Armies of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and Mecklenburg-Schwerin

Does anyone knows how were the armies of those Duchies organized and uniformed during this century?

Originally Posted by D.Sebastian

Does anyone knows how were the armies of those Duchies organized and uniformed during this century?

Afraid Knotel merely says:

Mecklenburg-Schwerin
"The earliest uniforms were very varied in colour, but upto 1705 predominently gray uniforms were worn. In 1715 cravats replaced the neckcloths. In general, the uniforms followed that of the Prussian Army; figure a depicts a musketeer of 1749. The man has a dark blue coat, with red cravat, lapels, cuffs, skirt linings, and hat plume. Hat lace, buttons & undergarments are yellow. Figure b shows a similarly coloured uniform, except that the hat lace, buttons and undergarments are white and the gaiters black. Figure c has red distinctions and white buttons & undergarments."

Unfortunately Knotel doesn't include a colour plate .

Knotel is silent on Strelitz till Napoleonic times.

Napoleonic organisation for both is at post 34 of the thread on Minor States/Nations Regimental Names at http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=436889

Do you think that both duchies didn't have cavalry during the XVIII C.? I followed you link, and knotell also doesn't mention any cavalary existing before the 1800, does he?

Honestly - I don't know. Certainly the the Lieb-Garde would have been mounted. Knotel's Uniformkunde Handbuch doesn't mention cavalry, but I don't have a complete set of Richard Knotel's text for Mitteilungen zur Geschichte der militarische tracht to see if this has more information.

I have been trying, so far without any luck, to find a breakdown of the Lower Saxon Kreis Regiments (i.e. who contributed manpower to the individual regiments not just a regimental listing) - mix of horse & foot. Mecklenburg was part of this Imperial Circle, and in theory would have had to supply troops when required.

Prince, what are the colours of the cavalry uniforms on this Knotel picture you posted? It might help...

EDIT: I found this amazing article containing information about the armies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Now the only thing missing is some information about Strelitz...

link

Originally Posted by D.Sebastian

Prince, what are the colours of the cavalry uniforms on this Knotel picture you posted? It might help...

EDIT: I found this amazing article containing information about the armies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. Now the only thing missing is some information about Strelitz...

link

Agree excllent article - amazing what can be found on the internet + Rep when I am next able to award you one!

Knotel's "Uniforms of the World" doesn't have a description of the uniform; and neither does Nafziger in his "The Armies of Germany & the Confederation of the Rhine 1792-1815 Volume 1".

Iutland in his LME mod for NTW has the attached model

Also attached as requested is the Knotel plate of the cavalryman

Edit - how could I forget Histofig website!!!!

Thanks Prince! Do you happen to know the uniform of the Strelitz' "Garde-Grenadier Kompagnie" and "Distrikthusaren" of the early napoleonic wars?

Originally Posted by D.Sebastian

Thanks Prince! Do you happen to know the uniform of the Strelitz' "Garde-Grenadier Kompanie" and "Distrikthusaren" of the early napoleonic wars?

Neither Knotel, Nafziger or Histofig have unform details. The best I can do for now is attach the 1900 uniform by Knotel for the Distrikthusaren (Landgendarmerie). May be the earlier formation wore something similar but with a different shako/mirliton?

Edit: Carolinum - historisch-literarische zeitschrift (historical literary magazine) (42) 41. Vintage winter 1977 / 1978 No. 078
has the following article (so now we have a proper year for its formation) but unfortunately not able to access the periodical:

• The Mecklenburg Strelitzsche national gendarmerie, their history, founded in 1798 and their further development - A contribution to its culture and status history
  Archivist Dr. Paul Steinmann, Schwerin

Link to 1842 uniform for both Strelitz & Schwerin http://www.kukri.de/mecklen-gendarm1.html (2nd plate below)
Edit2: The picture at http://www.kukri.de/mecklenburg-strelutz1835.html purports to be the 1835 uniform for Strelitz, but I suspect it has been wrongly attributed as there is a picture of a Schwerin gendarme wearing almost exactly the same uniform in the 1840s at http://www.kukri.de/mecklen-gendarm2.html

Yeah, it's possibly that the early husaren uniform had indeed those colours...
By the way, do you know the uniform of the Strelitz "Infanterie-Bataillon" of 1808?

Originally Posted by D.Sebastian

Yeah, it's possibly that the early husaren uniform had indeed those colours...
By the way, do you know the uniform of the Strelitz "Infanterie-Bataillon" of 1808?

Here are plates with the various Schwerin & Strelitz uniforms for the Napoleonic Wars (I have not included the earlier Histofig plate). The Strelitz infantry is in the 1st of the Histofig plates.

Adapted from Robert Hall "Mecklenburg's Military from 1650 to 1719".

Mecklenburg-Strelitz had a small military contingent which lasted all of the 18th century.

On 23 March 1701 a Liebkompanie garde zu Fuss (Life Company of Footguards) of about 100 men was created. This rose to 115 officers & men by the end of August.

In 1703 the Life Company was reinforced with 6 others forming the "Regiment Strelitz". As part of a contract with Brunswick-Luneburg-Celle it took part in the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1705 the Lifeguard company returned to Strelitz, while the remainder of the Regiment remained in the, now Hanoverian, army until 1803.

Due to a lack of funds the Lifeguards were reduced to 12 men on 19 May 1710.

The Lifeguard wore red uniforms, white breeches and gaiters. Lapels, cuffs & linings were lemon yellow with gold lace. The other 6 companies wore light grey uniforms (but no other details available).