Victorian mercenary uniforms

[Froggy the Great]

My Google-fu has failed me.  Does anyone have resources for colors of various Victorian mercenary uniforms?  I have a small force that I want to paint reminiscent of an historical mercenary unit.



My best guess is that these are from one of the moons of Jupiter or Saturn.  They got stranded in the asteroid belt when the solar wind became too strong for their craft to navigate, and were rescued by a colonial force just before the solar wind became too attenuated for the colonials' heliosails to function.

Thus, they fight where they can be paid, and are funding research projects and/or capturing alien technology in hopes of being able to return home.

Now I need to paint them.

[Plynkes]

Your Google-fu has not failed you. There wasn't really such a thing in this period. I mean you had tribal and irregular units that fought for plunder and such, but they weren't exactly the Wild Geese or the A-Team, and they didn't tend to have much in the way of uniforms beyond an arm or head-band.

Local troops raised by a colonial power might have some form of uniform, but true mercenaries-for-hire, such as East Africa' 'Baluchis', or the various roving tribal groups that could be hired with the promise of plunder would wear their own clothes (which sometimes consisted of no clothes at all, in the case of the Watuta).

[Red Orc]

Which army are they for Froggy?

When the British used Askari-type native troops, they generally wore native dress, when they recruited Gurkhas (a specific rifle regiment) my memory is that they were dressed in Rifle Green, and Bengal Lancers and whatnot wore native uniforms too.

So, if they're 'regular' infantry for the British, they'd probably wear red coats (before about 1885) or khaki afterwards. My Morlock Allied Native Infantry Contingent (Old Glory Dwarf Britannia Dwarves in Pith Helmets) wear traditional British red, for instance.

If they're more like the French Foreign Legion however, they should probably be in blue jackets, white helmets and maybe white trousers.

[Plynkes]

Trouble is they aren't like any of those things. Those are all regular units of sovereign nations' military forces, albeit some of them recruited from outside their borders. According to Froggy's description his are wandering guns-for-hire, something not all that common in the period, so the best they could hope for is some kind of identifying mark given by their employers. Historical examples include headbands, armbands, coloured blankets to use as cloaks, all purely for recognition and to avoid friendly fire incidents. You give full uniforms to troops you raise yourself; here today-gone tomorrow mercenaries don't warrant that expense.


Unfortunately there is no real "Victorian Mercenary Uniform." You're just going to have to make something up. If they have come up with their own (human style) uniform to provide an air of professionalism, I would follow what were the trendy military fashions of the day. Before 1870 make them look French. After 1870 make them look German.


I guess you could say they were raised by a particular nation and then went solo somehow, that way you could use Red Orc's idea of basing them on some historical unit you like the look of. The German Colonial authorities "bought" some Sudanese Askaris from British Egypt, and they went to Tanganyika in their Egyptian uniforms (though with new headgear). Maybe your boys' unit was disbanded after a particular campaign and allowed to keep its uniforms, and then they had the idea of becoming mercenaries.

[abdul666lw]

Those who during the Victorian period went closest to mercenaries were the 'white' officers of the Chinese  Ever Victorious Army, but their uniforms were not specially inspiring


But there was a number of volunteer units and one can fancy that in an alternate 19th C. after their war ended (specially if on the losing side) some members kept their uniforms and weapons and turned mercenary.
Volunteers of the CSA

Fenians

Foreign volunteers in Mexico
Belgians



Austrians



But the uniforms of the French Contre-guérilla were more colorful



(there was also a Turk contingent!)

and some Mexicans who had fought for Maximilien may have chosen exile



Volunteers from several countries went to defend the Pope
Zouaves Pontificaux


Légion d'Antibes


Swiss





But, since they are 'alien', their color vision can be very different from ours, so they may favor colors, and colors combinations very... strange to our eyes

[Red Orc]

Trouble is they aren't like any of those things. Those are all regular units of sovereign nations' military forces, albeit some of them recruited from outside their borders. According to Froggy's description his are wandering guns-for-hire, something not all that common in the period, so the best they could hope for is some kind of identifying mark given by their employers...

Yeah, I suppose I made two assumptions about these guys:

1 - even though Froggy's saying that they're wandering mercs, in game terms they'll likely be fighting for a particular army - so it might make sense to treat them as a 'colonial' regiment of that army, and paint them accordingly, which is why I brought up my red-coated 'British' Dwarves;
2 - even if this is not the case, they could have been given uniforms by their first employers and subsequently used these as their uniform for interacting with humans - in which case, French Foreign Legion (white trews, blue jackets, white hats) is what I'd advise, as they're the closest thing to 'mercenaries' in a specifically European context, the uniform I think is 'classic' enough that  the <<Légion Extraterrestre>>  would be instantly recognisable (officers should probably have red trews and black hats),  and effectively, Europe dominates Earth at this juncture, so European nations might be thought likely to dominate the Solar Sytem too.

I'd not really thought about the 'volunteer' units that were a feature of armies at this point, but none of them have quite the recognisable uniforms of the French Foreign Legion. More or less for that reason alone, blue coat, white helmet and trousers would say 'late Victorian mercenary' to me more than any other uniform would.

[abdul666lw]

It was also basically the uniform of the French Infanterie Coloniale oversea

and often that of the 'White' officers of the Ever Victorious Army.

Btw what minis are these?

[FramFramson]

Another sort-of mercenary bunch is Garibaldi's Red Shirts. Yes, they were mostly Italian nationalists, but Garibaldi himself fought in multiple wars and some of his men followed him. They're also a decent parallel because they weren't fighting for money, but more helping out various peoples they felt needed the help. Your gang is fighting to get home and are spending their prize money with a purpose, rather than wasting it on the usual mercenary trifecta of sex, drink, and gambling. So your mercenaries and the Red Shirts aren't an exact match motivation-wise, but there's some overlap.

[DowVooVoo]

Black coats ,white pants, butternut pith helmets? Oh and red braid?

[Grimjack]

The issue of identifying headress, blankets, armbands, etc. is absolutely valid here.

Yet, to me, the Sudanese were 'mercenaries' during the 19th century and the wars in the Sudan - they either wore khaki trousers and jackets or same trousers and brown jerseys. I would put any 'non-regular' troops into light khaki drill or similar, a bit like Martian Askaris in Space 1889.

[Plynkes]

In what sense were they mercenaries? They weren't even irregulars, but rather regular battalions of the Egyptian army.

[former user]

that is exactly the point: in what context is a soldier a mercenary?

In the case of the foreign legion or the pontific guards it is easy to determine.
When it comes to conscription or compulsory service in a country it should be equally easy.

from my brief knowledge, there were a lot of Askari of Sudanese origin employed by several of the colonial powers, who thus were strangers to the country they were serving in, as well as in for the money. I guess this could qualify for mercenary. Zanzibar, Tanganyka...
I don't know about the Sudanese in the "regular" Egyptian army. The French Foreign Legion is a regular part of the French Army for that matter.
so the answer could be - define "Mercenary" in Victorian context 

[Plynkes]

Sudan was part of Egypt at this time. If Sudanese soldiers in the Egyptian Army qualify as mercenaries, then so do the Irish Guards, The Cameron Highlanders and the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the British Army.


The French Foreign Legion and similar units do not count as mercenaries under modern international law, as these two parts of the definition of mercenary in Article 47 of Protocol I of the Geneva Convention exclude them:

(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and
(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces.

They are members of the French armed forces, and so as long as France is actually a party to the conflict, they aren't mercenaries. Same goes for the Gurkhas.


But the 1st Geneva Convention (1864) as far as I know said nothing about mercenaries, and so in this period a mercenary is whatever whoever has captured one says it is. former user's example of the Sudanese Askari serving various other colonial powers is an interesting one. By today's standards I don't think they would count, but there was certainly a "mercenary quality" about them.


In the Great War a great many of the German Askari were former King's African Rifles veterans (who had been laid off when British East Africa reduced the size of its armed forces just in time for the war (!)). When captured by the British they were not treated as mercenaries and shot out of hand but given the full treatment required for lawful combatants. They were however, also re-recruited back into the KAR (as indeed were Askari who had never been in the KAR), which seems to indicate the authorities regarded them as a mercenary resource to be used, rather than as enemy soldiers loyal to the Germans. 

[former user]

Thank You for what I call a thorough treatment of the topic
I hadn't thought about the Geneva Convention   

so with all this in mind, what could be the appropriate approach to the "Victorian Mercenary Uniform" ?
It would appear that in a period of strong national identity (in Europe and related) there was no concept of Mercenary?
Though I recall some problems with the use of Belgion Legionnaires at some point ....
Could that mean that Mercenaries could provene only from countries that had not developed such an identity, like the Askari in the example?

So the translation for the Victorian Era then would be - contracted foreign soldiers?
Does the convolute of foreign troops during the Maximilan adventure qualify?
very interesting topic methinks.....

[mysteriousbill]

If you are talking about mercenaries serving some mad scientist/world conqueror I'd go with a mix of civilian clothes and pieces of uniforms from different countries. My rabble serving the League of Science wore mainly civilian clothes with the odd Confederate Uniform (for those who never surrendered) or Federal Uniform (for the odd deserter)

Or maybe something fancy and flamboyant (I remember one Wild Wild West where the would be conqueror had his men dressed up in Hussar uniforms, mind you most of those were mind controlled).

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