"Question marks concerning Swedish Gula Hussars..." Topic

One more "Swedish" question.

Quote kronoskaf: On October 20 1761, Baron Wrangel raised a regiment of "Yellow Hussars" counting 6 squadrons for a total of 800 troopers. The Blå Husarerna contributed 5 squadrons (about 320 men) for the constitution of this new regiment. The regiment was organised along the Prussian model. It took a lot of time to raise this regiment. … This regiment only existed for a year."

I read somewhere that the missing horses for the new squadrons were bought in Mecklenburg. There remain a couple of things I don't understand:

1. Did the hussars transferred from the Blå Husarerna receive new uniforms? I ask because Hussar uniforms must be the most expensive ones, and Sweden was short of funds.

2. Where were the remaining Hussars (not Blå Husarerna) recruited from?

3. Why was such an "expensive" unit disbanded at the end of the Pomeranian war? And did the Blå Husarerna return to their original unit?

Thanks for any hint.
Peter

Good question and while I can't find the answer in my library my guess would be that they retained their original uniforms until the wore out – which was common practice

As to why they disbanded them, I would suspect the very reason is that they were expensive – armies all over the world did it as cavalry was always the most costly part of an 18th century army

Thanks, Frederick, sounds logical.

If your guess is true, this would mean that some 320 Gula Husarerna were still Blå Husarerna (just concerning uniforms) for the rest of the war (I don't think the uniforms wore out in one year…).

This would explain why it was not always that clear in 1961 and 1962 which Hussar regiment participated in which action.

True!

Had not thought about it that way but it makes perfect sense

Glad we agree! (Unless someone else has other information)

Now what remains is my 2nd question: Here the number on kronoskaf seems to be wrong. If 5 squadrons were transferred from Blå Husarerna, this cannot correspond to 320 men – probably it was 520. So there remained only one squadron, i.e. around 100 men, to be recruited. If this followed what the Blå Husarerna did, "recruitment took place in Danzig and Lübeck, and partially in Sweden."

Blå Husarerna also received one new squadron, so both regiments had 6 squadrons each.

In that case, total recruitment for both regiments was only 200 men, which is a doable number.

What still puzzles me is the conclusion that of the 12 squadrons in 2 regiments, 11 (!) would have had the same (Blå) uniform, and only the additionally recruited squadron for Gula Husarerna would have had the new (Gula) one. This would also mean that the raising of the new Hussar regiment was a mainly organizational change.