"Berg Horse battery" Topic

I believe this unit was absorbed into the Prussian army in 1815.

Is there any indication as to the uniforms & equipment they had?

TMP link

@ochoin,

Not directly from what I see in Nafziger's "The Prussian army 1792-1815 Volume 3 The Cavalry & Artillery".

Horse Battery Nr 20 (Volmar) was formed from gunners from Berg & Saxony.

12 pdr Foot Battery Nr 11 (von Liebermann-Sonnenberg) formed from drafts, train soldiers from Berg & Saxony, as well as men drawn from the 3rd & 4th East Prussian Infantry Regiments.

6pdr Foot Battery Nr 37 (Pippow) formed from gunners from Berg & Saxony.

From some further digging – a very useful topic: "Prussian Artillery: foreign-made guns in 1815?" link:

6pdr Foot Battery Nr 37 – would appear to have had a mix of French & Prussian equipment, but no actual breakdown.

The Reitende Batterie Nr. 20 had French guns (for lack of other sources probably including the two howitzers) and waggons:

No information so far found on the equipment of 12pdr battery Nr 11.

I note napoleonistyka at link has:

"In May 1815 the Berg horse battery became Horse Battery No. 20 (in Brandenburg Artillery Brigade) and the No. 1 and No. 2 Horse Batteries of the Russo-German Legion became horse batteries No. 18 & 19 respectively (in Silesian Artillery Brigade)."

Thank you for your replies.

So, in 1815, I'm assuming they wore their (essentially) French style horse artillery uniform? As well as using at least some French guns & equipment?

This must have been a fraught period for any nervous Berg gunners.

I'm working on a post-Waterloo campaign – for my little group – following a French triumph at Waterloo. My premise is the Prussians lost heavily but were by no means destroyed. This French-looking (??) unit may play an interesting part.

Just checked Nafziger's "Armies of Westphalia and Cleves-Berg 1806-15".

In March 1815 the Berg artillery became the Prussian 6pdr Foot Battery Nr 37 and Prussian Horse Battery Nr 20.

He goes on to say that the former Berg Artillery in late 1814 or 1815 adopted the Prussian artillery uniforms, which consisted of dark blue coat with black cuffs & collars, yellow buttons& shoulder tabs of the Brigade colour. They wore a black leather shako. The foot gunners had a white band on top of their shako, while the horse artillery had a white plume & yellow cords. The breeches of the artillery were like those of the dragoons for the horse artillery. The foot artillery were those of the infantry.

The foot artillerists carried an infantry sabre and the horse artillerists carried the hussar sabre. The artillerists were equipped with infantry muskets. The bombardiers and unteroffiziers were equipped with carbines.

Thank you for your efforts. I hope I don't sound churlish when I say I'm disappointed – just another bog-standard Prussian artillery unit.

I was hoping for something that could spark an incident – friendly fire or battlefield desertion. Oh, well – back to planning the campaign.

Have uploaded onto Media Fire an article from Military Modelling May 1983 by Peter Hofschroer "Berg Troops in Prussian Service 1813-15" which can be downloaded from: PDF link

That was exceedingly kind of you. The article is most interesting.And rather suggestive.