"How many Hoyas?" Topic

I'm sorting through an old 100 days army that my Dad painted and I'm using the wikipedia order of battle to help figure out what's what. The OOB lists two Landwehr battalions Hoya. One in II Corps, 4th Division, 6th Hanoverian Brigade; the other in the Hanoverian Reserve corps on garrison duty.

My dad painted one Hoya battalion as Landwehr (red uniforms, stovepipe shakos – which differs from how the Centjours website has them) and one as a line battalion (red uniforms, blue facings, gold lace, belgic shakos).

How many Hoyas were on the campaign, what type of infantry were they and what did they wear?

OK, let's start with basics. In the 1815 Hanoverian army, what they were trying for was ten battalions of regulars, and each of those battalions was supposed to be associated with three battalions of landwehr. Some of the line battalions were light and one jaeger, but all the landwehr battalions were line. Note they were organized and drilled per 1803 regs, so they'd have had schutzen.

So you look at one source, and each of those three landwehr battalions would be described as part of the Whatever Regiment, which was usually--not always--the name of the regular battalion. BUT--and more helpfully--each Landwehr battalion had a name based on locality. So there might be three landwehr battalions in a Hoya Regiment, but there would only be one Landwehr Battalion Hoya, if you take my meaning. so your Dad was probably right to paint only a single regular and a single Landwehr with that name. I don't know what's going on at Wikipedia, but professionals have double-counted or misnamed units before now. (I know. I was a professional.)
Uniforms. Good luck. There are a couple of exceptions--hussars and jaegers--but the vast bulk of the new Hanoverian Army was outfitted in surplus British uniforms, the regulars were often re-outfitted between the First Abdication and the Hundred days, and the primary concern with the landwehr was to get everyone into something. There's a sort of wargaming convention which puts regulars in Belgic shako and Landwehr in stovepipe, but I wouldn't bet a lot of money on that in every instance. We have a few accounts of landwehr facing colors, but only a few. Best guess would be mostly red coats, stovepipes and dark blue facings, and if I had to paint more, I'd do mostly that, but the truth is, we often don't know. You might want to check the Osprey on the Napoleonic Hanoverians, and there's a Zinnfiguren pamphlet--or Knoetel.

I'm a little behind the times. Does anyone else know of a recent archival discovery?

Pete

The Hoya Field Bn. was with the 1st Reserve Brigade in the Reserve Corps.
The Hoya Landwehr Bn. was with the 6th Hanover Brigade.

As for uniforms – most of the Hanoverian army had been re-uinformed with British style by the time of Waterloo.
The Field or Line Bns. wore British style red coats with Belgic shako. The Lanwehr wore British style red coats with stovepipe shako that had white cords. There are a few sources that have variations to this as there were supply problems.
Many newer sources and figure companies now have Landwehr in caps, but there is little evidence for it.

See this plate book at Gallica:
link
The Hoya Field Bn. is plate 31 and seems to show light blue facings with black cross belts.

Thanks guys. If I find a reference I'll submit an update to Wikipedia. I might just have to overlook the light blue facings/black crossbelts! Unless… I could buy some more unpainted and keep adding to the madness.

Pete

Siborne's 'History of the War in France and Belgium, in 1815'
p. 532, 533 has an O.B. listing the two Hoya Bns.
link

Cliff