"ECW Sash Colors?" Topic

Would like some info for a newbie to ECW. I'm I correct that all the sashes in an army would be the same color? So, all the officers in Rupert's army at Marston Moor would be one color?

Or, was this just a fashion statement left to individual choice?

Also, would NCO sashes follow the same rules as officers?

Thanks, Mark

There was no set of rules to it.
There are a couple of specific battles that are known where the parliament had tawny sashes but nothing universal.
I hope this helps,
Clif

There's been a few topics here regarding sashes already, two that came to mind:

TMP link

TMP link

Though as clifblkskull noted, neither will will provide a lot of answers.

As shorthand I'll be doing red for the Royalists and tawny orange for Parliament unless there's a flag on the stand to obviously identify the allegiamce.

On almost any question of appearance, the answer is often unknown. Second, counter examples exist for nearly every claim one can make about the period.

Unlike Napoleonics this is amazingly liberating (within reason).

Folks,

Thanks for the inputs. I was thinking that I would need to repaint some sashes, but I think I will just leave them as is.

Mark

Call me overly trusting, but I'd expect a sash color per army, or at least no common overlap between opposing armies, if only to avoid "friendly fire." As I recall, Tom Fairfax specifically mentions getting rid of his sash at Marston Moor when he's too close to the royalists. (Does he actually mention putting on a Royalist sash?) Anyway, the whole incident is pointless unless sashes were normally used to identify sides.

But I suspect several of my armies are better dressed and more uniform than their historical prototypes.

Agree with the above, especially Flashman on contradictions in the period!

Royalist pink-red, parliamentarian orange tawney and Covenanter blue are about the only secure ones. Whether each general had his men clad in another favoured sash colour is unknown really, I've seen allusions to red for the new model or blue for Fairfax or perhaps they hung on to Essex's orange but frustratingly nothing very concrete.

Generals were painted with various sashes. The light blue on portraits of the King, Rupert etc is the Order of the Garter. Byron was painted with a natty green and gold sash, cromwell with a silvery White one around the time of his Irish campaign. One royalist apparently wore a black sash into battle in memory of a recently fallen fellow officer.

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

Mark

Does anyone have a source for (dark) red for the New Model in Ireland? I noticed that it's used in all the original artwork in the Osprey Campaign book.

According to the re-enactors Parliament also wore yellow

link

I rather suspect that there often wasn't much difference, after a few wearings outdoors, between "orange" and "yellow".