"How many Prussian flags were captured in 1812-15 ?" Topic

Hi Friends,

How many Prussian flags were captured by the French and their allies in 1812 – 1815 ?

(Leipzig Campaign)
(Campaign of France)
(Waterloo Campaign)

The only two flags lost by the Prussians are those of the 1. Schlesisches Infanterie-Regiment at Vauchamps, on 14th February 1814. The officers had them buried in the ground before the remnats of the batallion were taken prisoner. According to regimental tradition, the (some?) men were beaten up by the French, but didn't tell were the flags were.

However it seems one of these flags was found:

A Vauchamps (14 février). — Dix drapeaux (9 russes et 1 prussien) furent conquis. Le drapeau pris aux Prussiens était celui du 2e bataillon du 1er régiment d'infanterie de Silésie. Ce régiment, qui avait été lancé contre des forces supérieures, se retirait dans le plus grand désordre, lorsqu'il fut entouré par le 6e de ligne français qui lui enleva le drapeau de son 2e bataillon. Celui du 1er bataillon fut brisé et caché sous bois, lorsqu'il parut impossible de le sauver. La plupart des autres drapeaux furent capturés par la cavalerie de Grouchy,
(Vérillon, Les Trophées de la France, p. 76)

When officers of the regiment went to Vauchamps in 1815, trying to recover the hidden flags, they could not find them – or couldn't identify the exact spot.

Checking my notes, a report by the regimental commander of the 1. Schlesisches Infanterie-Regiment, von Lettow, written on 8 April 1814 after an officer taken prisoner at the occasion had returned, confirms that only the flag of the 1st battalion was hidden in a forest near Janvilliers.

The reason for this low number is that from 1813 to 1815 only 12 infantry regiments (two flags each, one per Musketier battalion) and 10 cavalry regiments (one standard each) had colours which they took in the field.

I don't see how hiding your flag gets you off the charge that you've lost it!

In an order of 3 June 1814, both battalions were considered by the Prussian king to have lost their flags "without fault", as they had been cut off and were forced to surrender to superior numbers, after having "gloriously fought". The king didn't comment on the hiding of the 2nd battalion's flag, nor on the fact that this flag had been hidden too well.

Hiding a trophy from the enemy who has gained the right to own it – the officers of the 2nd battalion obviously thought this was honourable, or at least crafty. A shabby trick, if you asked the French side …

"The reason for this low number is that from 1813 to 1815 only 12 infantry regiments (two flags each, one per Musketier battalion) and 10 cavalry regiments (one standard each) had colours which they took in the field."

Plus they were on the winning side ;-))

As to hiding colours, this was a common practise, like wrapping it around the body, or tearing it up in parts and distribute those to different members of the regiment, the enemy has only gained a colour – it he could lay hands on it.

Hiding a color, even if you couldn't recover it, at least meant it couldn't be paraded through the enemy's capital and hung up in some regimental chapel. And if burning flags is disreputable, perhaps we should speak of TWO French holocausts--near the end of the 1812 Campaign in the field, and at Les Invalides in 1814.

I think it was a trick that everyone got up to. If memory serves a British battalion in the Low Countries in 1813-14 threw their colours into a canal to hide them from the French. The dastardly French still found them.

It seems, the colour of the 2nd batallion of the 1. Schlesisches Infanterie-Regiment was taken by men of the 6e régiment d'infanterie légèr and of an unknown regiment of cuirassiers:

Colonel François Louis Zaepffel (Base Léonore, LH/2765/64).

I couldn't find any other reports from the French side.

Did the 12 infantry regiments had flag-bearers and flag-escorts ?

The Prussian colour section was placed between the 4th and 5th platoon (<i<Zug). It consisted of six NCOs, placed in the first and in the third rank (the second rank remaining empty).

In the battalions without flags, instead of a flag a musket was carried by the "colour bearer".

There is always the tale of the eagle left on the field of Borodino and concealed precisely where the bearer shoved it for safe keeping……fortunately the horse was already dead.

Losing one's flag or eagle to the enemy, in battle, as their trophy. That is the unit's shame. "Mislaying it", whether in the Buffalo River or deliberately destroyed, just calls for honourable replacement

To be fare, how many French flags/eagles were lost to the Prussians in the same time?