"Facings Of Hessian Regiments" Topic

There is a set of watercolors depicting the Hessian regiments in the late 18th century that to the best of my knowledge are the "standard" recognized source for the Hessian uniforms, facings and flags. The most accessible source for these is the von Donop regiment site, but there are others. These illustrations have been my main source for my own Hessian figures.

I have recently read that these illustrations actually date from 1794 and may not be accurate in all cases for the American Revolution era.

However, I have searched in vain for published or on-line sources accurately covering the Hessian uniforms for the actual Revolution era.

Can anyone either point me to better sources, OR actually confirm that the watercolors are accurate for the Revolution era?

The Von Donop site is Hessian Bob and he's as good as it gets.

Ask him.

For what it's worth, here is a chart I made up for my own use in the privacy of my home.
How accurate it is may be open to question.

Regiment Facings Pom Pom Small Clothes Cuffs
IR Leib Yellow Yellow Yellow Yellow/Straw
IR Wutgenau/Landgraf None Yellow Buff Red
IR Prinz Carl Red Dark Green White Red
IR Von Donop Straw Yellow Straw Straw
IR Mirbach/Jung Lossberg Red Red White Red
IR Von Trumbach/Von Bose White Red White White



Grenadier Regiment
Block/Langerke
Prinz Karl Red Dark Green White Red
Wutginau None Yellow Buff Red
Trumbach White Red White White
Donop Straw Yellow Straw Straw


Fusilier bag
ErbPrinz red white red
Dittfurth Yellow yellow white yellow
Lossberg/AltLossberg red black white red
Knyphausen black white straw/white black

I assume it's as accurate as we can get. I based my painting on the usual suspects, Mollo etc. I assume he and the others based their plates and paintings on accurate sources, including those watercolors.
What else do we have to go on?
I just wish we had comparable sources for Brunswick, Anhalt Zerbst, etc with flags.

You should look up the paintings of Don Troiani.

Where did Don get HIS information?

I had about 10 pages of Hessian uniform info that I tortured
out of Hessian Bob and I cannot find it.
I sent 350 Perry castings to Fernando to be painted as 5 Hessian units, including Musketeers, Grens and Fusiliers.
I had included all sorts of pictures, diagrams and color instructions from Bob. Fernando did a remarkable job, following the instructions perfectly. I was most pleased with the figures. He sent the instructions back to me, but I'll be damned if I can find them.

There are a couple uniform plate booklets at Gallica:

link

link

The plates I think you are referring to date from 1784, not 1794, and reflect uniform changes (eg bearskins for grenadiers) that occurred after the return from America. IIRC, only one regiment changed its facings during the war, and none in the immediate aftermath, so you are fairly ok with using them for that purpose.

The "spot on" series, timewise, are the series that include the plates on the von Donop site that show the grenadier battalion uniforms. I know there are more plates from this series, as I've seen them elsewhere.

(Just in case people don't realise, the first two battalions were based on the musketeer regiments, plus two Garde companies; the third was drawn from the fusilier regiments, and the fourth from the garrison regiments, with one company replaced by the "grenadier grenadier" company of Rall's regiment.)

Thanks for the helpful remarks.

I also received an e-mail from a European friend who has researched this topic. He provided PDFs of a couple of near-contemporary documents in German (in which I was once fluent and can still read passably) that also indicate that the watercolors on the von Donop site are accurate for the AWI, especially since I model / game the Southern campaign mid-1778 – 182.

I meant to add that based on my friend's work, while the actual date of the execution of the watercolors is not certain – as early as 1784 and as late as 1790 – they are, as indicated, accurate for the stated year of 1783.

All of the facing data for all German Aux. units was in our special edition of Time Portal Passages back in the 1990s.