"Prussian 1806 Bila Hussars question: Mirliton or Tchako?" Topic

Hi all

I wonder if the 11th Hussar Regiment (von Bila) wore Mirlitons or Tchakos in 1806?

Doepler shows them with Tchakos, but I have also seen contradictory information.

Thanks for your help and cheers,

go with Doepler

Thanks, vW!

Cheers,
Peter

Prior to 1804 von Bila used the mirliton but was supposed to change over the tchako in 1804 – from what I have seen the headwear in the Prussian hussar regiments in 1806 was quite varied, but Doepler is quite right in that they were supposed to be wearing the tchako

Conjecture is your best friend. Fortunately there were no cameras in the Napoleonic wars so you can pretty much go with either. But if I had to go with one I would suggest Doepler would be more trusted.

Doepler is an excellent source as close as possible to the Prussian Army of 1806 – depicted in wonderful detail, some plates can be seen in the ASK Brown collection, in case of doubt -I would go with Doepler.

An article about Prussian Hussars 1806 / 07 published by Herbert Knötel in Zeitschrift für Heeres- und Uniformkunde 1959, Nr. 162 – he uses a French source – in which for Bila Husaren – the shako is given.

Some of the regiments even changed headdress in 1807

Thank you all.

I'm glad about what you write about Doepler. I had bought the great (and large) volume "The Uniforms of the Prussian Army 1805/1806" which contains reproductions of all his marvellous plates from the "Stiftung Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg" in large format.

Great just to look at…

Cheers,
Peter

unfortunately the collection is not complete, like the Towarzcys, but they are available by ASK Brown collection for free download

here a link, as one can see – some of the missing plates are there – like Garde du Corps, Foot Guards or Towarzcys

link

a pity that the other missing plates are in nirvana

Wow, that's great, vW! Thanks for the link!