If you wish to decide on
the most practical way of dressing the soldiers, you ought to banish from your mind the
vision of how they look
drawn up on parade on some splendid square, and instead imagine how they must appear when
they are marching across fields, climbing hills, crashing through woods, fording rivers
and digging in the ground, in all probability at a time when they are crushed by
exhaustion, and exposed to rain, wind or appalling cold. (Breze,
1779, 124)
Like the civilians, the ordinary musketeers wore tricorn hats of felt, which were 'invariably shapeless after two nights in the open air, and totally ruined by the end of the first campaign' (Silva, 1778). The elite grenadiers sported characteristic caps or bonnets, with fronts of metal, bearskin or embroidered cloth. The men were proud of this headgear, which made them look tall and fierce, and they preferred it to the tricorns which they were usually given for everyday wear. They were more than willing to put up with the weight, the lack of protection against the elements, and the inconvenience of having the caps knocked off by low branches. So these might be expected to be in better shape, not being worn day to day.
The undergarment of the eighteenth-century soldier was a shirt of coarse linen. The tails were long enough to be tucked under the seat (underpants were not invented until much later), and the sleeves were loosely fitting in the Douglas Fairbanks style. The shirt was bound at the top with a stock (neck cloth), which in some regiments was a virtual instrument of torture, forcing the soldier to hold his head upright.
On top of the shirt lay a waistcoat, which was frequently a substantial garment with sleeves. The coat itself did not differ greatly from the original in civilian life, and the cut followed the changes in fashion as the century wore on, tending more and more towards a swallow-tailed effect. The Prussian coat was a distinctively tight sleeved and skimpy affair, and the hem came down only as far as the tip of a middle finger of a hand held at full stretch down the body. The Hungarian and Croatian troops of the Habsburgs were proud of their long tight pants, but almost all of the other infantrymen of Europe wore breeches, which were cut generously around the seat, and fastened below the knee. Black or white cloth gaiters protected the legs as far down as the shoes, which were high-heeled and broad-toed.
The reformers and the critics did not do complete justice to the commodity of the clothing here described, or the useful ways it could be adapted. In most armies the hats were left aside in camp and on fatigues, and the soldiers went about in comfortable woollen forage caps, which were usually cut up from old uniforms. The Prussian coat was certainly narrow and short, but it was not usually constricting:
This item of clothing is made for agility, and compared with coats of more generous cut it absorbs less moisture and dries more quickly. We should bear in mind that dampness is the only thing which is truly dangerous to the health of the soldier, whose constitution should otherwise be inured to campaigning. (Mirabeau and Mauvillon, 1788)
In popular imagery the English infantrymen fought through the North American summers in bewigged and scarlet splendour. In practice, however, the hair was frequently cropped short, the stock was loosened or discarded, and the brims of the hats were cut off close to the crown. It was also an English habit to shorten the coats to jackets, and the colour, which in any case was a dull brownish red, was at least as serviceable as anything worn by the American Continentals and the French regiments of the line.
A Boston Newspaper reported in 1758:
You would laugh to see the droll figures we all cut; Regulars and Provincials are all ordered to cut off the brims their hats off….. The Regularsas well as the Provincials have left off their proper regimentals, that is, they have cut off the coats so as to scarecly reach to their waist: you should not distinguish us from common ploughmen (Harman)
In the middle of the century the cut of the coat was still ample enough in most armies to permit the lapels and turnbacks to be undone and fastened across the front in cold weather, and the cuffs to be lowered over the fingers. The Russians enjoyed the additional protection of their cloaks, which when not required were rolled up and worn in traditional style like a bandolier. In summertime both the Russian and Polish soldiers did without the coat altogether, and on occasion some of the Austrians did the same.
The gaiters were said to give better protection against cold, wet and mosquitoes than did the half boots which came into fashion in the later part of the century (Mirabeau and Mauvillon, 1788), and the Prussian gaiters were softer and more comfortable than is generally believed: 'We should not bother if they do not lie smoothly, for gaiters are not intended for display but for the convenience of the soldiers' (Frederick, quoted in Kling, 1902-12).
Your author can confirm the surprising utility of gaiters, having worn them, as part of his Redcoat uniform, for several days filming in Scotland a few years ago, during extremely inclement weather.
As in all periods, some of the worst damage to health was caused by damp penetrating through outer coverings to the legs and feet. The woollen stockings of the German armies became soggy and dangerous, but when the Prussians were on campaign they cut off the bottoms and followed the Russian custom of wrapping the feet in strips of cloth impregnated in tallow. Marshal Saxe writes that a similar practice was to be found among the French veterans, who knew from experience that grease gave the best protection against damp and chafing (Saxe, 1732).
When the
soldier was fully equipped for the field, he was festooned with the great variety of
objects which enabled him to live and fight. Most of his needs of a domestic kind were
carried in his knapsack, which was a bag of canvas or untanned calfskin or goat-skin,
suspended by a leather strap running slantwise over the right shoulder. The contents of
the knapsack were a kind of military trousseau, and comprised spare shoes and clothing,
brushes, hair powder and cleaning materials. Bread, flour or biscuit were stuffed into a
canvas bag called the haversack, which was usually slung below the knapsack. A further
strap supported a water bottle of tin, wood or leather. All of this weight pressing behind
the left hip might be augmented by an axe or tent pegs (as in the Prussian infantry), and
if the soldier was unlucky he would also be called upon to take his turn in carrying tent
poles, kettles or other heavy items of communal property.
Hanging behind the right hip was the cartridge pouch, which was borne on a broad white leather strap which passed over the left shoulder. The pouch was a box of thick leather, and the open top was protected by a long hanging flap which was adorned with a metal medallion bearing the regimental coat of arms. By lifting the flap you gained access to the cartridges - little paper cylinders each containing a charge of powder and a leaden musket ball. The cartridges stood on end in holes drilled in the block of wood which lined the bottom of the pouch, and depending on the army and the period there was provision for anything from eighteen to sixty rounds. The cartridge pouch gave adequate protection against rain, but it was liable to let in water when the soldier was fording a stream, and it had to be held high or tightly shut when there was a danger of ignition. The Prussians took this precaution when they hurried through the smouldering ruins of Custrin in 1758, and the Hessian regiment of Lossberg did the same when it marched across a field of burning grass at White Plains on 28 October 1776.
The infantryman's sword was a short and slightly curved 'hanger', which was carried in a scabbard attached to a belt running around the soldier's waist, or (later in the century) a substantial strap passing over the right shoulder:
'Tis soldier-like and graceful for the men to have swords, especially in garrison, but too many inconveniences attend them. They are the loss of many men by their drunken quarrels, they are a hindrance to them in their exercises, and a great one in marching, a man having full enough to carry besides them. As to night parties, they make almost as much noise as the old bandoleers by rattling with the bayonet, and when are they ever used in the field or in action? (Hawley, 1726)
The hangers were sometimes put in store before a regiment went on campaign, which saved the trouble of recalling the weapons before a particular action, and obviated the danger of the soldiers selling their swords or simply throwing them away (d'Hericourt, 1748).
The blade of the grenadier sabre was about 3 feet long, which made it a more genuinely formidable weapon. It was known to have been used in combat, unlike the hanger of the musketeers, and it had a powerful symbolic importance.
A sword or sabre might flatter a man's pride, but he was convinced that his survival in combat depended on his musket more than anything else. Some details of the musket's construction and use will be reviewed in due course, and it is enough for the moment to note that it was a weapon about 5 feet long (excluding the bayonet). It was the custom in many regiments to keep the barrel polished to a mirror-like perfection, and to loosen the screws in order to produce an impressive clatter when the weapon was slammed about, all of which might unfit the musket for real action.
The bayonet was a detachable knife, which was fitted to the muzzle of the musket by a slotted iron sleeve. The form of the blade was various, but it was most typically a slim needle-like object of triangular section.
Wargames isn't about modelling the parade-ground, but the battlefield... So come on you guys, let's see your figures looking like real soldiers, not parade-ground powder-puffs !
Dave Millward Sept. 1998
Military Experience in the Age of Reason by C. Duffy is published by Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Return to Wargames Forum
Previous Random Shots Return to the Library