"Spanish dragoon trumpeters" Topic

maybe some on this forum can help me out. The Spanish army of the Napoleonic period is not my strong point, nevder the less the beautifuul Perry figures heve tempted me to get some of their excellent dragoons in bicorne. I can find plenty on the uniforms of troopers and officers but not specifically on trumpeters. eversed colours, Or some kind of standard livery. Any help and especially pictures more than welcome.

According to the very old Osprey "Spanish Armies of the Napoleonic Wars" by Otto Von Pivka (who we now know was actually Digby Smith), most Spanish cavalry regiments clad their trumpeters in red with yellow facings, regardless of Regiment, but the Villa Viciosa Dragoons used the more common international practice of the trumpeters wearing reversed colours.

There are coloured plates of a Villa Viciosa trumpeter (in green) and a Olivenza Cazadores trumpeter (in red) in that book.

It also says that all Spanish trumpeters rode grey horses.

My Osprey is a really old original one, with no number. It has been reissued as MAA 51, with a different cover, but I presume the illustrations and text inside are still the same. It is out of print, but there are some secondhand copies on Amazon.

There is a comment on the Amazon website saying those illustrations taken from Conard's Album are inaccurate, but I do not know enough about this to judge.

Rod

Hello Marcel 1809

Having looked in a few books and having found nothing I came across the following on the internet

"Trumpeter: They had the same style uniform as that of the troopers, with the coat colours reversed (red coat with lemon yellow turnbacks) and the usual regimental distinctions. Where possible, they would have ridden greys. The saddlecloth may have been red edged in white and the cape red (Suhr shows these in Hamburg). Trumpets were brass, and it was common practice to have the regiment's arms on the trumpet banner.

There is no existing trumpeter uniform or illustration, so I have chosen to follow Bueno's interpretation of the regulations. An alternative interpretation is that the coat was red and the turnbacks, collar, cuffs, cuffs flaps, lapels and rear pocket piping were all lemon yellow regardless of the regiment's facing colour.

Link
link

Regards

The Wargamorium
thewargamorium.wordpress.com

Hi Wargamorium, I am happy that Google has found my web site :)

Hi Marcel, those are the two choices. Pick which ever one you prefer or think looks best. There doesn't seem to be any historical evidence left for this time period one way or the other.

//Keith

Thanks a lot guys,maybe I will go for the green faced Villa Viciosa regiment (on my shortlist anyway) and give the trumpeter reversed colours, If later it turn out to be wrong i can blame it on the old osprey :)
Nice colour plate Keith!

The Villa Viciosa regiment has Lemon Yellow coat, Red turnbacks and Light Green collar cuffs, cuffs flaps, lapels & rear pocket piping.

For the trumpeter you then have 2 choices, Neither are "reversed colours" in the usual meaning.

Choice 1 – reverse the yellow and red (with facing colour).
Red coat, Lemon Yellow turnbacks and Light Green collar, cuffs, cuffs flaps, lapels & rear pocket piping.

Choice 2 – reverse the yellow and red (without facing colour).
Red coat and Lemon Yellow turnbacks, collar, cuffs, cuffs flaps, lapels & rear pocket piping.

Keith's site is excellent! I went with choice #1 myself:

Regiment is the black faced Numancia Dragoons, using the superb Brigade Games figures, sculpted by Paul Hicks.

Thannks Keith, Great looking unit Gonsalvo.