Saxe-Gotha Horse Grenadiers

Sachsen-Gotha Horse Grenadiers in Austrian service. Minden Miniatures.

 Click all pictures to enlarge

I recently completed the painting of some new Minden Miniatures Austrian Horse Grenadiers. The 12-figure unit represents the DR8 Saxe-Gotha dragoon regiment. There was one company of horse grenadiers (half a squadron) in each dragoon regiment. These were typically converged with other horse grenadier and carabinier companies to form an elite cavalry regiment.

Sachsen-Gotha horse grenadiers

The flag was downloaded from the "Royal Fig" website and then painted over so that it looks like a hand-painted flag. You can find the link to Royal Fig in the links column on the left hand side of this page. It is a very good site for uniform information on French, Austrian, Dutch and Spanish regiments during the mid-18th Century wars.

Sachsen-Gotha Horse Grenadiers

The Saxe-Gotha dragoon regiment (DR8) was raised on January 29, 1718 by Margrave Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg Anspach at his own expense, according to Stephen Summerfeld's book Austrian SYW Cavalry and Artillery (2011, Ken Trotman Ltd). On February 6, 1760 it was converted into a Chevauleger unit. The figures shown in the pictures are the new Minden Austrian Horse Grenadier figures, recently issued within the past month.

Each horse grenadier company was comprised of:

1 x Rittmeister (Captain)

1 x Oberlieutenant (1st Lieutenant)

1 x Fahnrich (standard bearer until 1760, renamed Unterlieutenant)

1 x Feldwebel (company sergeant major)

1 x Fourier (quartermaster-corporal)

4 x Corporal

88 x Grenadiers

1 x Farrier

1 x Saddler

1 x Trumpeter

In 1760 the company standard was removed and stored in the regimental depot. As a result, the Fahnrich no longer carried a standard, but he was still an officer rank of Unterlieutenant.

There is a gentleman on TMP who vociferously insists that there should be no standard bearer in a horse grenadier company, but my sources of Dr. Summerfeld and Pengel & Hurt indicate that the Fahnrich did carry the standard until 1760. I prefer to go with my known sources rather than the unnamed sources (not even cited) by the other gentleman. In any event, if you want to use the standard bearer, then fine; if you don't want to use a standard bearer, then that's fine too.

I'm going to go a little bit Frank Hammond here and say, "I don't care #!*%$!!" LOL.

I really like the way that this unit turned out. I went to a three-color method for the red and like the way that the final red highlight really pops on places like the shoulders and elbows.