As of now, my range of mid 18th Century figures includes as many as nineteen French Line Infantry fusilier poses. Some of them are pictured here below, and a few more are in the making...
The general appearance of the French infantryman of the 1740s was regulated by a King’s ordinance of 1736, which replaced the one issued in 1729. The subsequent ordinance of 1747 was issued only a few months before the end of the War of the Austrian Succession, but probably sanctioned changes that had already been informally taking place for some time.
The ordinance of 1736 enforced both uniformity and economy of dress. Almost without exception, the coats of all regiments were to have no lapels, and only a few were to have reversed collars. The coat, waistcoat, and breeches of the national (French) regiments were all to be gray-white in color. Only the cuffs of the coat were to be in the distinctive color of the regiment, the prevailing colors being blue, red, and white. In addition, the color and pattern of the coat’s buttons, and a variety of pocket designs, were to be used as regimental distinctions. However, the many foreign regiments in the French establishment (Swiss, German, Irish, Italian, and Scottish) were allowed more elaborated and colorful uniforms.
I had chosen to sculpt my figures in the cuff and pocket pattern common to the majority of the French national regiments: en-botte cuffs with three buttons, and horizontal pockets with three buttons. The same pattern can also be used for a number of foreign regiments, including all the Irish and Italian regiments, but also many of the German and some of the Swiss.
My French fusiliers are armed with the Charleville M1728 musket (overall length 1.59 m), the standard French infantry weapon in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). It was slightly modified in 1746, and was later replaced by the M1754 musket used in the Seven Years War (1756-1763).
Indeed, painting these figures proved a bit boring, the coats, waistcoats and breeches being all gray-white, excepting the blue coat’s cuffs... I therefore decided to paint a few more of my French fusiliers as belonging to some of the foreign regiments. Eventually, the plan is to have one or more units for at least one each of the Swiss, German, Irish, and Italian regiments.
I decided to start with a Swiss regiment, and my choice fell on Karrer. Raised in 1719 and transferred to the Ministry of the Navy in 1721, Karrer was sent to America in 1722, where its detached companies served in New France, Louisiana, and the West Indies. Until the outbreak of the Seven Years War, Karrer was the only regular regiment of the French establishment in America (the only other regular troops consisting of the many Navy’s independent companies (Compagnies Franches de la Marine) serving there from the late 17th Century). Known as Hallwyl from 1752 after the name of its new colonel-owner, the regiment was disbanded at the end of the Seven Years War in 1763.
As all other Swiss regiments in the French establishment, Karrer wore red coats with blue lining and cuffs, and blue waistcoats and breeches. The coat had a blue reversed collar, and vertical pockets with three pewter buttons. The waistcoat had white buttonhole lace.
All in all, converting my standard French fusiliers into men of Swiss regiment Karrer required just adding a collar to the coat, and replacing the horizontal flaps of the coat‘s pockets with vertical ones. A simple enough job, and even if I planned to put together a few dozens of Swiss mercenaries, I judged it more cost-effective to convert each individual figure instead of converting one for each body pose, make a rubber mold of it, and cast the required number of figures (which I would have certainly done, had the conversion been more complex).
Because the waistcoat’s buttonhole lace is not visible in my figures, who wear their coats buttoned-up, my Swiss fusiliers may as well belong to regiment Wittemer, whose uniform was identical to Karrer’s, excepting for the lack of lace on the waistcoat's buttonholes.
Ranz des Vaches
The imagery of the Swiss mercenary soldier of the 18th Century is inextricably entwined with the Ranz des Vaches, the traditional, melancholic melody sung by the Swiss herdsmen driving their cattle to and from the solitary alpine pastures. The name is the French translation of the German word, Kuhreihen, literally "rows of cows".
Hearing the Ranz des Vaches made the Swiss soldiers serving abroad feel closer to their distant Country, but at the same time caused in many of them an overwhelming surge of homesickness leading to a state of deep depression, an often fatal illness known as the mal du Suisse or Schweizerheimweh (disease or nostalgia of the Swiss). The scale of the problem was such, that the French military authorities eventually resolved to forbid their Swiss soldiers from singing the Ranz des Vaches...
(Anyone interested in listening to the touching notes of the Ranz des Vaches of the Swiss, please click here).
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