Thursday 24 November 2011

Prussian Dragoons von Irving - Jena Auerstadt 1806

Regiment of the Day


Tioday we have the indefatigable Dragoons of von Irwing, which fought as part of von Schmettau's 3rd Division at Jena Auerstadt.


Looking at the OOBs for Jena-Auerstadt, there are 2 Dragoon brigades of the same size (3 bases).

One attached to the Advanced Guard Division .. which I have documented HERE. and another one attached to the 3rd Division.

There is Brigade Irwing in the Advanced guard, and then Brigade von Irwing, as part of 3rd Division.

Confused ?   So am I ....:)

Best solution is of course, to do BOTH units.  Can never have too many units after all, especially some as colourful and tactically useful as Prussian Dragoons.

So here we have the Brigade von Irwing, for your viewing pleasure.

3 bases of medium cavalry - Dragoons. Figures by AB. This unit is has the distinctive light blue jackets, and dark violet (or purple) facings.
Great figures by AB once again. I was not too sure what to do with the saddlecloths on this unit, so I have gone for a matching light blue with purple trim for the whole unit.

Missing flag again - another one for the painting queue. Must catch up on the back log of flags for some of these older units. Soon ...

From what resrouces I could uncover, it appears that the bicornes worn by Prussian cavalry did not have the white trim, like the infantry bicornes.

I hope that is correct. Also with the plumes - all of my Prussians have black over white ... reality may have been slightly different.

I believe that quite a few different units may have had all white plumes. Still researching that, and its easy enough to change later on. Black over white it is for now.

An excellent unit of hard hitting cavalry to terrorize the French.

Unfortunately, all of these Prussian cavalry units - despite being very strong in their own right, all seem to be attached to unwieldy infantry Divisions. Couple that with the limited cumbersome command radius of the  Prussian Divisions at this time, it makes them little more than a heavy support arm for the line infantry.

On the other hand, if these Prussian cavalry units could have been grouped together in a large independent Corps of their own .. Jena and Auerstadt may have ended very differently .... and that would have had enormous implications for the history of the region that unfolded over the next 2 centuries. What if ?  What if ?

2 comments:

  1. Very handsome troops; the weakness of the Prussian army of this time was mostly in their command structure and the quality of the leaders, rather than the troops themselves. It seems like the rules you use have that spot on!

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  2. Beautiful. Plumes should be all white for troopers, white over black base for officers, and white with black tip for NCOs. Trumpeters would have white with red tip and red feathers on the edge of the bicorne.

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