The Bavarian Army of the Seven Years’ War, 1756–1763

Leib-Regiment Kurfürst in Bayern. These 40 mm semi-round miniatures are cast from commercially available Prince August rubber moulds. A modeller’s dream come true, important standard poses may be reproduced again and again, whereas drummers and other specialist types need to be cast only occasionally. The ensign is a conversion of the dismounted cavalryman from Prince August mould PA46, who has had his pistol removed and a pianowire flagstaff placed into his hand.

The Bavarian army was uniformed, armed and organized following the Austrian pattern. Infantry regiments consisted of 2 battalions with 4 Füsilier and 1 Grenadier company, and two 4-pounder battalion guns each. The Leib-Regiment had 3 battalions, only two of which campaigned with the army. Grenadier companies usually fought alongside the parent regiment, though they may have been detached occasionally, to form an elite battalion of converged grenadiers.

The Bavarian army consisted of eight infantry regiments, two cavalry regiments, and an artillery brigade. Ten infantry battalions and their attached artillery served with the Auxiliar-Korps of the Austrian army. These units fought at Schweidnitz, Breslau and Leuthen in 1757, Troppau, Oelmutz and Neiße in 1758. Infanterie-Regiment Kurprinz, and Infanterie-Regiment Preysing had only one battalion in the field, they formed the combined Infanterie-Regiment Kurprinz/Preysing. At the Battle of Leuthen, the Bavarian and Württemberg contingents of the Auxiliar-Korps bore the brunt of the Prussian attack against the extreme left flank of the line.

Bavaria also contributed the 1st Bavarian Kreis-Regiment, a.k.a. Infanterie-Regiment Kurbayern, for service with the Reichsarmee. This unit consisted of I. Battalion Infanterie-Regiment von Pechmann, II. Battalion IR von Pechmann (without grenadiers), I. Battalion IR von Holnstein, and six 4-pounder battalion guns. Füsilier companies had a total strength of 130 all ranks, grenadier companies only 100 all ranks. Nominal strength of the regiment would have been 1760 all ranks, plus regimental staff, but the unit mustered only 1373 men in May 1758. IR Kurbayern was detached to Freiberg in Saxony when Frederick the Great defeated the French and Imperial army at the Battle of Rossbach.

Uniforms in the Seven Years’ War

It is not known with certainty, if the infantry wore a dark blue or corn-flower blue coat during the Seven Years’ War, but the following items of dress were common to all infantry regiments:

• Collar, cuffs, lapels, and coat lining in the regimental facing colour
• Red stock.
• Black gaiters, tricorne hat, cartridge box, and bayonet scabbard
• White & blue cockade on the tricorne
• Brass grenade badge on grenadier cartridge boxes.
• Grenadiers also had a small cartouche box on the waist-belt
• Red-brown calfskin straps on tin water-bottle and musket (red or white after 1740s).
• Brown-black Austrian pattern grenadier fur caps with red bag, white lace & tassel
• Cowhide Tornister haversacks until 1757, subsequently made from white or grey ticking
• Brass drums with white & blue striped hoops.
• Mounted officers had shabraques and pistol covers in the facing colour, trimmed in the button colour. Exceptions: The Leib-Regiment had blue shabraques edged in silver, Infanterie-Regiment Kurprinz had dark blue shabraques edged in gold.
• Regimental staff officer wore lace in the button colour.
• The Leibkompanie of the I. Battalion of each regiment carried the Leibfahne, a white flag with the Madonna painted on in various designs.
• Füsilier companies carried white and blue checked regimental colours. For reasons of economy, the madonna, and the electoral cyphers in the corners of these flag were often omitted. Grenadier companies did not carry flags.

Musicians seem to have worn the blue coat with white & Bavarian blue checked lace in horizontal stripes, unless otherwise noted below.

Bavarian Army Command of the Seven Years’ War

• Bavarian Generals, 1756–1763
• General Staff
• Army Commissariat

Bavarian Infantry of the Seven Years’ War

Bavarian Cuirassiers and Dragoons of the Seven Years’ War

Bavarian Hussars of the Seven Years’ War

Bavarian Artillery of the Seven Years’ War

Fortifications

It is important to remember that rivers present a serious obstacle to civilian, commercial, and military traffic. Historically, small groups of travellers crossed major rivers by boat or ferry, known as a flying bridge (fliegende Brücke), but large military formations needed regular bridges to cross a river with minimal delay. Permanent bridges are expensive, they take a long time to build, and require regular maintainance, only major population centers could afford them. To protect their investment, these cities were heavily fortified.

Major waterways like the Rhine river had no permanent bridges at all, not since Roman times. There were four boat-bridges (Schiffsbrücken) on the Rhine at Basel, Straßburg, Mainz-Kastel (1661) and Cologne; a fifth was built at Koblenz in 1819. Boat bridges were a heavier civilian type of pontoon bridges, using river barges instead of small military pontoons. Other strategic crossing points along the Rhine had fortified bridgeheads which could be connected by pontoon bridges. The Bavarian army maintained fortified bridgeheads on the Rhine and Danube:

• Ingolstadt, Regierungsbezirk Oberbayern, situated at the confluence of Schutter and Danube. The city was fortified in 1539, and it withstood its first siege in 1546. The Swedish army under Gustavus Adolf, too, besieged Ingolstadt unsuccessfully in 1632, while Tilly died of his wounds inside the fortification. The Austrian army occupied Ingolstadt in 1703, and again in 1742. French General Moreau reduced the fortress in 1800, and reconstruction did not begin until 1828. Infanterie-Regiment Kurprinz, IR von Morawitzky, IR von Preysing, and Bavarian artillery were garrisoned here during the Seven Years’ War.
• Germersheim, Regierungsbezirk Pfalz, situated at the confluence of Queich and Rhine. The fortified bridgehead at Germersheim-Philipsburg had much greater importance than the fortification at Ingolstadt, because it dominated a strategic road between France and Germany. Turenne captured and reduced the fortifications in 1674, and the French army again occupied Germersheim in 1688, when Louis XIV made claims to the Palatinate. French occupation ended in 1702, and the fortification was rebuilt in 1715. Austrian forces under Wurmser and Hohenlohe defeated the French under Beauharnais here in 1793.
• Festung Rothenberg above Schnaittach, built 1729 to ca. 1750 on the ruins of a 13th century castle, was a Bavarian stronghold against Franconia and Nuremberg. The bastioned fortress of French design is the last Rococo fortification in Europe. During the Seven Years’ War, infantry battalions and grenadier companies of the Bavarian army were detailed to garrison the Rothenberg on a rotational basis.

Bibliography

• (SGBH) Staudinger, Karl: Geschichte des kurbayerischen Heeres unter Kurfürst Karl Albrecht – Kaiser Karl VII. – und Max III. Joseph 1726–1777 (Geschichte des bayerischen Heeres 3). Verlag J. Lindauer, München 1909.
• Bezzel, Oskar: Geschichte des Kurpfälzischen Heeres von seinen Anfängen bis zur Vereinigung von Kurpfalz und Kurbayern 1777, nebst Geschichte des Heerwesens in Pfalz-Zweibrücken (Geschichte des Bayerischen Heeres 4/1). Bayerisches Kriegsarchiv, München 1925.
• (MGBA) Münich, Friedrich: Geschichte der Entwicklung der bayerischen Armee seit zwei Jahrhunderten (1618–1818). Neudruck der Ausgabe München 1864. (Biblio-Verlag, ISBN: 3764811781, Osnabrück 1984)
• Knötel-Sieg: Handbuch der Uniformkunde, pp. 50-52

Seven Years’ War Miniatures