"What are all those do-dads for on a Hussar's uniform?" Topic

They all had to have a practical origin, before they became totally ornamental. Didn't they?…..

Anyway…
Why the pelisse?
Why was it worn like a tennis sweater?
Why the sabretache?
Why all those cords and disks and whatnots that hange from the hat?
Why the mirleton?
Why the cloth that wraps around the mirleton?
Why the busby?
Why the flap on the busby?
Why the Vandyking on the shabraque?
Why the shabraque?

Why indeed sir!
A soldier must look presentable for the enemy.
Sorry, I just finished watching Trevor Howard in "Charge of the Light Brigade"

Bling for the ladies you dolt!

Bashy for the win.

A good Hussar wear's his heart on his sleeve!

The sabretache was essentially a saddlebag or pouch that carried personal belongings. It was also supposedly a convenient place for cavalrymen to carry orders and dispatches.

I read at one point in time the pelisse actually fit the wearer but, eventually, was turned into a fashion accessory.

Winston, I'll give you my two cents worth of answers from having studied uniforms for a good 50 years now.

The peliesse evolved from the very early hussars who wore an animal skin, usually wolf, over their shoulder.

The cords on the shako or mirilton were to attach the hat to the uniform so in a charge it did not get lost, – and I am sure for decoration.

The busby in the French army was usually to denote the elite company or squadron. In other armies, like the British army for example it was just the headgear of choice. The bag on the busby was probably a carryover of the wing (flap as you call it on the mirilton).

The shabraque and edging (Vandyke or other wise) was two fold. First it provided a covering over the saddle (the saddle still rested upon a blanket, but is seldom seen)and second it was just part of military glamour at the time.

Hope this helps.

Terry

Winston;
Just get back to painting the damn pony boys, would you now?

Eric

They're "flair". Not mandatory, but still you written up for wearing too little.

Eric:
YouTube link

Let's not forget the barreled sash, as long as I'm demanding explanations.

The Sabretache was used to carry a pencil and writing material so the hussar could take messages.

The Pelisse as Terry37 says was an evolution of fur skins, essentially to protect the left arm from sword cuts. All the heavy braid, buttons and thick cloth. Same for the dolman.
It also looked really pretty.

All Napoleonic shakos, bearskins, busbys, mirletons were to give the appearance of a man looking taller than he really was.
Cloth bags on busbys, decoration.

Vandyke on the shabraque was an evolution of the saddle blanket that looked pretty.

It's pretty much all about the glamour to entice young men to join.

Winston, you forgot to include the little tassels on the front of a hussar's boots. These served the function of keeping flies away from his knees.

They worked very well; note the complete absence of flies at knee-level in the picture below.

And as we all know evidence of absence isn't absence of evidence.

They're for making it abundantly clear that you're not some peasant of a light dragoon…. ;-)

That's a good point Dom!

The vandyking was sewn to the sheepskin to stop it fraying. The material being cut in that way also stopped that too from fraying.

Paul :)

A real babe magnet

SJDonovan – thanks for that, gave me a much needed laugh this morning!

That's all well and good, but who is this Vandy King feller….?

It's Van Dyking not Vandy King. It means giving the cloth a really terrible Cockney accent…. ;-)

The Hussars had to display 30 spirit points at a minimum to retain their positions.

+1 SJDonovan!

gets you the chicks man

The headgear, both the mirleton and kolpack were elaborations of folk headgear worn on the Danube frontier.

The tall, felt caps, called klobuck in Serbo-Croat, haiduckenmutze in German, both tapering upward and tapering downward, like an inverted cone, can be seen being worn by the Serb grenzer militia from circa 1700. The former became the mirleton, shackerhaube or flügelmutze. The latter form influenced development of the most widely adopted form of the shako (csako suveg 'tall cap') from the end of the C18th onwards. Neither were exclusively cavalry headgear.

The flamme or wing (flugel) on the mirleton was probably just to look good though there have been suggestions it could be arranged to protect the wearer from the elements. Frankly, if the wearer of a mirleton was worried about the elements, I can't see why he would start from there.

To what extent these tall caps were influenced by Ottoman dress or reflected some aspect of the Orthodox faith, is a matter for discussion. They may simply have been a regional fashion on both sides of the frontier. The fashion had previously reached western Europe in the C.15th.

The kolpack or kucsma (etc., etc.), like the fur-trimmed grenadier cap, developed from a woolen cap with a band of fur, which grew taller and taller till it began to obscure the woolen crown.

With British and French bearskin caps only a vestigial patch was left- the 'cul de singe.' With the international kolpack and Austrian grenadier fur caps, for example, the coloured crown became a decorative item, which in the case of the kolpack was often a red bag that folded as a flap over the side of the fur cap.

People disagree but it's possible the pelisse serving as a protection from sword cuts might be something of a myth.

The key thing, though, is that most of the items of classic hussar uniform derive from folk dress on the Danube frontier with the Ottoman empire, with many features originating, a fair while back, in the clothing of steppe nomads, be they Hun, Magyar, or Ghuzz Turks.

Oh, and to get the chicks.

Oh, and to get the chicks.

I often go to the supermarket dressed as a hussar but I still haven't got a girlfriend. What am I doing wrong?

Fur is not fashionable among the "chicks" these days! Go for no fur or leather products, wear things hand-made from flax and hemp, quit shaving, and no bathing. ;-)

And lose some weight. Chicks are sensitive to the abuse of horses..

The pelisse was worn as a extra jacket in very cold weather
Busbies became a woman's fashion at the end of the Napoleoic wars

The dreadlocks. Don't forget the dreadlocks as protection from a saber flash. A very weak saber slash.

You done with the Pony Boys yet, Winston?

Eric

Making progress…

The enemy did certainly dread those locks

And lose some weight. Chicks are sensitive to the abuse of horses.

That can't be the problem. I take the bus.

42flanker, your earlier response was really useful and informative.

General impression is that the pelisse could not actually be worn over the dolman, as too tightly fitting. Begs the question then, if it was either/or, what advantage did the pelisse have on a cold day? A bit of fluff around the neck and cuffs is little use. Now if they had been fur lined….but they most certainly were not.

Liam, I can't speak for all nationalities, but certainly the Russian Hussars wore the pelisse over the dolman in cooler weather. Some non-contempory artists have portrayed this 'campaign' look as below (ignoring the Cossack on the left):

Liam, I can't speak for all nationalities, but certainly the Russian Hussars wore the pelisse over the dolman in cooler weather. Some non-contempory artists have portrayed this 'campaign' look in the pictures below:

What wonderful pictures…and it does make more sense to be able to wear the pelisse and the dolman together…

But when did "sense" ever apply to Napoleonic uniformology?

42flanker's post was spot on for accuracy according to everything I have ever read!

Liam, I can't speak for all nationalities, but certainly the Russian Hussars wore the pelisse over the dolman in cooler weather. Some non-contempory artists have portrayed this 'campaign' look as below (ignoring the Cossack on the left)

Are you sure that they were wearing the dolman underneath the pelisse?

Wearing the dolman under the pelisse would surely impair the movement of the torso and flexibility of the sword arm in combat.

The same goes for all those pictures of the Pelisse being worn 'slung' in combat too. as having that swinging around whilst engaged in combat would surely lead to the chance of the sword getting entangled with body or cords of the pelisse and a chance of the hanging cords getting wrapped around ones neck or the whole thing generally getting in the way.

How I see it is that the pelisse was either worn as jacket in cold weather or 'slung' for parades or off duty. Not worn as a jacket over the dolman when combat was expected.

Lets not forget that there was also the braided waistcoat which could be worn under the dolman or the pelisse

Paul :)

Who said a fine hussar must never reach the age of thirty?

"Any hussar who is not dead by the age of thirty is a blackguard."

Antoine-Charles-Louis, Comte de Lasalle (10 May 1775, Metz – 6 July 1809, Wagram)

Allegedly.Other translations are available.

I think a lot of the different types of dress mainly had to do the fashions of the day…

Perhaps the contrary. It was during the Napoleonic wars that the cut of civilian clothes and military uniform began to deviated clearly. However, military styles then began to influence civilian clothing and fashions, notably the styles from the Eastern borderlands, Frogging, fur collars, moustachios, etc

I reenacted Napoleonic hussars for many years, although I have retired now. These questions were frequent and our collective unit responses, based on group research, and some hearsay, were as follows,

The whole thing is based on Hungarian folk dress.
The pelisse or pelz was originally an animal fur worn wrapped around the shoulders. In military use this became a fur trimmed jacket, worn in a similar style. The pelisse was wearable and on campaign was often worn instead of rather than over the dolman, especially by Russians, and especially in winter. Both French and British hussars also did this. For summer campaign work often this was reversed with troops appearing in dolman only. There is a story that
The the ball buttons could be fired from the pistols but this is probably folklore.
The barrel sash is Hungarian. Originally it was a few strands wrapped around the body many times, but later the British ones had a rear toggle.
The furry hat evolved from a peasant hat similar to that worn by Santa, but imagine the furry bit getting bigger and the bag getting smaller over time until you end up with the French colpack or British "muff cap",so called because it is a cap shaped like a lady's muff (by which I mean the hand warmer you naughty boys). Cap lines are required to secure the cap to the jacket as before the 1812 pattern in UK there was no chinstrap. The hat was expected to stay on by willpower alone, or more likely bounce along behind like a pet dog. Busby was a hatter who made officer's versions in the 1820s so it's a brand name like hoover.
The sabretache was used to carry dispatches, it's rigid flap and long straps meant you could pull it onto your saddle like a writing desk.
And yes wearing all that get-up does make you a babe magnet, and broadly hated by all infantry but that after all is, and was the point. When 15 Light Dragoons were converted to hussars in 1803? It was purely a fashion statement by the prince regent. Their military drills and duties did not change at all!

Busby, which, it would seem has yet to be pinned down, possibly dates from considerably earlier than the 1820s. There is one theory that suggests it might back to Richar Busby, an academic gent of the late 17th century, when periwigs were a still novelty.

However,there is an interesting article in 'The Literary Gazette' from 1845 which has this to say:

'The term busby, now sometimes used when a large bushy wig is spoken of, most probably originated from the wig denominated a buzz, rizzled and bushy. At all events, we are not satisfied that the term busby could have arisen, as many persons believe, from Doctor Busby, master of Westminster School, as all his portraits either represent him with a close cap, or with a cap and hat.

During a most minute investigation of a regular series of English portraits, which I was led into by a friend, in order, if possible, to clear up this point, I was induced to look for the origin of wigs in Engand, and their various sorts and successions,…

…There were many singular, and, indeed, learned characters whose wigs were peculiarly shaped—such, for instance, as that of Bubb Doddington, Lord Chesterfield, and the Duke of Newcastle. Mac Ardell's print of Lord Anson, after a picture by Sir Joshua Reynolds, was, I have every reason to think, the first of the shape erroneously called the busby. This sort Dr. Samuel Johnson, Armstrong, Hunter, the Rev. George Whitfield, Lord Monboddo, &c., wore in their latter years. The earliest engraved portraits of Dr. Johnson exhibit a wig with five rows of curls, commonly called ‘a story wig.''

Interestingly, the author make no reference to the military use of the word.

Although this may be looking at the matter too literally, the tall cylindrical caps that we see being worn by British hussars early in the 1800s don't look much like the type of wig worn by Samuel Johnson who had, after all, died in 1784.

However, if we look back a little earlier, to the group protrait by George Stubbs of the 10th, Prince of Wales' Light Dragoons painted in 1793, their rather stout trumpeter wears a fur cap that does resemble a little more closely something that a wag might refer to as a 'buzzby.'

link

Well, I for one, have gained from all this erudition: Bubb Doddinton and Lord Monboddo are going in my file of future usernames.

my file of future usernames.,

Just in case….?

I find it remarkable that George Stubbs painted Whistlejacket in 1762:

And then in 1793 he painted this picture of the 10th light dragoons (complete with pie-eating trumpeter wearing a busby):

‌

I'm not sure my painting has improved with age but Stubbs' later work barely looks like it was done by the same artist.

Or am I being remarkably dumb? Are there two George Stubsses and no one told me?

There were indeed two – one was the artist (self-taught) and the other was his son, George Townly Stubbs, who became an engraver and print-maker. Stubbs senior is also thought to be the first European to portray a kangaroo.