There was lamentation throughout the land when, on 1 February 1760, Landgraf Wilhelm of Hessen-Kassel suffered a fatal stroke in the fortress of Rinteln at the age of seventy-eight. His forty year-old son Friedrich II now stepped into the father's shoes. Friedrich had already a long military career. His abilities were first tested in the War of the Austrian Succession, during which he was promoted to lieutenant general (1744) and rose to be commander-in-chief of the Hessian troops, whom he took to Bavaria, the Netherlands, and finally to Scotland.

In 1749, Friedrich secretly converted to the Catholic faith, which was made public in 1754, by his assurance to protect the future of evangelical faith in Hessen-Kassel. His wife, the strongly Protestant Mary, fourth daughter of King George II, did not take this well and separated herself and her children from him.

The beginning of the Seven Years war saw Friedrich in Prussian service, where he was lieutenant general and under-governor of Wesel. Upon his ascending to the Landgrafship of Hesse, King Frederick of Prussia made Friedrich II a general of infantry and governor of Magdeburg. With his assumption of government, Landgraf Friedrich II held strongly to his Prussian alliance, and decided to model his army after the King's pattern.

The infantry regiments which Friedrich inherited were each 809 men strong, divided into 10 companies, each company containing three officers, and probably 7 grenadiers. At the beginning of a campaign, these grenadiers would gather to form a temporary grenadier company within the regiment, and on 6 June 1757 these grenadier companies came together to form two temporary battalions.

Change

To change the regiments, the grenadiers would be sent back. Next, the number of musketeer companies in the regiment were reduced from ten to eight, the members of the disbanded companies being distributed to the eight on hand. Next, twenty more men were recruited for each company. This gave the new regiment eight companies of musketeers at 120 men a piece, including officers, divided into two battalions. These new 480 man battalions were considerably smaller than the older 630 man battalions. Next, two grenadier companies were created for each regiment, numbering 120 grenadiers each, the old grenadiers forming the core of these new bodies. These grenadier companies were organized into standing battalions, numbering six in all, along Prussian lines. Friedrich inherited a good cavalry corps which consisted of three regiments zu pferde (Gens d'Armes, Prinz Wilhelm, & von Oheim) one Kavallerie regiment (Prüschenk), two dragoon regiments (Leibdragoner, Prinz Friedrich), and a 64 horse hussar corps. To this he added a Garde du Corps of 60 horse. An attempt was made to increase zu pferde and kavallerie squadron size from 147 to almost 200. As for the Hessian field artillery Friedrich inherited, it came in two forms; light, which consisted of the 3 pounder battalion pieces, and heavy. With the opening of the Seven Years War, the Hessian battalions each had two 3-pounder cannon with three horses per cannon and an accompanying 3-horse ammunition carriage per cannon. These guns were very well served with about 1 feuerwerker, 5 cannoniers, and 5 untercannoniers per gun (all artillery corps men). In addition, a well-staffed artillery headquarters and support train accompanied each of the two Hessian field corps. With the infantry reorganization of 1760, the number of regimental guns remained unchanged, giving one per battalion. The heavy artillery was increased from 3 to 5 companies, totaling "500 men," and these, together with the hundreds of men accompanying the feld corps, gave the field artillery a combined total of over 800 men (the heavy companies actually had about 360 men on hand). Along with this, the Hessen-Kassel heavy artillery park grew from about 20 guns to 36, if one discounts the 23 Buckeburg guns withdrawn in 1759. All but four of these pieces were Hanoverian, there being four 12 pounder Hessian creations. One heavy company headed for the Erbprinz of Brunswick's army in Saxony, and two others headed for Westphalia.

Friedrich also completely reorganized the Gardes troops into a huge corps of four regiments that quickly stabilized at three regiments. First, a new battalion of 394 men was raised and called "Garde I." Then, the old regiment "Grenadier" was increased to two battalions and named "Garde II." Also, the Leibgarde zu Fuss was increased to two battalions and named "Garde III." Finally, Friedrich's personal regiment, heretofore-named "Erbprinz," was increased to two battalions and named "Garde IV," but this lasted only briefly and "Garde IV" became "Leibregiment." "Garde II" and "Garde III" were brigaded with the newly named "Erbprinz" regiment for the next campaign. A standing battalion, "Schlotheim," was created from the grenadiers of "Garde II" and "Garde III." With the reductions of 1763, the three "Garde" regiments became three battalions in a single regiment "Garde."

Uniforms

The uniforms of Hessen-Kessel had a conservative and seldom changed tradition concerning facing colors and button colors. When Friedrich made his reforms, only two foot regiments changed their facings: "Erbprinz" (1760 "Garde IV," 1760 "Leib") had its facings changed from yellow to rose, as reflecting its new status; "Gilsa," which was converted to fusiliers, changed its facings from yellow to black. "Gilsa" was later known as fusilier regiment "von Knyphausen." One other regiment was transformed into fusiliers: "von Toll" became fusilier regiment "von Bartheld," but their facings were unchanged. Hessian musketeer and fusilier officers carried espontoons, but nco's and grenadier officers carried muskets.

Sources:

Odd notes were gleaned from here and there over time, but the main sources are:

Has, Dr. Wilhelm, Geschichte des Kurhessischen Feldartillerie, Marburg, 1913.
Dechend, Major, Geschichte des Fusilier-Regiments von Gersdorff, Berlin, 1901.
[Those interested in more information on the Hessian Army are directed to issue Vol. VIII, No. 3, which contains a complete listing of Hessian units. – Editor]

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