east-prussian national cavalry regiment (Ostpreußisches National Kavallerieregiment)
The East-Prussia National Cavalry Regiment (EPNCR)
was one of the first new cavalry units raised by the Prussian government
after the Russian campaign, the others being the Silesian National
Cavalry and the Pomeranian National Cavalry Regiments (a fourth one, the Elb-National-Hussaren-Regiment
was raised in November 1813).
The EPCNR
was formed at Königsberg and consisted of volunteers from all social classes, with a majority of well educated young men.
These volunteers were not
granted the privileges of the voluntary (Freiwilliger) riflemen of other Prussian units, leading to some
irritation among them. Each of the four squadrons had one elite company
(the status was not due to military excellence and only but to the
abilility of these men to equip themselves at their own expenses).
During the August armistice, a Freiwilliger Jaeger detachment was raised
from these elite companies.
The men of the EPNCR were highly motivated, but poorly trained so they were not very successful at the beginning of their
military existence.
After the August armistice, they were brigaded along the
Brandenburg Uhlans Regiment,
under the Oberst von Katzeler, in the Jurgass's Cavalry Reserve of the Yorck's I Prussian Army Corps
of the Army of Silesia. They fought under Bluecher at the
Katzbach, contributing to the rout of the
French cavalry.
UNIFORMS
Whereas the rest of the national cavalry regiments were uniformed in a style closely related to that of
the regular cavalry, i.e. Pommerania NCR like uhlans and Elba and Silesia NCR's like hussars,
the EPNCR wore an uniform, described by Knotel as "an oddity", consisting
in a blue litewka (long coat) braided like a hussar jacket.
The description of the uniform is as follows: A
dark-blue
Litewka fitted with yellow hussar-style braiding across the breast and around the edges. The shoulder
straps were white and the collar and pointed Polish cuffs were Ponceau red, the latter being trimmed
with yellow lace. Yellow metal buttons. Around the waist was worn a Hussar style girdle coloured
red and yellow.
The overalls were dark blue with double
yellow braiding down the outside seams,
divided by a line of red. The head-dress was a
leather-reinforced
kiwer shako with a yellow metal plate,
brass chin scales and yellow woolen cords and cap lines. Black leather belts with brass fittings.
The shabraque was made of black sheepskin, edged with scarlet "wolf's teeth".
The Elite wore the same uniform but
the head-dress was a black French-style kolpak with a red bag and in place of the shoulder
straps, they had yellow metal-trimmed epaulettes.
The regiment was armed with sword and lance and
the four squadrons each had a distinctive pennant eith the upper half of the pennant was always
coloured white, and the lower half as follows: white (1st sq.),
red (2nd sq.),
blue (3rd. sq.) and
green (4th sq.).
While making the uniform research, appeared some oddities about the EPNCR:
(1) a lack of agreemente about the headwear of the elites (a kolpack or
a kiwer shako), (2) the blue
cuffs of the Litewkas of the recruits after September 1813 and (3) the
blue Litewka with green shoulder straps wore by the
Freiwilliger Jaegers detachment, instead a green coat (as usual in the
rest of the Prussian units).
These useful informations were found through the friends of the
Napoleon-Series forum,
Karl Weiss, Thomas Hemman and
Steven Smith. Karl closed the issue about the Freiwilliger
detachment, whereas Steven draw my attention to this very informative
thread of the N-S
forum. Finally, Thomas kindly provided me with a reprint of his paper "Das Preußische
National-Kavallerie-Regiment 1813-1814" published in the "Zeitschrift für Heereskunde" Journal
(See bibliography).
A visit to the Peter Schuchhardt's
Compagnie d'Elite web site,
allowed me to complete the information about the EPNCR, by means of the
acquisition of one of his amazing uniform plates.
MINIATURES
As in the case of the Brandenburg Uhlans, there are not 1/72 HO scale plastic figures for the EPNCR.
The main feature of the uniform is the hussar-style braided litewka, so hussar figures
without the flying pelisse, are a good initial option. The mandatory visit to the
Plastic Soldier Review page,
led to me to the
Italeri
6008 French Hussars, with have some figures wearing the pelisse.
The above pictures show the chosen figures as well as the neccesary surgery: the elimination of sword or
carbine and a good haircut! The sabre of one of the shouldered-sabre figures was also eliminated, to build
a figure carrying the lance on the right stirrup and secured to the right arm of the rider, while another
was left 'as it is' to make for the lanceless Freiwilliger detachment. The trumpet and the figure with the
wavering sabre (commanding officer) were also used without modifications. The
tails of the litewka were modeled with plasticine, that was also used
for the shako cover, the kolpack of the elites and the horse bags, as
depcited below.
Links of interest:
Uniform Evolution web site. The Prussian Army
Das Preußische National-Kavallerie-Regiment 1813 – 1814 Thomas Hemmann. Zeitschrift für Heereskunde« Ausgabe 447, 2013
Compagnie d'Elite web site Peter Schuchhardt
Project Leipzig
FIGURES
