Bill Slavin | 01 Oct 2016 5:51 p.m. PST |
Yikes! Please tell me there is a way out of this. I have just painted my regiment of Swiss with beautiful red coats as stated pretty unequivocally on Steve Baglan's excellent Spanish painting site but now everywhere I look I see references that have them as blue. PLEASE someone tell me there is some wiggle room here, some arcane dispute that will allow me to leave them as red. |
Brian Smaller | 01 Oct 2016 6:09 p.m. PST |
I think you will find that they are mostly blue. Failing that they could be the Real Compania Alemán – a little known Guard regiment often brigaded with the Real Compania Irlandesa. |
keithbarker | 02 Oct 2016 1:30 a.m. PST |
Sorry no! Dark blue coats, red facings, white breeches. No wiggle room!
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Bill Slavin | 02 Oct 2016 6:50 a.m. PST |
Yep. My plea was desperate but I kind of knew it. Stared to repaint the coats last night and realize that at least the lapels and turnbacks and all the detailing can stand as is. So only a couple of hours work. But they looked so good RED!! |
jhancock | 02 Oct 2016 9:52 a.m. PST |
Steve's site is superb, but it has a few errors like this one. The Swiss in French service wore red coats. I suspect we could blame it on outdated references and the vast quantity of work and effort Steve has shared with us on the interweb over the years! The Balagan is a priceless resource and played a big part in getting me back into Napoleonics in the Peninsula. |
Zargon | 02 Oct 2016 9:56 a.m. PST |
I'd have left them red as the Reg,Real Sueza a Rojo and brigaded them with the blues. Now that would have widened French players eyes when they advanced on the guard. Heheh. Think I might steal that idea. |
Garde de Paris | 02 Oct 2016 10:59 a.m. PST |
I find that many of my Napoleonic peninsular French and Spanish units are essentially Imagi-nations units! I did Victrix as 36th Line in bicorns to go with my metal 2nd leger, 15th line, and 33rd line (never served in Spain, but I love the white uniform faced purple! Victrix supplied a flag for the 36th, but I have absolutely no specific info on the regiment. So I invented a drummer in a buff coat, purple collar, cuffs, flaps and lapels, edged aurora! The 36th was with the 33rd in the series us line units that were to receive white uniforms faced purple, thus my "imagin-nations" drummer! You could do the same with your red Swiss Spaniards. I understand that there was a red-coated volunteer regiment at Cadiz that wore a uniform cut like the Swiss in Spanish service? GdeP |
Bill Slavin | 02 Oct 2016 12:36 p.m. PST |
All good advice but too late. The Swiss are now properly attired in blue. Jhancock, I would totally agree with all you say about Steve's site and hope it didn't sound like I was slagging it. The lesson was mine to learn – cross reference your sources! – and I will certainly continue to rely on Steve's site for info. On a related note, I found this site in Spanish that impressed me in its detail: link |
Garde de Paris | 02 Oct 2016 1:01 p.m. PST |
I hope this copies for others to use. It is a soldier of a unit at Cadiz in red faced green – volunteer unit. Tails look like typical of the Spanish line, not the Swiss. found it on (free) Pinterest site. I hope it copies here:
GdeP |
rmaker | 02 Oct 2016 1:14 p.m. PST |
GdP, I recognize the red-coated fellow as a member of Volontarios de Cadiz, but what are the other two units? |
keithbarker | 03 Oct 2016 1:10 a.m. PST |
All three are the Voluntarios Distinguidos de Cádiz, one of the few Spanish units that there is plenty of information on. It included four battalions of line infantry and two of light infantry. This is a plate from Beuno's Uniformes Españoles de la Guerra de la Independencia Española, 1808-14. There are two plates of the Voluntarios Distinguidos de Cádiz, one with officers and this one with rank and file. Fig. 1. CABO DE LOS BATALLONES DE LÍNEA DE LOS VOL. DIS. EN UNIFORME DE CAMPANA EN VERANO. 1808-14 Corporal, line battalions, in summer campaign uniform. Fig. 2. VOLUNTARIO DE LOS BATALLONES DE LÍNEA EN UNIFORME DE PARADA. 1808-14 Private, line battalions, dress uniform. Fig. 3. VOLUNTARIO DE LOS BATALLONES LIGEROS. 1809 Private, light battalions. Hope this helps! |
rmaker | 03 Oct 2016 9:04 a.m. PST |
Thanks. Does Bueno happen to mention how many light and line battalions there were? I had only known of the one, which is what I've painted. |
Bill Slavin | 03 Oct 2016 10:39 a.m. PST |
Is it not unusual that light and line battalions were in the same regiment? I thought them always separate. Or is this just a later configuration? |
keithbarker | 03 Oct 2016 1:41 p.m. PST |
Four battalions of line infantry (Batallones de Línea) were formed initially and two battalions of Light (Batallones de Cazadores) were soon added. It was considered a corps rather than a regiment (Cuerpo de Voluntarios Distinguidos de Cádiz) so containing both line and light was not that unusual and the corps apparently even included artillery. The strength of each battalion, both line and light, was five companies with a hundred men each. The corps was split into its component parts in 1811. The following may be of interest. Especially if you use Chrome and "translate to english"… http://losejercitosdelrey.es/1812-cazadores-voluntarios-distinguidos-de-cadiz |
rmaker | 03 Oct 2016 4:20 p.m. PST |
Thanks, that is very useful. |
briefcandle | 12 Oct 2016 2:40 p.m. PST |
Irish foreign regts wore red coats from 1791 to 1802. If you've already repainted then what can I say? |
Sebaar | 03 Dec 2019 7:16 a.m. PST |
Hi, i have two questions about swiss in spanish service: 1) Did swiss regiments have the same organization as spanish line? 2) What happened to swiss units after Bailen? |
Prince of Essling | 04 Dec 2019 1:50 p.m. PST |
Useful booklet PDF link "PRESENCIA SUIZA EN LA MILICIA ESPAÑOLA. Nº6 " Fecha de publicación: 4/4/2018 Año Edición: 2018 Autor: Comisión Española de Historia Militar Editor: Ministerio de Defensa. Secretaría General Técnica. Número de Páginas: 178 Page 97 says Regiments of 2 battalions each of 5 companies (1 grenadier & 4 fusilier) augmented by 1 fusilier company intime of war. Subsequent pages has the war records of the individual regiments along with their strengths. |
Sebaar | 05 Dec 2019 12:37 a.m. PST |
That's great, thanks Prince of Essling. |