do more so when the new volume is released at Salute.
Chris

Thank you, one and all!

Jeff

just a note
the New Spanish Book will be available at Salute 2016
written by Gerard Cronin and Stephen Summerfield not as
stated above
The book will cover Cavalry,Guard ,and artillery .212 pages
with full colour illustrations throughout and is a in depth study of the Early Spanish Army of the period.
available form Gringo40s stand number TF01 on the day..come and meet one of the authors Gerard Cronin owner Gringo40s.

regards Ged
aka Gerard Cronin
gringo40s.com
gringo40s.blogspot.com

Dear Jeff
The picture above is from Romana's Division in Northern Germany. The replacement uniforms had French styles. Hence the introduction of the Shako. Some horse artillery would have adopted the Light Infantry "Tarleton" style shako. Notice the shako plates on the Horse Artillery officer are off the M1803 Tarleton leather shako. This was also shown in our earlier book on Spanish Infantry for the new M1808 Light Infantry Uniform worn by the two cacadores battalions as commented upon by Ged.

Another important area was the 8-pdr Matuana 8-pdr horse artillery piece which was a Gribeauval 4-pdr bored out to 8-pdr. You could consider it as a gun howitzer. It used the 4-pdr charge to fire the 8-pdr ball. Very light and superior to the French horse artillery guns up to the introduction of the AnXI 6-pdr. Certainly one battery was present at Baylen.

We are both looking forward to seeing this in print. Alas I will not see it until 16 April. It has pulled a great deal of information together, hopefully for other authors to build upon. Apart from the work of Bueno, there is nothing comparable in Spanish. If you have questions then no doubt Ged or I may be able to answer them.

We look forward to seeing you at Salute2016. We hope that the quality of the Spanish Army in wargames rules will be re-evaluated based upon the reading of the book. The Spanish suffered from a lack of horses so any slight defeat lead to disaster and the loss of their artillery. The Spanish Army in various forms stayed in the field and was a threat throughout the war. The Guerilla bands were officered and the men from the army.
Stephen

Apologies for the oversight Ged I was just drawing attention to your forthcoming book and am pleased that it will include artillery uniform details too.
I cannot get to Salute but I am hoping to get the book through your gringo40's site.
Could be an opening in your excellent range of figures for the Spanish horse artillery.
Hope you are not offended and good luck with the book.
Regards
Chris