Papal states 1860s Austrian Bersaglieri illustrations ?

[twiglet7]

Are there any illustrations of the Austrian Bersaglieri battalion uniform in the Papal army 1860s ?

Black collar and cuffs piped yellow or just yellow piping ?

[italwars]

Hi
Probably you re looking for details about “Carabinieri Esteri”
http://www.newtoysoldiers.it/e_commerce/categoria-prodotto/zinnfiguren_collection/stato_chiesa/

[italwars]

Twinglet..i was wrong Austrian Bersaglieri were'nt called "Cacciatori Esteri" which in fact were composed mainly by Suiss volunteers...As you probably know the "Bersaglieri Austriaci" that fought quite well at Castelfidardo were formed by undercover "volunteers" sent by Austro-Hungarian Empire to defend the Papacy..they managed to recruit personel to form no less than five Btgs..
From the Official History of the Marche/Castelfidardo Campaign published by the Italian Army HQ during the Twenties of which i have a very rare and expensive copy full of maps and plates i read that "the coat was black with  white metal buttons, turquoise  baggy type trousers, green épaulettes with yellow neck, képi (no mention of the colour) with yellow piping and green plume"..it's interesting that the tunics were black instead of blue..a more recent source (L'Esercito Pontificio da Castelfidardo a Porta Pia - Milano, 1976) , the author , Crociani, said that he was unable to find, even in Austrian Archives, any info on the appearance of this unit (remenber they did a sort of clandestine operations in Italy ) so he had the only choice of reporting the old "Italian Official History Source " (La campagna delle Marche e dell' Umbria - by Gen Attilio Vigevano - Rome 1923) but he thinks that the black of the tunic was, in fact, a dark blue...personally i have some doubts about that because all other descriptions of uniforms of the other Pontifical units , including plates,  by Gen Vigevano .specify "blue" (for example line infantry, cacciatori ecc..) so the authour was absolutly capable of distinguishing between blue and black...anyway the tunics of my 28mm minis of that unit will be, for the sake of variety, "black". included is a pict of the only plate i find of this unit ..(Official History by Gen. Vigevano)

[Costanzo]

Interesting info!

[traveller]

Nice, thanks for sharing!

[twiglet7]

Thank you so much for the information and the illustrations, i did search ,but couldn't find anything.

[italwars]

Thank you so much for the information and the illustrations, i did search ,but couldn't find anything.

obviously..you are hunting info on the most obscure unit of Italian military history  
tonight i read another similarly vague info in a French source ..speaking about Austrian volunteers of 1860...(so we must consider also Light Cavalry or Cavalleggeri) ...the authors talk about "total lack of uniforms...probably the very first recruits had to do with discarted Austrian Army items"   ... if we want to do a comparison with other units rushed from Rome at the last moment to the north east coast (Marche) as the Piedmontese invasion had been unexpected...many recently drafted  volunteers had'nt at all received the uniforms that are normally represented in every source..for example neither the famous Franco-Belgian volunteers later to be called Pontifical Zouaves, except their commander had the famous blue grey uniforms in 1860 (according to my sources it must not have been  very easy for the Cin C of the Zouaves to let the Pope Ministers accept for his best unit a muslim type uniform  ..not to say that the first experimental colour sketch sent to be examined by the Archibishop Minister of War, Mons De Merode, a former French Lt in Algeria, was of course without the red fatigue fez and the trousers were'nt the serouals of the French Zouaves and Turcos but something similar to the aceptably broad trousers of the various ACW raised zouaves ) ..Even the equallly interesting  Saint Patrick Irish Btg also was'nt at all equipped with the famous iconic green uniform that they only received at their return and reforming in Rome but, instead they battled,  with surplus second choice Pontifical French type uniforms...on the other hand i read that both Franco-Belgian (Zouaves) and Irish Volunteers were the only troops in the Marche Campaign of 1860 to be armed with good rechambered rifled French weapons instead of the smoothbore types of the rest of the Army..which they used to good effect (Especially the Irish) vs the Bersaglieri at Perugia and Spoleto.
in the following days i'll try to find my very last source, Prof Casali (also published in a booklet form by Freikorps) which certainly made a good research...