League Of Augsburg - Fighting Talk

barr7430 wrote:you've really started something with this green uniforms thing Adam... Iain and I are scrabbling around like a couple of Oxford Dons trying to find the definitive source material.... you BOUNDER!!

Does anyone make an agent provocateur figure? In a green coat??

he doesn't even need that much encouragment Iain

Aw, come on lads, I'm not that bad am I?

I was thinking of a range of Louis XIV Chefs and kitchen staff as I believe they wore green coats with white facings. The dishwashers and bottle scrubbers wore reversed colours.

As for the Oxford Dons, would you want them in greatcoats or robes?

Rob

On a more serious note, would you want the summer version in shorts with socks, sandals and knotted hankie?

Ronan the Librarian wrote:It was a notoriously difficult colour to produce at that time, not only because it involved dyeing the fabric twice (blue, then yellow), but also because it was a difficult colour to "fix" - often fading to a very dark, or very light colour depending on whether the blue or yellow dye had predominated.

I noticed the surprising lack of green uniforms or even facings in this period. The standard kit seems to have been a grey-white coat and red or blue facings. There is the problem that Ronan mentions, although that didn't stop Napo era armies wearing green.

As well, I know that German armies disliked green in the 30 YW period as being "unsoldierly" - maybe because of its Islamic connotations. It's possible that green may have retained its reputation as an unfavourable military colour into the late Eighteenth Century, in much the same way as English speaking armies to this day will not wear pink or yellow.

Again, interesting points Hu but every new post on this topic is jogging my memory on the 'exceptions'....

The Coldstream Guards were allegedly wearing green facings in the 1670s and their pikemen were actually dressed in reversed colours... green faced red.
I am also thinking back to the TYW and ECW period. Source books available say the Protestant German Regiment Thomas Schlammersdorff's (fighting with the Swedes) allegedly wore Green coats and of course the is the case of Hampden's Green Coats from the Civil War....
I don't know whether the purpose of this post is now to..

a. Generally enquire about the use of green as a military colour in the 17th/18th century
b. Confirm that Green WAS actually used somewhere!
c. Refute all notions that ANYBODY ever wore green except for the Russians!

Let's see what everybody else thinks

cheers

B

huevans07 wrote:I noticed the surprising lack of green uniforms or even facings in this period. The standard kit seems to have been a grey-white coat and red or blue facings. There is the problem that Ronan mentions, although that didn't stop Napo era armies wearing green.

1) The Napoleonic period came at the start of the industrial revolution and consequent improvements in the consistency and speed of dyeing processes. Even then, there were only two major users of green - Russia and Great Britain, who used it to equip not only its own riflemen, but also the Prussian reserve/landwehr, the Hanoverian army, and a Portuguese unit (the Loyal Lusitanitan Legion).

2) By the Napoleonic period, green had became associated (almost uniquely) with light troops and the "petite guerre/kleine krieg" and hence was not used by the bulk of the "line" and "guard" troops in all armies. Grey/white was popular in the early 18th Century simply because it required no dyeing process at all, hence there was a bit more money to spend on dyes for collars and cuffs. There was also the increasingly religious element to uniform colours - white/light blue for Catholics, dark blue/red for Protestants.

3) Adding to B's "exceptions" Irish regiments of the ECW period serving in England also wore green. IIRC, Hampden had conncetions with continental Europe that would have made obtaining green cloth from the Low Countries easier. (Interesting that the Coldstream Guards adopted green during the later Stuart period when England had a colony in North Africa that would have made obtaining green cloth - assuming that the Muslim nations had more access to it - easier, as well.)

Churchill wrote:Hi all,

Another Regiment with white cuffs, Fergusson's 26th Foot (The Cameronians) 1704.

Any excuse to show my figures off

Kind Regards...........Ray.

Thanks for your incisive contribution to the thread regarding the use of green uniforms, Ray.

But this brings up another point. Is it true that Scottish regts in the WSS period used darker red uniforms than English regts?? Your Lowland Calvinists would seem to be wearing quite a dull shade of the Queen's colour.

Ray.

Just teasing you about the green coats.

Interesting that the 26th had darker coats. What's the backstory there?

Ray.

oh yes... my county regiment. The legacy is alive and well today.. for good or ill depending on your point of view

Another odd thing about the Cameronians was the royal toast they remained seated,Something about standing only for God.
.I remember being at the disbandment ,and it was a tear jerking occassion,the regiment having voted to disband rather than amalgimate,there used to be a fairly good regimental museum in hamilton but that gave way to a small section in the local museum .

iain

A pity this thread died before anyone came up with a definitive answer to the questions plaguing me at this moment!
I decided that I would follow Grant's advice and paint a Walloon regiment in Dutch Service in green coats. I gave them red cuffs, because I just couldn't find any info anywhere regarding them, and copied the Austrian Walloon colours.
I grabbed the Luttisch regiment flag from Warflag and named it the Luttisch regiment. So two questions:

1) Can anyone tell me categorically that the Walloon regiments in Dutch service did not wear green coats or what cuff/stockings etc colours they may have had;
2) and does anyone know what the Luttisch regiment looked like?

All and any advice appreciated.

Many thanks
Nathan

Heres my Walloon Lutisch regiment. I used the uniform reference for WSS by Gille Boule. During the WSS it served in the Austrian army. Not much of a stretch to say prior to that it was in Dutch service.

Thanks to Clarence for the flag!