by John Cook
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The wagons, limbers and gun carriages of most armies were painted in uniform colours. The answers to Russ Feakins' questions are, olive green for the French, which seems to have varied from a very yellowish green to a dark olive hue, grey for the British and medium blue for the Prussians. Civilian wagons requisitioned for a particular purpose would, of course, probably not conform to any scheme. The Osprey Men at Arms Artillery Equipments of the Napoleonic Wars is a good brief overview of the subject. The following is some additional material that may be of interest. French military vehicles also often carried identifying marks of one kind or another, usually oriented centrally either on the bodywork, the canvas tilt, or lid. French regimental wagons often carried an eagle device on the tilt, with the regimental designation above and the unit below, sometimes flanked by bursting grenades or hunting horns, depending upon the arm of service, thus:
or d'INF or d'INFIE Xe BATAILLON or BATLON or BON The variations on the theme are endless and there appears to have been no standard abbreviations. The wagons of general officers often bore their owner's name, for example:
(Waggon of General of Division XXXX) Sometimes the role of the vehicle, or its contents, was marked on the tilt and,
REG: d'Inf: de ligne is one example from a contemporary (1810) illustration of an infantry ammunition wagon. This particular vehicle also bore No:9 on its bodywork near the front, which suggests an individual number within the unit. A number might be important and could have indicated its place in march. Pontoons often appear to have been numbered sequentially, perhaps so that they arrived at the site in the correct order for assembly. Others wagons simply bore the words VIVRES (rations) or BAGAGES, sometimes with a formation designation such as, Xe DIVON Xe CORPS. Other nationalities often included a national device, or other marking, somewhere on their vehicles. The British arrow indicating government property is almost a cliche. Albrecht Adam shows Italian vehicles with the iron crown of Lombardy on their tilts in 1813. Saxons had the royal arms painted on many of their vehicles. In paintings by Reinhold executed between 1791 and 1806, Saxon artillery carriages are shown painted dark blue-grey whilst the artillery wagons are medium blue in colour, with red-brown lids. These also have markings indicating their contents. Schw and 8lb in white centrally on the side, flanking a representation of six black stacked shot, are shown on a heavy artillery ammunition waggon. This vehicle clearly contains heavy eight pound shot and, presumably, the charges. Another artillery ammunition wagon is shown with simply 4lb Gr in white on the side, which indicates that it contains four pound shells. Saxon general purpose and infantry wagons are shown of wicker construction with a red-brown frame and lid. Some bear the royal arms, others a number. One has the legend Feld Apotheke centrally on its lid. A Saxon infantry company waggon is of similar appearance but has a medium blue lid with ornate inscription in white thus:
Regiment Infanterie Württemberg artillery vehicles appear to have been similarly marked and a caisson in the Wehrgeschichlichtes Museum at Rastatt bears 6lb Munits: in white on the side towards the front. More ADC Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #37 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |
