Guard du Corps (Saxony)
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Guard du Corps |
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.jpeg&filetimestamp=20150705090915&) Officer and Trumpeter (1810) |
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| active | 1620 to 1813 |
| Country |
 Kingdom of Saxony
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| Armed forces |
Saxon Army
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| Branch of service | Heavy cavalry |
| Type | Guard regiment |
| Location | Dresden |
| commander | |
| commander | Major General Hans Julius August von Mangold (1812) |
The Saxon Garde du Corps was a guard regiment of the Saxon army . The association of the heavy cavalry was set up in 1620, and served only at the Dresden court, but also in numerous battles. In the Napoleonic Russian campaign of 1812 it went down and was not erected afterwards.
Formation history
The regiment was set up in 1620 as " Hoffahne " and in 1631 it was renamed " Leib Compagnie Einspännige" (= rider). In 1632 she fought in the Battle of Lützen . In 1635 it was divided into a 1st and 2nd Leibcompanie and in 1644 it was merged into the "Leib-Eskadron Einspännige".
With imperial approval, a " Leib Compagnie Croaten zu Ross " was recruited in Croatia and mustered on March 15, 1660 in Pirna . It counted 87 men with as many horses, "namely 8 men 1st sheet , 37 servants, 17 Croatian noblemen , 25 single horses ". On October 1, 1660, the unit was reinforced by 50 men and "their 1st sheet increased". In particular with regard to the Croats, the elector codified service, discipline and military justice in the so-called “equestrian law” in the same year to remedy the deficient discipline of his cavalry . The Croatians received their wages from the elector's private box. When Johann Georg II, escorted by his Croatian guard, entered the Reichstag in Regensburg in 1664, it caused a considerable stir. In 1666 the company comprised 132 men, in 1676 still 75. It was finally replaced by the subsequent Elector Johann Georg III for cost reasons . Disbanded in 1680.
The remaining companies carried the designation "German Life Guard on Horseback" from 1671 and "Guard Trabanten on Ross" from 1682. In 1683 she took part in the relief of Vienna . In 1704 they were divided into four corps: 1. Trabants , 2. Carabiniers , 3. Grenadiers on horseback and 4. Dragoons . Since 1710 it has been called the Garde du Corps and was stationed in Dresden and the surrounding area. At the time of August the Strong it had twice the nominal strength of a Saxon cavalry regiment at that time and numbered 883 men, but was reduced again under his successors. After the forced incorporation of the Saxon army by Prussia in 1756 , remnants of the regiment gathered in Hungary and were initially used as grenadiers on French pay , from which a regiment of grenadiers on horseback was made in 1761. After the sovereignty of Saxony was regained in the Treaty of Hubertusburg , only a squadron with selected men retained the guard status, the rest went to the cuirassier regiments as carbines. In 1770 these squadrons were reunited with the Garde du Corps.
As a result of Saxony's accession to the Rhine Confederation and the associated elevation of Saxony to a kingdom in 1806, organizational orientation was now based on Napoleon's grand army . The Garde du Corps formed the Thielmann Brigade in the 7th Heavy Cavalry Division of the IV Cavalry Corps under Division General de Latour-Maubourg in 1812 with the Zastrow cuirassiers and the 14th Polish cuirassiers . Staff and 2nd squadron were in Dresden, the 1st squadron in Pirna, the 3rd squadron in Radeberg and the 4th squadron in Dippoldiswalde . The head of the regiment was General von Zezschwitz, and the commanding officer was Major General von Mangold. In the Russian campaign of the same year, which was also devastating for Saxony, she particularly distinguished herself when she was the first to penetrate the Russian main hill in the Battle of the Moskva and thus contributed significantly to Napoleon's victory. It was largely wiped out during the retreat and was not set up again during the reorganization of the Saxon army in 1813.
Appearance
Under August the Strong, the regiment wore a red uniform skirt with light blue badges on the collar, lapels and lapels , yellow metal buttons, a leather waistcoat and trousers. When it was re-established in 1765, a uniform based on the model of the Prussian cuirassiers (but without a cuirass) with a pale yellow pan with blue markings was adopted. The trumpeters and the officers' interim and gala uniforms kept the basic red color. Saddle pads were blue. In 1810 a brass caterpillar helmet replaced the hat for field and parade uniforms.
The uniform of the Croatian company followed the model of the Croatian military border , the commander Peranski wore a leopard skin to the parade . As a standard she wore a guidon made of red taffeta with pointed ends and crimson-silk fringes. Dar Avers showed the coat of arms of Electoral Saxony, the lapel the electoral monogram with the electoral hat . The flagpole, painted red and gold, had a triangular gold-plated tip with two crimson silk tassels.
Color plates by Richard Knötel :
as life guard on horseback: officer and rider (1699)
two horsemen, sergeant and officer (1785)
Officers in various types of suits and a rider (1802)
Officer and Trumpeter (1810)
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Famous family members
- Carl Adolf von Carlowitz had his first assignment as an officer in the regiment in 1791, entered Prussian service in 1815, where he became lieutenant general and governor of Breslau .
- Jan Henryk Dąbrowski , left the Garde du Corps as Rittmeister in 1792 to join the freedom struggle in his Polish homeland and achieved lasting fame with the title of the national anthem Mazurek Dąbrowskiego .
- Johann Friedrich Vitzthum von Eckstädt joined the regiment in 1729 and later became its colonel, lieutenant general and governor of Leipzig.
- Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand von Funck began his career in 1780 with the Garde du Corps and, as lieutenant general, became the adjutant general of the Saxon King Friedrich August I.
- Georg Wilhelm von der Goltz was a captain in the regiment, entered Polish service in 1748 and later became general and envoy in Berlin.
- Alexius du Hamel came to the Saxon army from imperial service in 1748, became a major in the regiment in 1749 and rose to the position of general of the cavalry.
- Gustav von Münster-Meinhövel joined the regiment as a lieutenant in 1803, changed to Prussian services in 1805 and became major general there.
- Janko Peranski was the commander of the regiment's Croatian company.
- Hermann von Pückler-Muskau , namesake of Fürst-Pückler-Ice , served in the regiment from 1802 to 1806.
- Johann Schadowitz , initially an officer in the Croatian company, later became the commander of the guard cavalry and the historical template for the Sorbian legend of the magician Krabat .
- Georg Ludwig von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf was a cavalry captain in the regiment, entered Prussian service in 1741, where he became lieutenant general and later Russian field marshal .
Memorial plaque for Johann Schadowitz in the church of Wittichenau
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literature
- Richard Knötel , Herbert Knötel, Herbert Sieg: Colored Manual of Uniform Studies. Vol. 1, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-440-81072-0 .
- Reinhold Müller: The Army of August the Strong - The Saxon Army from 1730 to 1733. Berlin 1984.
- Reinhold Müller, Wolfgang Rother: The electoral Saxon army around 1791 . 200 copper engravings. Designed, drawn and colored by Friedrich Johann Christian Reinhold in Dresden between 1791 and 1806. Berlin 1990.
- Philip Haythornthwaite, Michael Chappell: Uniforms of the Napoleonic Russian campaign (original title: Uniforms of the Retreat from Moscow. Translated by Egbart von Kleist). Heyne, Munich 1977, ISBN 3-453-81038-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ O. Schuster, FA Francke: History of the Saxon Army: from its establishment to the most recent times: Using handwritten and documented sources . tape 1 . Duncker & Humblot, 1885, p. 84-87 .
- ^ Wilhelm Schäfer: Saxony Chronicle for the past and present . J. Blochmann, Dresden 1854, p. 171 ( digitized version in the Google book search).
- ^ Richard Albert von Meerheim: Experiences of a veteran of the great army during the campaign in Russia in 1812 . Meinhold, 1860, p. 319 or 321 ( digitized in the Google book search - there “Colonel Sajadowitz”).
- ^ Contemporary representation of Peranski at a parade of Croatian riders in the life guard of the Saxon Elector in 1678: "17. Mr. Johann von Peraynsky, Obrist-Lieutenandt from the Leib-Guardie, Cammerherr and Ambts-Hauptmann zu Moritzburg, in a leopard skin . "Detail of a copperplate engraving by Gabriel Tzschimmer : The most serene gathering or historical narration, what the most serene prince and lord, Mr. Johann Georg der Ander, Duke of Saxony, etc. in the presence of his electoral serenity, most honored gentlemen, brothers of the wives, princes and princesses for strange honors and amusement in the Residenz un Haubt-Vestung Dresden in the month of February of the 1678th year with all kinds of elevators, knights Exercises, shows, shooting, hunting, operas, comedies […] Johann Hoffmann, Nuremberg 1680 (Tzschimmer's best-known work; commissioned by Elector Johann Georg II. On the occasion of his meeting with his brothers, the dukes of the three Albertine secondary school principalities 1678.).