"Question regarding Knesevich's Freikorps of 1809" Topic

I was looking at the bio of Austrian Generalmajor Freiherr Peter Knesevich at link and I noticed this reference: "In 1809 he raised a new Frei Corps in Agram (Zagreb) and operated along the Croatian coast against the French. On 21 July 1809 he captured the Adriatic port of Sibenik from the French. He then took the port of Zara (Zadar); from 25-29 July he held it against General Baron Jean-Etienne-Casimir Poitevin de Maureillan's best efforts." Does anyone know anything about these troops? Would they be part of the civilian dressed Dalmatian Freikorps mentioned in Hollins' Osprey on Austrian Auxiliary troops/someting else/ who knows?

Cheers,
John

In Rawkins only ref to a Croatian-Serbian( a cruel mix?) inssurectio hussar unit with a "?" As for the name.
I converted grenzers into the funny 1813 Serbian fk, and would use them for this.

Knesevich's troops in June 1809:

link

So this unit probably is the Dalmatiner Freiorps.

Maybe interesting:

link

Sehr gut.

This is great information thanks. Yes, it does sound like another excuse to be distracted into Croatians in civilian clothes. I find that old German script hard to read but it looks like the force consisted of:

2 Battalions of IR13 Reisky
1/3 battalion (so a couple of companies) of Dalmatian irregulars
1 squadron of Hohenzollern Chevaux-legers
1 squadron of mounted Seressaners

Ascerbi's "The Austrian Imperial Army 1805-09" places IR13 in the right place and picking up Dalmatian volunteers. Those links were great.

Danke Sehr,
John

My eyes pricked up at Mounted Seressaners – I've done much rabbit-holing to build odd Austrian units but these are new to me. What did they look like – Serrsaners on horses or something else?

Serassaners on horses. If I knew how to easily upload pictures I would . . . :-(

Incidentally, there was a squadron of mounted Seressaners at Gospic (1809) too.

Cheers,
John

for photos – open an account ot upload directly as for example at

postimages.org

then when uploaded you will have a button – share, when clicking onto this one there will be several urls to chose, like one for direct forum, copy that one and just insert by pasting this url directly into the text here, not that difficult

Try (though for 1810):

That was one of the two I was going to add. Here's another from 1848 but he doesn't really look that different to the earlier image:

theminiaturespage.com‌

‌"TMP link

Here's my modest beginning for a couple of them in 15mm (along with an Old Glory Grenzer to which I've added a cloak):

I used a Fire and Sword Segban figure and a Seressaner from Hagen. The middle one, with the gun over his shoulder is the Hagen Seressaner. I cut him in half and made new horse furniture and legs for him. With the other figure, I realised I could just snip off the base and file him a bit to fit the new greenstuff saddle. I had to create the floppy hat for one of them.

Thanks "Prince of Essling" for showing me how easily it is to upload the images. Don't worry, I won't bombard people; my painting is too rubbish . . .

Cheers,
John

great work on the conversion line, I wouldn't mind to be bombarded a lit bit by photos from your collection.

Thank you Von W :-)

Also see Enrico Acerbi's excellent work on the KuK Army 1805-09 – the Seressaner are immediately after Military Border Regiment n. 6 St. Georger link