"In the Napoleonic battles..." Topic

Hello everyone,

In the Napoleonic battles, what are the uniforms worn by the combatants?

Great dress (Grande tenue)? Campaign dress (Tenue de campagne) or Winter Dress (Manteaux),because the coats were not necessarily worn only in winter.

Thank you all.

Campaign dress…that being said, I do love my full dress French Imperial Guards.

I would agree for the most part campaign dress although there might have been occasions when soldiers went into battle with dress uniforms due to circumstances. (Old Guard more likely, if I am remembering correctly.)

I'd have said mostly "tenue de campaign" but not always. You'd have to go battle by battle, army by army, and sometimes lower than that.

French line infantry, for instance, frequently wore overcoats even in summer--but certainly not always. I remember one occasion in the Peninsula when the commander of the Legion Hannoverienne couldn't get permission to wear overcoats, and accordingly had some of his people shot by the "friendly" French as well as by his British enemies.

I remember old Napoleonics buffs speaking of certain battles as having been "full dress" battles, and certainly it was a French officer who said "one can never be too well dressed on the field of battle."

If you were doing a diorama, this would matter. For a wargame table, choose what's pleasing to you. But do everyone a favor and make sure that when you're done people can scan your table and know what army and troop type a given unit represents.

In my armies the guard if no other reason for full dress is to make them stand out, opted for my Prussian Fusileers in the Minifig 2 thin plumes for same reason yet doubt the Prussians wore anything but campaign wear. Yet seems the Russians went for their head gear to have all the decorations are rarely depicted with shako covers.

One of the appealing factors of this period is the beautiful uniforms. Looking like scruffs may be more historically correct but I don't care

+1 PaulB

Several French memoirs do mention putting on dress uniforms to lower the risk of infection if wounded, because they were cleaner.

But British were noted for stressing comfort over uniformity.

My own wargame troops are a variety. They all look good on the table top and fight well.

Rick

+2 PaulB – I like a minimal amount of variation but not 1864 Confederates

I like a little campaign scruff, my Austrians white uniforms reflect what I think was the reality of having such a difficult uniform to keep clean on the march.

But I like the grandiose nature of dress uniforms and prefer them on the table, maybe slightly dusty looking for some.

I can remember reading that some units would deliberately put on full dress for battle. One description that comes to mind is a funny incident where the "canaries" (Neuchatel battalion) were changing into full dress while under artillery fire (Leipzig? Can't remember the battle). The observer wrote that it was amusing watching the troops hopping on one foot changing trousers while under fire.

Tortorella, I've read that the Austrian troops tended to look better on campaign then most, you can always whiten up the uniform with pipe clay and powder.

I thought the French wore overcoats even in summer? And that they put on their beautiful uniforms to enter the capitals; ?That the Prussians wore overcoats during the French campaign as well as the Russians… I thought that the Russians adopted the overcoat from 1806 like the French but for the Austrians and British in overcoats, so for me it is a mystery.

Thanks Spec, I thought they might use pipe clay but I had not heard they kept up their appearance! This topic has always interested me as I think we all enjoy the colorful variety of the era. But sometimes I wondered how everyone looked after a month on the March? Or a couple of days of digging or fighting?

As the worlds slowest marching troops, Austrians would see to have more time for personal care!

It would depend on the circumstances, I cannot recal for example that at Wagram the French would wear great coats, but usually on campaign overals were worn and no gaiters and breeches for example.

Paskal, when it comes to topics like this, nothing is universally true. The best you get is mostly true for a particular army, and sometimes not even that. Your choices are mostly "look I like best" vs "probably most common look--for these units of this army."

So let's talk about the outfits worn "battle by battle".

Saxons 1806 – Infantry in Kittel and overals
Saxon 1809 – Saxons in white coat and overals
Prussians 1806 – coat and overals
just as an example – otherwise go for the advice of robert piepenbrink

Question – what is Kittel?

Stephen

the Kittel in that context was an overcoat made of linen worn over the uniform to protect the white coat from wear and tear, worn by the Saxon infantry and artillery in the 1806 campaign.

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Bravo !