"Swedish Cavalry Trumpeters and Drum majors 1790s - 1815" Topic

Does anyone have any contemporary pictures or know any information about the uniforms of the Swedish cavalry musicians and the infantry drum majors during the Napoleonic Wars period?

There is a watercolor of a Swedish trumpeter in Volume IV of Napoleonic Uniforms by John Elting and Herbert Knotel. It's on Page 626 and is a trumpeter of the Leib-Brigade of the Swedish Kurassier Korps in 1813.

On page 611 there is a fifer of the Sodermanlands Infantry Regiment. Apparently, Swedish infantry regiments had no bands. Each infantry company was allocated one fifer and one drummer.

Only drum major, I could find in searches was for 1830s, so here are musicians/drummers.
Göta Lifeguard Musicians 1812-1816 by Einar von Strokirch

Svea livgarde för åren 1807-1817
link
Uniformsmotiv från Västgöta-Dals regemente samt Hallands regemente

Thanks guys, any more information about cavalry trumpeters? I'm under the impression that from the 1790s to c. 1808 they might have had swallow nests on shoulders and lace on sleeves, and that by the 1810s they might have only had a red feather as a distinction, but I'm short on better sources.

From Rawkins CD:

"LIFREGEMENTETBRIGADENS KYRASSIERCORPS

MUSICIANS
The trumpeters of the regiment are shown by Herbert Knötel in 1813 as wearing a black bicorn hat with yellow lace cockade strap and a scarlet plume above a red pom-pom. The coat is of the 1807 pattern single breasted and dark blue with plain dark blue collar, cuffs and turnbacks, white shoulder-straps and dark blue swallows-nest epaulettes with a wide double edging of white lace around the bottom edge. The breast of the coat is decorated with six white laces and a single row of brass buttons. The blue and yellow kummerbund sash is worn at the waist. The figure is shown wearing dark blue overalls with a double wide white stripe down the outer seam. Sabre, buff leather sabre slings and the sabretache are as for the troopers as is the horse furniture. Trumpets were brass with mixed blue and yellow cords and tassels."

THE DRAGOON REGIMENTS
"MUSICIANS
No details have been found of the uniforms of the squadron trumpeters, however, an educated guess would be that they would probably have followed the style worn by the troopers possibly with pale blue swallows nest epaulettes trimmed with white, or the coat could have been reversed colour, pale blue with white facings."

THE INDELTA DRAGOON REGIMENTS
"MUSICIANS
The trumpeters of the dragoon regiments would appear to have worn the same distinctions as the drummers of infantry, facing colour swallows-nest epaulettes trimmed with button colour lace and white or yellow lace trim to the collar, cuffs and boxed chevrons of diamonds on the sleeves. The trumpets were brass with yellow and blue trumpet cords. It is possible that some colonels chose to dress their trumpeters in reversed colours after 1810."

THE HUSSAR REGIMENTS
"MUSICIANS
No substantial information has been found about the dress of the company trumpeters of the hussar regiments. One unconfirmed source suggests that a white pelisse may have been worn by the trumpeters of the Lifregementsbrigadens husarcorps and reversed colours of yellow dolman with dark blue collar and cuffs for the Kungliga husarregementet and dark blue pelisse and this scheme may have been carried forward when the regiment became the Mornerska husarregementet."

Thank you very much, Prince of Essling!

Does anyone have the swedish military museum book "Between Imperial Eagles"? If so, does it have more information about cavalry musicians' uniforms?

Yes re the book & no on the uniforms.

Thank you Prince!

Bumping in hopes that Travellera will see and comment on the subject :D

@Don Sebastian

Musicians are a bit of a "black box" so I understand Rawkins predicament. Are there specific questions you have that I could look into? To make a general overview is quite an extensive project.

Dear Travellera, I'm mainly interested in the uniform of the trumpeters of the Swedish "Line" dragoon regiments [Västgöta, Smålands, Skånska (both dragoons and carabineers), Karelska and Nylands regiments] during the 1792 – 1814 period. What do you know about the subject? And are there any contemporary paintings depicting the trumpeters of these regiments?

I will check Bellander "Dräkt och Uniform" next week but I am afraid there is not much information available. The only information Markelius could provide was the image of a model soldier made in 1787. It was made by Finnish caster named Erik Lodin in 1787. It seems to have the 1765 uniform och possibly Nylands or Tavastehus Dragoon Regiment. The most prominent differenece compared to the rank and file are the "false sleeves" hanging down. The same feature can be seen on Strokirch painting of Västgöta Cavalry Regiment 1748 below. The renowned Finnish historian Ole Gripenberg cannot either provide much but write that, similar to the infantry regiments, tha bugler sometimes had reverse colours on their coats. According to a regulation from 1768, the Nyland Dragoons should have reverse colours on coat and turnbacks. He also notes that the regimental commander had certain freedom to design the uniform of the musicians. From a wargaming perspective this gives a lof of freedom. Personally I would reverse the colours for buglers during the early period up to 1806, and maybe add the "false sleeves" with green stuff, especially since a lot of old uniforms were still in use by then. For the later period it would make sense to have the dragoons with swallows nest and sleeve lace(see Perry miniatures). Hussar buglers I would have like the rank and file (maybe just reverse the colours of the hat ornaments as can be seen below)

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Thank you, Travellera! If you find more on the subject of swedish napoleonic trumpeters on Bellander's book, please let me know

Will do 😉

Now I have had a look in Bellander´s book. Unfortunately he does not provide any details on regimental level for the cavalry. It is only mentioned that in general there were less distinctions for the musicians from the 1820s onwards. My assumption would be that dragoons had the same type of disctinction, swallovs nests and stripes or chevrons on the arms as the infantry had. I have been searching for contemporary paintings to find further hints on cavalry buglers and found two interesting images from the battle of Bornhöft 1813. The first is a painting by AABY-ERICSSON made in 1914, where you can see a husar bugler(to the left) without any lace on arms or swallovs nest:

link

The second is even more interesting since it was made based on a sketch by Hjalmar Mörner, who participated in the battle. As you can see the bugler in the Skånska Karabinjärregmentet does not either have any distinctions different than the rest of the troopers:

theminiaturespage.com‌

‌"TMP link

Considering that Hjalmar Mörner was a military man himself and present at the battle, he should have added any lace or swallovs nest if that was used, so my conclusion is that there were no distinctions, at least not on the uniforms used in this battle, which was late in the war

Thank you very much, Travellera! It seems indeed to be the case that swedish trumpeters were using few if any distinctions by the 1813 campaign

Yes, it is still possible that distinctions were used earlier. I found this plate showing a Swedish hussar from 1796, who seems to have lace on the arms and a white band on the shoulder:

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Guys, I found this painting which supposedly represents 1811 hussar musicians:

link

Don S,

Great find! Seems only swallows nests were in use