Confederation of Rhine details (flags, uniforms)

Hi I wanted to know more about the Confederation of the Rhine, Im new so sorry for my test posts I posted this before it said "seeking moderator approval" and didnt show up but my test posts did.

I'm looking for details of the Confederation flag, colours, standards and so on, even troop uniforms if possible and was it just a loose coalition and the unifroms of its respective German states?

Apparntly this is floating around the internet as its flag and even wikipedia had it for a while
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Al...on_1806-13.svg

but wikipedia has since changed it to this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_the_Rhine

the normal french flag, with french gold eagle standard. This is the change's source:
http://www.fotw.net/flags/de-rh_hi.html#rhc

Can annyone confirm this and what about that eagle standard? was that generic french or just used for the Rhine. Thanks

Thread approved and all test posts deleted. You should've contacted a moderator who was online and he would've approved your thread, anyways apologies for the delay.

You're a new member now so you should read this because unless you don't have 25 posts you will have some initial problems like:

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Originally Posted by Ishan

Thread approved and all test posts deleted. You should've contacted a moderator who was online and he would've approved your thread, anyways apologies for the delay.

You're a new member now so you should read this because unless you don't have 25 posts you will have some initial problems like:

Thanks for that helpful reply to the issues I was having.

Wow, Prince, thanks!!! so lets take the vanilla French Campaign, how do you think it would be better improved to reflect the Confederation?

Originally Posted by JMX

Wow, Prince, thanks!!! so lets take the vanilla French Campaign, how do you think it could be better improved to reflect the Confederation?

1. The map of the German states would have to be redrawn to reflect the diversity of states (and that is probably not going to happen).
2. Have a dynamic map where national borders change automatically (again unlikely to happen in this version of NTW).
3. As neither 1 nor 2 are likely, allow the current territories to recruit troops from the multiple states that existed historically within their borders e.g. in Baden-Wurttemburg you would be allowed to recruit troops from both Baden & Wurttemburg etc.
4. Also the game needs to give you the option to call for the formation of the Rheinbund.

To answer this fully would require several books; but here is a brief answer (partly adapted from John H Gill “With Eagles to Glory – Napoleon and his German Allies in the 1809 Campaign”:


The Confederation of the Rhine (or Rheinbund) came about because of Napoleonic France’s need to create a buffer between itself and its mainland European enemies. It was also aimed at denying military resources to its enemies.

The first major step towards this occurred in 1805 when Bavaria, Baden & Württemberg signed bilateral agreements to supply troops for the Grande Armee. The comprehensive victory of the Austerlitz campaign opened the way for the greater extension of French hegemony over the minor states of Germany. Work on a union began that winter and culminated in July 1806 with the signature of the “constitutional act” of the Confederation of the Rhine (Rheinbund) by Napoleon and fifteen German rulers (http://www.utc.edu/Faculty/Anthony-S...tionRhine.html). Although the Act had a broad scope, it was in practice a military alliance requiring each member state to provide a contingent of troops in case of war. Contingents varied in size according to the population of the state – see following table for troop contributions:

Original Members:

France: 200,000
Bavaria: 30,000
Württemberg: 12,000
Baden: 8,000
Berg: 7,000
Hesse-Darmstadt: 4,000
State of the Prince Primate: 1,680
Nassau: 1,680
Hohenzollern-Hechingen: 97
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen: 193
Salm-Salm & Salm-Kyrburg: 323 (between them)
Isenburg-Birnstein: 350
Aremberg: 379
Liechtenstein: 40
Hohengeroldseck (Leyen): 29

Joined September 1806:
Würzburg: 2,000

Joined December 1806:
Saxony: 20,000 (Duchy of Warsaw added in 1807)
Saxe-Weimar: 800
Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg: 1,100
Saxe-Meiningen: 300
Saxe-Hildburghausen: 200
Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld: 400

Joined April 1807:
Anhalt-Bernburg: 240
Anhalt-Dessau: 350
Anhalt-Köthen: 210
Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen: 325
Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt: 325
Waldeck: 400
Lippe-Detmold: 500
Schaumburg-Lippe: 150
Reuss: 450
Westphalia: 25,000

Joined February 1808:
Mecklenburg-Strelitz: 400
Mecklenburg-Schwerin: 1,900

Joined October 1808:
Oldenburg: 800

From the above it can be seen that the bigger states, such as Bavaria and Saxony, had their own armies, while smaller duchies and principalities furnished contingents to make up the composite battalions. Following the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon organised from the many smaller states seven "Regiments of the Confederation of the Rhine" (Rheinbund Regiments):

1st Rheinbund (2nd Nassau)
2nd Rheinbund (1st Nassau)
3rd Rheinbund (Wurzburg)
4th Rheinbund (Saxon Duchies)
5th Rhienbund (Anhalt & Lippe)
6th Rheinbund (Reuss, Schwarzburg & Waldeck)
7th Rheinbund (Mecklenburg)

There has also been some confusion over the numbering of the first 3 regiments. I have followed John H Gill "With Eagles to Glory", who used the numbering system established by Napoleon's correspondence & Saski in his history of the 1809 campaign (Commandant Sauzey “Les Allemands sous les Aigles Françaises” has the 1st Regiment as Wurzburg, and the 2 Nassau regiments as the 2nd & 3rd).

Aremberg, Salm-Salm, Salm-Kyrburg, Liechtenstein & Hohengeroldseck paid subsidies to Nassau to supply troops to meet their quotas. The contingents from Isenburg-Birstein, Hohenzollern-Hechingen, & Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen were integrated into the 2nd Rheinbund Regiment.

An 8th Regiment provided by (Frankfurt) was added and some sources suggest a renumbering for 1812.

For uniform information go to the Useful websites thread http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=384319&page=5 which will give you lots of leads. If you have interest in a particular contingent drop me a PM & I will do my best to assist.

K just needed to come back to this because while I appreciate the great help in finding out about troops, I'm mainly wondering about flags and battle flags. I can't seem to find any thing concrete on what the Confed.Rhine used, and did they have any shared battle flags?, thanks.

Originally Posted by JMX

K just needed to come back to this because while I appreciate the great help in finding out about troops, I'm mainly wondering about flags and battle flags. I can't seem to find any thing concrete on what the Confed.Rhine used, and did they have any shared battle flags?, thanks.

Individual contingents/regiments had their own flags. There was no single flag for the troops of the Rheinbund. A good source for the regimental flags is http://www.warflag.com/napflags/html/flags.htm where you can drop down to Baden, Bavaria, Berg, Hesse-Darmstadt, Saxony, Westphalia, Wurttemburg & Smaller German States.

thanks again, lastly what about the main flag, no shared flag then? just the imperial seal of the protectorate?

As there was no unified battle flag I wouldn't bother trying to model one for the Rheinbund....