"Bavarian Uniforms 1866/70" Topic

Northstar are producing Bavarian figures in the practical fatigue uniform illustrated by Knotel.https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=100&cat=712&page=1
However by 1870 all figure manufacturers use the Rappenhelm. It seems strange to me that such a practical uniform would be ditched.The same happened with the Saxon 1866 fatigue uniform but they,unlike Bavaria, were subsumed into Prussia.Is the Rappenhelm artistic licence in pictures of the period or did the Bavarian fatigue uniform disappear prior to 1870?

Don't know, but the Osprey German Armies, 1870-71: Prussia's Allies has the Bavarian infantry equipped with the crested helmet but also having a peaked undress cap.

It is the same for the Saxons, even showing a contemporary picture of a Saxon grenadier in an undress soft cap.

I would imagine you could use either headgear for your Bavarian or Saxon units. My Prussian units have a mix even though there are more helmets than soft caps.

Jim

The Rappenhelm was chosen not to be worn by the Bavarians in the Seven Week's War as it was too similar to the Prussian Pickelhaube, and might cause confusion. The Saxons and I believe Baden opted for fatigue caps as well for the same reason.

The Bavarians had both the Raupenhelm as the fatigue cap during the FPW; for battles they had to wear the Raupenhelm although it wasn't too comfortable and the "Raupe" also got lost in bushes or lower tree branches. The field cap ("Feldmütze") is worn in camps of in undress uniforms.

Greetings from Berlin
Markus Stein

Many thanks for the replies they have been very helpful.

John

One could almost call the Seven Weeks War the caps vs kepi war. Most of the Federal German Army wore flat caps, even though some had pickelhaubes, to different themselves from the Prussians. Many of the Prussian aligned states seemed to have worn kepis style caps. Hence the Army of the Main wore white armbands while the Federals wore red, yellow and black tricolour armbands.

All the uniform information I have on the Federal and Bavarian armies in 1866 gives the cap as the headwear on campaign