The Bavarian Army during the Napoleonic Wars

[Ted]

Christian Wilhelm von Faber du Faur - Copyright Bayerische Armeemuseum, Ingolstadt. Do NOT spread anywhere else!

Introduction

I've noticed that most stuff that can be found easily on the internet regarding the Bavarian Army during the Napoleonic Wars is either incorrect, missing important facts or too simple to be considered as source. After all, the information available on the internet is pitiful! Therefore I've decided to start writing up information here. Eventually I'm going to try and set up a website that includes as much information about this topic as possible. Let me point out that I'm not going to post EVERY source I have here. I'm going to link booksources and important pages of historical societies and facilities in Bavaria as well as in the whole world, but I'm not even going to try to give every source here as I simply have too many. Some of my knowledge comes from talking to historicians at the Bavarian Army Museum as well as from personal research in archives etc.  If you have any questions feel free to ask them here and I'm going to try and answer them as good as I can.

Structure of the Bavarian Armed Forces

The Structure of the Bavarian army changed over the course of war. I'm going to post Rosters from 1805, 1809, 1812 and 1814 to show the vast changes that were made. However, have some patience as it is going to take me some time to finish the lists.


Lineinfantry

By 1811, Bavarian Lineinfantry Regiments were organised in two two bataillons and one reserve bataillon each. Each fieldbataillon had six companies (4 Fusiliercompanies, 1 Grenadiercompany, 1 Schützencompany), while the reserve bataillon had only 4 Fusiliercompanies.  One Regiment therefore had a target strength of 2435 Men.

Ranks and Numbers

Oberst (Commandant)     Oberstlieutenant     Major     Adjutant     Junker     Regiments-Quartiermeister     Bataillons-Quartiermeister     Regiments-/Bataillonsauditor     Regimentschirurg     Bataillonschirurg     Chirurgischer Praktikant     Musikmeister und Hautboisten     Regimentstambour     Bataillonstambour     Profos     Büchsenmacher     Capitän 1. Klasse     Capitän 2. Klasse     Oberlieutenant     Unterlieutenant     Feldwebel     Furier     Sergent     Corporal     Hornist     Tambour     Gefreiter     Gemeiner All in all:

1 1 2 3 3 1 - 1 1 3 3 13 1 - 1 1 6 10 16 16 16 16 32 64 4 28 144 2048 _____________ 2435

Note that 16 Gefreite were sappeurs.

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In 1812, Bavaria had 13 Regiments of regular lineinfantry. The numbers in front of the Regiment's name are the numbers showing it on the uniformplate.


5a    Reg. No. 1 König
5b    Reg. No. 2 Kronprinz
5c    Reg. No. 3 Prinz Carl
5d    Reg. No. 4 Sachsen-Hildburghausen
5e    Reg. No. 5 Preysing
5f    Reg. No. 6 Herzog Wilhelm
5g    Reg. No. 7 Löwenstein-Wertheim
5h    Reg. No. 8 Herzog Pius
5i     Reg. No. 9 Isenburg
5j     Reg. No. 10 Junker
5k    Reg. No. 11 Kinkel
5l     Reg. No. 13




Uniforms

Lineinfantry

Spoiler

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[The Mighty McLovin]

interesting. So like http://www.napoleonguide.com/ but for Bavaria?

[Wolff]

Very nice work, ted. Thank you!
So the main thing to differ Füsiliere, Grenadiere and Schützen of one regiment is the plume at the Raupenhelm? No plume for füsiliere, red ones for the greandiere and green for schützen? Did the Schützenkompanies had some diffrent weaponary like a few men with rifles or were they equipted like the other companies?

[Ted]

Very nice work, ted. Thank you!
So the main thing to differ Füsiliere, Grenadiere and Schützen of one regiment is the plume at the Raupenhelm? No plume for füsiliere, red ones for the greandiere and green for schützen? Did the Schützenkompanies had some diffrent weaponary like a few men with rifles or were they equipted like the other companies?

Exactly. About the rifles: Yes, soem Bavarian Schützen used rifles. However, I do not know if they had been officially issued to all companies - I'm going to look that up

interesting. So like http://www.napoleonguide.com/ but for Bavaria?

You better decide that yourself I've started working on the website:  http://napoleonicbavaria.jimdo.com/

[Duuring]

Nice site Ted, looks very promising. You might wanna consider translating it into German at some stage, as not all Germans speak very good English or expect a site like this to be in German. Another tip I have is that you should add your sources, especially if they are secondary - It improves the creditability of the site, and authors deserve to be credited for the work they do.

[Riddlez]

Nice site Ted, looks very promising. You might wanna consider translating it into German at some stage, as not all Germans speak very good English or expect a site like this to be in German. Another tip I have is that you should add your sources, especially if they are secondary - It improves the creditability of the site, and authors deserve to be credited for the work they do.

Someone got a course in 'writing a scientific paper'.

[Duuring]

More like three.

[joer5835]

It's lesson number 1 in doing any sort of research, tbh.

That said, you have done some really good work, Ted!

[Seegert]

Being a Bavarian by birth and growing up as a American I was always fascinated by history and really anything about Bavaria or other German States which makes me very interested in seeing how this will progress and I would like to help out in anyway.

[Seegert]

Also it would be cool to have a Bavarian Quotes page because I have not seen or found any quotes by Bavarian during the Napoleonic wars or any other wars which is quite strange and curious. But yeah good luck on this site and your other one.

[Wolff]

Ted, put the page back up!

[Malkolm R. Lind]

I'm quite curious to know the reason why the "hautoboisten" is a higher rank than the other musicians. Are you considered to be of higher importance when you play a specific instrument? Hautbois means oboe in French. That's what raised my eyebrow.

[Ted]

Ted, put the page back up!

Thank you for the interest! Well, I would like to, but the problem is that I received a message asking to add a legal notice with my address to the site (which I actually am legally obliged to provide), making both my identity and, well, my address public to everyone including this community. I don't really have an intention of doing that though...  I might expand this thread, but I'm rather busy atm, so ewww....

I'm quite curious to know the reason why the "hautoboisten" is a higher rank than the other musicians. Are you considered to be of higher importance when you play a specific instrument? Hautbois means oboe in French. That's what raised my eyebrow.

That's an interesting question!
The rank "Hautboist" dates back to the 17th century when oboes were considered a main instrument of the military orchestra - one of the oboe-players used to lead the orchestra when practicing and set the tone, similiar to the civilian position of the first violin. However, in the late 18th and 19th century armymusicians in general used to be called "Hoboist" or "Hautboist" until the First World War in Germany. The purpose of the name was to distinguish between actual musicians and the usual tambours giving drum- or hornsignals:
The Hautboists made up the actual band, led by a Kapell- or Musikmeister.
The "Signalisten" on the other hand - drummers, trumpeters, hornists (fifers had been abolished before the Napoleonic Wars) - were not considered to be equal to Hautboists as their main purpose was rather simple signalling, while the Hautboists played the actual music. That's why Hautboists were higher in rank and pay.

[Malkolm R. Lind]

That's an interesting question!
The rank "Hautboist" dates back to the 17th century when oboes were considered a main instrument of the military orchestra - one of the oboe-players used to lead the orchestra when practicing and set the tone, similiar to the civilian position of the first violin. However, in the late 18th and 19th century armymusicians in general used to be called "Hoboist" or "Hautboist" until the First World War in Germany. The purpose of the name was to distinguish between actual musicians and the usual tambours giving drum- or hornsignals:
The Hautboists made up the actual band, led by a Kapell- or Musikmeister.
The "Signalisten" on the other hand - drummers, trumpeters, hornists (fifers had been abolished before the Napoleonic Wars) - were not considered to be equal to Hautboists as their main purpose was rather simple signalling, while the Hautboists played the actual music. That's why Hautboists were higher in rank and pay.

Oooh, how interesting! I had no idea. Thanks for the explanation.