Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of the Big Battalions => Topic started by: olicana on April 20, 2018, 09:35:56 AM
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Hi,
I'm looking to buy a couple of battalions from Front Rank and I want to paint them as 4th Swiss. Before I order, I want to be sure I've got the right headgear for my grenadiers (I made a mistake last time).
Did 4th Swiss grenadiers wear bearskins or shako in the Peninsular ?
Please, can someone please answer this for me.
James
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Someone else may be better informed on these units, but from what I can find, all four Swiss regiments (and the Valais and Neufchatel battalions, as well) wore grenadier caps - I think they were goatskin, rather than bearskin - up to the invasion of Russia in 1812. Thereafter, all the evidence points to them wearing shakos with the usual red plume and other accoutrements.
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'Tis as our battered baron said.
Grenadiers were issued bearskins when the Swiss regiments were raised for French service in 1806, though Bonaparte apparently decreed that very same year that the grenadiers from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Swiss would not be allowed to wear them until they had actually seen combat. The bearskins remained regulation headwear until early 1813, when they were replaced with shakos as per the 1812 regulations. R. Forthoffer does however note that shakos would not be issued until the surviving bearskins had completely worn out.
Bearskins are therefore fine for Spain.
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Excellent. Thanks, guys.