"Confederation of the Rhine" Topic

Some of the troop commitments by the smaller members of the Confederation of the Rhine were combined in order to create full-sized regiments. For example and I do not know if this is accurate, the several Saxon duchies may have been combined with ex-Hanseatic contributions to create one regiment. When that occurred, did the combined regiment carry colors? Would each contingent continue to carry its own colors? Was there such a thing as a color issued by the Confederation of the Rhine? I have seen references to "Confederation of the Rhine regiments." Thanks for your insight.

Saxe Duchies in the Rheinbund period
4th Rheinbund-Regiment:
1st battalion: Saxe-Gotha contributed 1 of grenadier and 4 musketeer companies from (120 men per company); and Saxe-Coburg 1 infantry company (200 men) ;
2nd battalion: Saxe-Gotha contributed 1 grenadier and 2 musketeer companies (120 men per company); Saxe-Meiningen contributed 2 musketeer companies (160 men) and Saxe-Coburg 1 infantry company (200 men)
3rd Battalion: 5 Saxe-Weimar Jäger companies (120 men) and 1 Saxe-Hildburghausen Jäger company (200 men)

Anhalt
1809: the Anhalt battalion formed the 1st battalion of the 5th Rheinbund-Regiment and adopted the French organisation of 1 grenadier, 1 voltigeur and 4 fusilier companies each of 140 men.
1813: Jäger zu Pferde Regiment – two squadrons of four companies each.

Lippe
1807: The two Lippe principalities formed a combined battalion of 5 companies of 129 men (3 Detmold, 1 Schaumburg and 1 mixed).
1808: the battalion had to detach its 2nd (Detmold) and 5th (Schaumburg) companies to be sent in Spain as part of the so called "bataillon des Princes" (Princes battalion).
1809: the others companies were reorganised as second battalion of the new 5th Rheinbund-Regiment.
1812: Battalion adopted the French organisation of 1 grenadier, 1 voltigeur and 4 fusilier companies.

Schwarzburg (Sonderhausen & Rudolstadt)
1807: Schwarzburg's troops formed 1 battalion of 4 companies.
1808: each principality sent a company of 140 men for amalgamation with the contingents of Lippe, Reuß and Waldeck to form the "battalion of Confederated Princes". This battalion was posted to Peninsular theatre of operations from April 1809.
1809: Schwarzburg provided 1st battalion of the 6th Rheinbund Regiment (3 companies from Rudolstadt and 3 from Sonderhausen). At the end of the year, the Schwarzburg battalion was reorganized into 4 companies (2 Rudolstadt and 2 Sonderhausen).

Waldeck
1807: Waldeck had 3 infantry companies.
1808: single ad-hoc company of 141 men sent to Metz for amalgamation with the contingents of Lippe, Reuß and Schwarzburg to form the "battalion of Confederated Princes".
1809: Waldeck contingent became 7th, 8th and 9th companies of the 6th Rheinbund Regiment.

Reuss
1807: Reuss principalities provided 3 infantry companies that were initially posted to guard the French west coast.
1808: Reuß detached an ad-hoc company of 140 men to Metz in France for amalgamation with the contingents of Lippe, Schwarzbourg and Waldeck to form the "battalion of Confederated Princes".
1809: Three companies of Reuß, became 10th, 11th and 12th company of the new 6th Rheinbund Regiment.

The Hanseatics did not contribute a regiment to the Rheinbund nor were they amalgamated with the Saxe Duchies. Instead:

Hamburg: infantry regiment of 10 companies; Dragoon company; artillery detachment (4 guns plus fortress artillery); Nachtwachte (guarded the gates & acted like police force);
Bremen: 1 small infantry battalion (1 grenadier & 2 musketeer companies); Bürgerwehr or Bürgermiliz – acted as police force.
Lübeck: Town guard.

For more info on the Saxe Duchies see "Saxe Duchies Military – Useful Downloadable Materiul" Topic at TMP link No standards.
For more info on Anhalt see "Anhalt Military – Useful Downloadable Material" Topic at TMP link towards the end you will see their standard.

For more info on Lippe see "Lippe Military – Useful Downloadable Material" Topic at TMP link towards the end you will see their standard.

I have yet to post information on either Reuss, Schwarzburg or Waldeck (all in preparation) but from memory no flags – only example for Reuss is post dissolution of the Rheinbund.

Note the Mecklenburgs (Schwerin & Strelitz) formed a joint 8th Rheinbund Regiment. For more information see "Mecklenburg Military – Useful Downloadable material" Topic at TMP link Details of standards are shown.

The 1st and 2nd Regiments of the Confederation were those of Nassau, the 3rd was Frankfurt, the 7th Regiment was that of Wurzburg.

For more info on Nassau see "Nassau Military – Useful Downloadable Material" Topic at TMP link towards the end you will see their standard.
For more info on Frankfurt see "Frankfurt Military – Useful Downloadable Material" Topic at TMP link no details of any flags.
For more info on Wurzburg see "Würzburg Military – Useful Downlodable Material" Topic at TMP link you will see details of their standard.
As far as I am aware there was no Rheinbund regimental standard.

Herr Fürst, thank you. I am amazed with the depth of your research every time you post. Just to be certain that I understand, in the absence of an issued Confederation of the Rhine standard, each unit that makes up a combined regiment would display its individual standard on the field? For example, the 4th Rheinbund-Regiment could conceivably have 7 standards, if the Jäger formations had standards?

I started my miniature painting with Napoleonics because I fell in love with the pageantry. I am planning on diving back in after several decades and am looking forward to taking advantage of all of the research that is available. I had 2 books when I started that contained everything that I knew about the uniforms and very little about the standards. The idea of fielding a regiment with almost as many standards as troops is very appealing!

To supplement the Prince of Essling's excellent work, the Hanse states were annexed to the French Empire in 1811, so Hanseatic regulars were reuniformed and redesignated as French. In 1813, the Hanse states rose in revolt and there is a Hanseatic Legion on the Allied side, primarily wearing Russian uniforms, which I suspect were provided by Great Britain. (Prussia got British-made Spanish and Portuguese uniforms, supplemented by a few Rifle ones, while any surplus red coats and some Rifle green went to the reborn Hanoverian army. I don't know who was responsible for British military provisioning of the 1813 Allies, but he deserved at least a knighthood, and a title and a small estate would not have been unreasonable.)

@Red Jacket,

Perhaps I wasn't as clear as I thought I was in my post above on flags/standards. To summarise:

1st and 2nd (Nassau) – used own flags/standards.
3rd (Frankfurt) – no flags/standards.
4th (Saxe Duchies) – no flags/standards.
5th (Anhalt & Lippe) – used own flags.
6th (Reuss, Schwarzburg & Waldeck) – no flags/standards.
7th (Wurzburg) – used own flags/standards.
8th (Mecklenberg) – used own flags/standards.

"The idea of fielding a regiment with almost as many standards as troops is very appealing!"

Remembering of course that the actual ratio is about 1 standard per 300 to 1200 men, so typically, maybe about one on the table for each army on a war-games table would be about right. We already have a few too many standards :~)

Cheers,
John

Thank you very much for the very helpful information!

IIRC, Lippe didn't have a flag until 1812. They got one before leaving for Russia.

I think Frankfurt did have a standard, but no info concerning it's appearance survives.