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The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 12:46 pm
by Friedrich August I.
Dear Friends,

following the recent 'hacking' I once more like to talk about my next project. The Raising of the Saxon Army in the Great Northern Wars.

The Year in which my troops are to settle is 1704 as this was a single year of two won battles against the dreaded Swedes.

Most of my knowledge of this period I have from reading Schuster/Francke's "Geschichte der Sächsischen Armee"(History of the Saxon Army), a book written 1885. Uniform Details will be taken from Dan Schorrs Notes on the Saxon Army.

To the Troops:
The whole Army with about 23.000 men would be a to great project as I allready try to build a Napoleonic Saxon Army of 30.000 men. So I decided to work on a portion of it for now. 1:40 would give approx. 600 Figures but as I start with small numbers, about 8000 men/200 Figures, Infantry, Cavalry and some Cannon. These men would be Schulenburg's troops who made a lightning strike against Posen and Punitz in 1704. The same troops were original destined for Austria's Western theatre of Warfare but saw their first service in Poland.

As Figures I decided to use Warfare Miniatures, orders for some packs are allready given.

More informations of history and troops to follow.

All comments and suggestions are welcome

Best Wishes

Günter

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:58 pm
by Rob Herrick
Are you still set on 1704, or have you shifted to the Imperial contingent fighting against Louis?

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:59 am
by Friedrich August I.
Rob Herrick wrote:Are you still set on 1704, or have you shifted to the Imperial contingent fighting against Louis?
Rob,
The larger part of the troops Schulenburg(picture below) led to Poland were the same who saw action for the Austrians in the West. Parts of them stayed in Poland and others were picked up on their march to the west passing through Saxon homelands.
So I stay with the Year 1704.

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 5:24 am
by Friedrich August I.
Gents,

Here is a detailed discription of the small Corps of Saxon Troops I intend to built:

Infantry:
Rgt. Fuerstenberg (3 B)
Rgt. Schulenburg (1 B)
Rgt. Drost (1 B)
Rgt. Reuss (1 B)
Rgt. Goertz (1 B)
Cuerassiers:
Rgt. Kurprinz (4 S)
Rgt. Tiefenhausen (4 S)
Rgt. Jordan (4 S)
Rgt. Eichstaedt (4 S)
Dragoons:
Rgt. Bayreuth (4 S)
Rgt. Oertzen (4 S)

The strenght, when the units where formed in Saxony at their camp in Guben (thats close to the Saxon-Polish border) were close to 10.000 men. At the start of the Year 1704 there were nothing left of the last saxon Army who went to Poland. After six month they had raised in Guben 10.000 men and in another camp a further 13.000 men. In Poland itself remained the King, August the Strong, with 52 small Squadrons of Saxon Cavalry, about 4-6000 Horsemen.

Now let's wait until Derby were I receive my Warfare Miniatures from Barry.

That's all for now. Thanks for following.

Günter

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:40 am
by Rob Herrick
Sounds like a managable goal.

You're gonna need a Swedish contingent to beat . . . er, fight, though!

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 6:10 am
by Friedrich August I.
Rob Herrick wrote:Sounds like a managable goal.

You're gonna need a Swedish contingent to beat . . . er, fight, though!
I think it needs only a few Regiments of Swedish Cavalry to send the Saxons packing :roll: :wink:

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:19 am
by Friedrich August I.
News from the "Flag Front":

According to the other treads from which I gathered my knowledge and the help of Dan I come up with the following result:

Sure thing is I cant make 12-16 flags in a unit of 18 figures, that would look a bit odd. So as the figure ratio is scaled down to 1:40 I do the same with the flags:

3 Flags to each 18 figure Infantry unit, 2 flags in each regiment of cavalry that gives 1 to each 6 figure (double-)squadron.

The Flag type would be that of 1701, 2,70m x 3,35m in Size.
See Picture below.
The size to be printed should be 45mm height and 55mm long.
A huge size but in scale to the 28mm figure.

All border decorations are in red, 2 flags have a field in color of the facings, 1 flag a white field.

Order:
7 "white" flags M1701(Leibkompanie)
6 "dark blue" flags like M1701/13(Fuerstenberg)
2 "green" flags(Schulenburg)
2 "grey" flags(Droste)
2 "light blue" flags(Reuss)
2 "sea green" flags(Goertz)

21 flags all together made of cloth.

The Order for them went out today to Rick, the Flagdude.

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:18 pm
by Churchill
Ray.

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 5:55 pm
by Friedrich August I.
Ray,

Thanks for sharing this with me. Much appreciated.
As I have to do my Infantry without Pikes I thougt it would look well.
Anyway I can allways reduce 3 down to 2 flags :wink:
In case of the Cavalry the regiments look so similiar I wanted to use 2 flags instead of one to identify them easier :roll:
Same as for the Infantry flags are reduceable :)

Thanks again

Best Wishes

Günter

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:28 pm
by 18th Century Guy
Gunter, I use 4 flags per battalion (24 figures) in my French. Most of mine have the cloth flags from The Flag Dude and I have to say I like the look.

So go with your original idea of at least 3 and you won't be disappointed.

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 7:13 am
by Friedrich August I.
18th Century Guy wrote:Gunter, I use 4 flags per battalion (24 figures) in my French. Most of mine have the cloth flags from The Flag Dude and I have to say I like the look.

So go with your original idea of at least 3 and you won't be disappointed.
Thanks,

Could you tell me what size your flags are in mm?
Rick seems not all to happy with the idea to print them on cloth that "small". My flags should be 45x55mm, a rectangle.

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 9:45 am
by nevermore
Good luck with all 8)

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:20 am
by Friedrich August I.
Dear Friends,

encouraged by how my lecture at Derby was received and by DOB's request I herewith start to tell you a bit of history about the Saxon Standing Army.

EDIT:
The writing is a translation of O.Schuster & F.A.Francke "The History of the Saxon Army" printed in 1885.

Part I.
It was Elector Johann Georg the III.(1680-1691)
Johann Georg III.jpg
Johann Georg III.jpg (32.88 KiB) Viewed 27400 times
who authorized the building of a standing army. With the approval of the Landtag 4 new Infantry Regiments should be raised, 4 Horse Regiments and 1 Dragoon Regiment. The Trabanten-Leibgarde was increased in strenght and a House-Artillery of 24 guns was installed.
After 6 months the Army was ready for inspection by the Elector.
1 Trabanten-Leibgarde 172 men
4 Horse Regiments 600 men each
1 Dragoon Regiment 614 men
6 Regiments Foot (8 companies) 1182 men each
(4 were approved of 12 companies but they raised 6 of 8 each)
24 guns of differnt size with 142 gunners.

This small Army of not more than 10.420 men saw their first war when called upon to form a part of the relief force of Vienna 1683.

1683 All but the Leibregiments (who had red) received grey Uniforms. By order of the Elector all Pikes have to be left at home and be replaced by muskets and Boarfeathers (Schweinsfedern) on which the musket could rest while firing. In the field the Schweinsfedern were used to build Chevaux de Frise to cover the front and rear of the Infantry who now, without the Pikes, would have some cover against attacking cavalry.
1687 the terms Musketiers/Pikeniers were replaced by Commoner and Grenadier.
1693-94 All the Matchlocks have been replaced by flintlocks.
All Regiments on Foot got a company of grenadiers, wearing blue Stockings and blue Cloth Grenadier Caps.
It should be noted that all weapons were of Saxon origin.
The state was in all terms a Self-Supporter of itself and his Army.

From this time on the Saxon Army was constantly modernized, increased in strength and used as a part to defend the borders of the Holy Roman Empire with which each Saxon Ruler had a good relationship.

More to follow.

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:32 am
by obriendavid
Thanks Gunter! I look forward to reading more.
Cheers
Dave

Re: The raising of the Saxon Army 1699-1712

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 1:56 pm
by EvilGinger
Exerlent article form a man who knows his stuff, just the ticket.

:evil: Ginger