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Mystery solved. . .

The uniform worn by the Regiment de Loewendahl Infanterie, one of many German units in French service, during the Seven Years' War period.


Those of you with long memories might remember a post here at the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog from March 2009 in which I ruminated about possible historical uniforms to "borrow" for my own fictitious armies. One thing I mentioned in that post was the veritable plethora of non-Prussian, non-Austrian German units in the French army and Reichsarmee of the SYW-era. Many of those units, if not most, had rather colorful uniforms and unique standards.

You might also recall that I mentioned the Loewendahl regiment (shown above) in particular thanks to its relatively simple uniform, which I think might lend itself to more rapid painting than is usually the case here at Stollen Central. Fine and dandy. I put the thought of all this on a mental back burner and forgot about it for several months.

But a few days ago, I began thinking ahead to the next few units in the ol' painting queue. To my frustration, it seemed difficult to unearth any information about the Loewendahl Regiment's regimental standard, something I lamented here. Well, it's amazing the things you can accomplish at the computer with a dozing baby in your lap. Look what I found by trawling the internet further over the weekend:


The regimental standard carried by the Loewendahl Regiment during the Seven Years' War.


The Colonel's standard carried by the regiment as part of the French army


So, I think this is the next unit of infantry I'll add to Stollen's army after completing a General von Tschatschke, his ADC, and another battery of artillery. Now, the historical Loewendahl Regiment was disbanded in 1763, following the end of the SYW. However, I'll bend history a bit and rationalize that a single battalion, contrary to what most history books indicate, made its way across Central Europe and Brandenburg-Prussia to the Grand Duchy of Stollen, offering its assitance to Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, who accepted eagerly.

The above provides a nice excuse to paint a less common unit in fairly simple uniforms with a pretty flag. Since my Loewendahl Regiment will no longer be in French service, they will just carry their regimental standard, without the white Colonel's color. But I'm puting the cart before the horse. Still a few things to paint on my table before I can move onto this unit with a clear conscience. Charge!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…
Or, of course, the "colonel's colour" could be in orange and blue . . . perhaps with a lobster device?

I still like La Marck better . . . but that hardly matters . . . it is your army, sir.


-- Jeff
5:02 PM
WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…
Ah, but rest assured the LaMarck Regiment and its flag will follow at some point in the next year. I just love these German units from the French army!
5:52 PM
Fitz-Badger said…
Nice colors. I just might have to "borrow" them for one of my Soweiter League units. :)
6:30 PM
abdul666 said…
Nice unform indeed, sober yet elegant.
Now, do I detect a new trend in Stollen: to use 'historical' uniforms straight from their prototype, rather than 'Stollenian' ones?
Then, uniforms are not eternally hard-wearing. Maybe when entering Stollenian service the surviving battalion of Loewendahl would receive new ones -conforming to the regimental tradition, but using the ligther blue of the Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers?
7:29 AM
A J said…
A nice uniform, sober and elegant as Jean-Louis says. The colonel's color looks unusual. It must have been tricky not to mistake it for a flag of truce! ;)
8:22 AM
WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…
I like these German-French uniforms/flags for a few different reasons. First, they are fairly simple and somewhat easier to paint more rapidly. Second, they aren't necessarily seen in most tabletop armies, which are usually more "Prussian" (dark blue) or "French" (white) or "Austrian" (white) in nature. And third, borrowing uniforms worn by the German units in French service are more plausible from a historical point of view. While Stollen and Zichenau are fictitious, they have been more or less dropped into the historical Europe of the 1760s. I finally came to the conclusion that if my imaginary uniforms were too far out, I could not easily suspend my disbelief. And besides, with some many colorful and pretty historical uniforms in books and on the web, it's hard to dream up anything better than what I've seen. General von Tschatschke can easily be explained away as a single, eccentric dandy. But an entire unit of 60 grenadiers in pink and purple? No, I can't reconcile my painting self to that, which is not to say that someone else can't do just that. But it's not for me.

Best Regards,

Stokes
11:54 AM
andygamer said…
An excellent, simple uniform.
7:41 PM
abdul666 said…
Indeed the German regiments in French service offer an inspirational series of uniforms, combining general homogeneity with interesting individual variations. The Lauzun -the AWI French Foreign Legion!- nicely adds its two types of hussars and its battalion artillery.
Yet, as for their exact shade of blue in stollenian service, specially now that Bavarians are officially no longer in 'cornflower blue'...
5:55 AM
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