Brunswick Contingent for Quatre Bras Line and Leib Battalions

Why do the Brunswickers? The Perry Brunswick1815  figures, particularly the Jager figures, started the whole thing. The different poses in the packages, and the level of detail and the style of sculpting simply clamored for the small Napoleonic era army to be done.

I'll confess, to start the project I knew not much more than that the contingent was at Waterloo and Quatre Bras.  I started re-reading some accounts of Waterloo and then those for Quatre Bras, looking for some detail.  Like a lot of wargamers, I was drawn to the Osprey series which included a tract on the Brunswickers. for the uniform information.   There are also some good sources on the web for both the uniforms and general history of the Brunswick contingent.

Between the Osprey and a copy of the uniform book by Knotel,  I started putting together the Dulke of Brunswick's 1815 contingent.

The contingent was a mix of infantry, cavalry and artillery. There were three line battalions, three light battalions, a 'Lieb-Garde' (Life Guard)  battalion, and an Advance Guard battalion.

There were three line battalions all raised in early 1814. Oddly enough, they were numbered First, Second and Third line battalions.  Actually, the equivalent titles in Deutsch were the names.  But then, this blog is in more or less English.  The uniforms were all black, even the buttons, with the only other color being the facing color on the collar, cuffs and pant stripe on the outward trouser seam.

Here are some photos of the Line and the Leib Garde.  As always, click to see the larger version...which may also help you to read the photo captions. I apologize for the typos in the photos. The image editor I am using does not allow text to be edited once placed, and I have to start over with the photo to fix the spelling. Eventually, I'll replace the offending photos.  For now, please bear with the"hte" for 'the' and so forth.




 There was also a battalion of Liebgarde, or 'Life Guard.'  raised at the same time.  It had red facings and pant stripe.  It also sported a fuller shako plume than the line units. In all the units I painted the canteens black.  The pattern is British, which are usually blue, but the sources split on the matter and I chose to go with the black water bottle.

Next post, the Light and Advance Guard battalions.


Comments

Gonsalvo said…
Really nice looking units, Joe! I think these are some of your best work. Looking forward to the rest of them. Of course, I have my own, smaller Brunswick contingent myself!

Peter
pancerni said…
Thanks. Given the castings quality, I really hoped they'd come out right. The old song 'Black is Black' is running through my head as I get the next blog installment ready.

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