"Murawski: 7th Uhlans, Duchy of Warsaw" Topic

Finished this colorful unit this month:

More pictures and the usual discussion, etc on my blog at:

link

Nice work Peter!

The 7th regiment had yellow epaulettes, an apparent peculiarity of this regiment alone.
Regiments elites also wore scarlet aiguilletes at the left shoulder, a practice possibly adopted by other regiments also.

As for the czapskas : the "box" of blue cloth and leather cap was separated by a 2cm width of WHITE tape. The upper edge of the box was trimmed with white piping wich also formed an X corner to corner on the flat top of the cap.
Chin scales were brass.

Breeches : outer seem was yellow.
Peaks were black leather and trimmed with brass.

The 3rd., 7th and 12th Regiments had black sheepskins.
So for the trumpeter the sheepskin would probably be white since they used reversed colours.

Officers shabraques were trimmed with a gold band for the junior officers and double gold band for the field officers.

The girths were for the troopers and black for officers.

Hope I did not put you off but am trying to give you the right information.

Ray,

I am always happy to have new sources of information; no offense taken. Sources often disagree, for a variety of reasons. I used Nafziger's "Poles and Saxons of the Napoleonic Wars" and Rawkins revised "Army of the Duchy of Warsaw" as sources. Nafziger is vague or lacks information on several of these details. Rawkins, however, has many details of individual unit idiosyncrasies, and is likely more up to date, Nafziger's work dating back to 1991 when access to sources in Poland was still limited. Of course, these units dress varied over time and with changes in colonel, etc, especially the minor details.

In reviewing Rawkins in detail, you are correct about the gold/brass chin scales and shabraque edging (officers), those were my errors and I will probably correct them, as they are easily changed. along with the brass edging to the peak.

The seams you are correct about the (plain) yellow, but (as discussed in the blog post) I intentionally added the red edging anyway, as I just like the look of it better (call it the colonel's whim!).

Rawkins specifically states that (in 1812, may have been different in other years) the 3rd, 7th, 12th, and the Lithuanian regts (17 – 21) had white sheepskins for the troopers in place of the black more commonly used by the other regiments. He of course could be wrong, or it may have varied by year. Either way, nothing I'm going to fret about.

The white lace band between the peak and the box I opted not to paint in, as it is largely obscured by the (white) cords anyway.

Neither source mentions the substitution of black girth for the officers in place of the white of the troopers, but Rawkins includes a Chelminski plate, which on close inspection does seem to show these in black for the officer, so you are doubtless correct on that point,. I will probably go back and correct that, as it is easily done and is is an interesting variance.

Rawkins mentions quite a few variations of epaulette colors for various regiment's center and elite companies, but not the yellow for this regiment. Again, this may be due to lack of access to that information, and/or variation from year to year. I most likely won't change those. Likewise the aigrettes of the Elite company were left at the depot on this particular occasion! :-)

Thanks again for the corrections and additional information.

Also re the Czapska, Rawkins says BLACK tape on the top (Box) of the czapska from 1809 on, but was originally white in 1807. This is what the Chelminski plates appear to show as well.

Information I have on :epaulettes and sheepskins come from Rawkins and Celminski.

Ray,

Ray,

Rawkins pg 72
"Sheepskin saddle covers were used with or without the shabraque and these seem to have been most commonly black with a dog-tooth edging of the regimental facing colour although the 3rd, 7th, 12th and 15th Regiments and the Lithuanian Regiments 17 to 21 are shown with white sheepskins in 1812."

Also Nafziger (pg 51) actually *does* state that the yellow stripes on the trousers of the 7th regt were piped in red (although Rawkins does not).