Hello
I have prepared a number of colourplates showing the uniforms of the danish and norwegian armies as of 1810. Hopefully the modders out there in the various NTW forums can find them usefull in their work and finally give these armies their proper look in the game.
Sources used for these plates have been many, on the net the Arkeliet forum and its many dedicated researching members have been very helpfull, while many books have been consulted, especially "Den Danske Hær i Napoleonstiden 1801-1814" and various issues of "Norsk Våpenhistorisk Årbok".
The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway was ruled by the danish king and although Denmark was the dominant part in this both countries had their own seperate armies. They did however mosty follow the same regulations, although sometimes with local varieties, so both armies generally looked the same. Both armies underwent a number of reforms and reorganisation in the 1808-1811 period, the uniformwise result of this can be seen on the plates.
A few key errors in the danish army as portrayed by NTW:
1.In general neither the danish nor the norwegian army used the crossed belts/bandolers that was so common in most napoleonic armies. Only a single one that carried the ammopouch was used. The bayonet was carried slung from a waistbelt instead. There were a few exeptions, the royal foot guards were somewhat distinct with theirs. Also the horseguards sometimes carried their carbine sling and the ammopouch belt in a crossed fashion, the light dragoons also occasionaly did this, but during field conditions both belts were supposed to be carried over the same shoulder.
2.Neither army used the coat/jacket with tails on the back that almost all other contemporary armies used. Instead a waistlength coatee was used and it was no longer than a modernday sweater. Again the royal footguards were the exeption, also officers followed contemporary foreign fashion and had theirs with tails aswell.
The plates show the headgear somewhat out of size when compared to the uniforms, this has been done to better show details. Also note that the colours of lapels, cuffs and collars differ from each regiment to the next, the ones i have chosen are only meant as representative.
Quick OB for each of the two armies per 1810 would be:
Danish:
One Royal Footguards Battalion
14 Infantry Regiments
4 Heavy Cavalry Regiments
4 Light Dragoon Regiments
1 Horseguards Squadron
1 Hussar Regiment
5 Light Infantry "Corps" (small battalions, Jaegers and Sharpshooters)
14 Foot Artillery Batteries (various calibers)
2 Mounted Artillery Batteries
(+ militia and volunteer units)
Norwegian:
9 Infantry Regiments
1 Sharpshooter Regiment
1 Jaeger "Corps"
2 Sharpshooter Battalions
2 Ski battalions
1 Dragoon Regiment
1 Dragoon "Corps"
1 Mounted Jaeger "Corps"
8 Foot Artillery Batteries (various calibers)
1 Mounted Artillery Battery
(+ militia and volunteer units)
On to the plates....on all privates are shown to the left, officers to the right...infantry first:
The Royal Lifeguards
The danish army had a single battalion of footguards, having distinctive uniforms and bearskins:
Grenadiers
Each danish infantry regiment had a grenadier company in the first of its two battalions, the second usually had a jaeger company. Each battalion had five companies in total. The norwegian regiments had a grenadier company in both of its battalions, but as a result of the army reforms all grenadiers were disbanded and replaced with the same number of jaeger companies. It is also doubtfull wether the norwegian grenadiers ever got their regulation bearskins, most likely they still had the earlier "Potemkin style" caps instead:
Regimental Jaegers
As mentioned above each danish regiment had one such company in its second battalion while the norwegian ones had one in each of their two battalions, after army reforms that disbanded the grenadiers. Main difference from the ordinary musketeers is their use of shorter rifles with sword bayonets, also all leather equipment is black while cords and plumes are green:
Musketers
Danish Army
Lapelcolours: yellow, light blue, dark blue, black, green and white. In therms of a single colour light blue was most common:
To bring a little variety, among the 14 regiments there were two Liferegiments with yellow lapels, the Danish and the Norwegian Liferegiments of Foot, to some extent these could be considered the premier foot regiments, ranking just behind the royal guard:
Norwegian Army
Lapelcolours: Dark blue, green, black and yellow.
In theory they should be identical in look to the danish ones, almost half had dark blue as lapel colours (with variations on buttons and edging) which makes it a good representative colour for the regiments of this army:
A note on infantry trousers, in both armies white trousers were supposed to be used in summer and dark blue trousers in winter. In 1810 the blue ones were dropped and replaced with grey instead as it was a cheaper colour, although this replacement would occure only after all blue trousers on hand had been worn out. In the norwegian army almost all trousers seem to have been white and grey were only to be introduced when these were worn out, however stocks of white trousers must have been big and as late as 1814 only one regiment seem to have received grey trousers.
However in the field it was, as in most contemporary armies, common to use cheaper cloth overall trousers to lessen the wear and tear of the uniforms trousers. These were mostly various tones of white and would look like this:
Now this should wrap up the infantry plates, i`ll be back a little later with the cavalry plates.