"Brunswick troops in 1809 questions" Topic

I know that they progressively got worse in the peninsula due to the difficulties in replacement troops but I have read that the troops that were gathered in the 1809 Franco-Austrian war were quite good. If working out matching morale levels etc are the Black Band of Halberstadt and Oper either trained or veterans? How would classify the Hussars? The Duke himself seems to be competent if not great. I thought the 1809 Black Band might be a good little project.

FM

I'd say veteran by the time of Oper and Halberstadt. They had been campaigning in Bohemia for some time before the treaty of Znaim including plenty of minor skirmishing with the Saxons under Johann von Thielmann and had also taken part in the battle of Gefrees against the French.

I like the Brunswickers but so far just have the Oels Battalion and small Uhlans.
Small armies are fun projects, recently finished Wallmoden's force.

I'm slowly building the 1809 contingent using Steve Barbers excellent 28mm range just waiting in him to release the artillery miniatures.

Nice one. I'm going to use Perry minis

The problem with the Perry's is they only do a few infantry for 1809. The Perry Hussars are for the Peninsula as they are wearing Pelisse which they didn't in 1809 and most of their infantry are for The Hundred days.

That's why I chose Steve Barber because all his miniatures are uniformed specifically for 1809 and includes jager, hussars, infantry and very soon artillerymen.

link

Referring to the starting question I checked the regimental histories of the Brunswick infantry (later no. 92) and Brunswick hussars (later no. 17), of which I've originals in my library.

Starting with the infantry: as the corps was built up in Nachod/Bohemia (Austrian empire) the recruiting of soldiers was mainly expanded into Silesia. The officer corps could be filled rather fast, as many Prussian officers "changed" the side and wanted to continue their war against Napoleon. NCO and men were not so easily recruited but most of the "first" soldiers were experienced former Prussian soldiers, who had to be retired due to the demobilization of the Prussian army. As the Brunswick infantry of 1809 exercised with the Prussian instruction for "Schützen" of 26the February 1789, I think, many of the former Prussian soldiers felt familiar with the drill in the Brunswick troop.

Now the hussars: their officers were mainly recruited among Prussian officers willing to serve the Duke of Brunswick. It was more difficult to get enough men, also many were former Prussian soldiers; some men were recruited in Bohemia, as in February/march 1809 it was forbidden for the recruiting officers to operate in Prussian Silesia.

So, it may be stated, that the officers of the Brunswick corps were experienced officers (most of them of the old Prussian army), and that a lot of men were "retired" Prussian soldiers … the Brunswick troops of 1809 were not so unexperienced as one may expect from this "Freikorps".

Greetings from Berlin
Markus Stein

Really interesting Markus – could any of the Brunswickers who fought in 1815 have been Jena / Auerstädt veterans?

Markus@ thanks for that. Infantry numbers do seem to have been a problem at The Battle of Gefrees I've seen the two Brunswick infantry battalions given a total of 300 men across both battalions while the Hussars also numbered 300 but in a single regiment.

It's interesting that in With Eagles to Glory that Gill mentions that in a couple of early skirmishes with the Saxons that the Brunswick troops were caught by surprise because they had no pickets/sentry's set up while they were resting which you wouldn't expect from experienced Prussian officers.