"The Empire's Last Gasp":
The Siege of Vienna

The Allies:
Imperials, Saxons, Bavarians, Franconians

by Steve Phenow from the Messenger

1. The Imperials

The Austrian Army was in transition during this period. The great Tercios were being broken up and the regiment system was being adopted. Because of the losses incurred during the 30 years war, and the revolt of the Hungarian provinces, army manpower was low, yet hatred of the traditional enemy, the bearded Turk, gave the army high morale, and fueled their determination not to allow to Vienna to fall.

With the decline of the Tercio system, Shot to pike ratio had increased in the infantry 3 to 1. Compare this to the original ratio at the start of the 30 years war of 2-4 pikes to 3 musket ratio per unit. There were at least 1 tercio at Vienna, Tercio de Bade is defiantly mentioned, at Kahlenberg. Perhaps von Starhemberg's defenders of Vienna were organized in 2 tercios, one which bore his name. While the ten companies were still retained, total numbers per company had dropped to 100-140, from the original 400 of the 30 years war.

The Horse was also changing. Originally based on a slow trotting pistol firing model, the Austrian horse, from their encounters with the Swedes, had slowly reformed, they now were attempting to charge at the gallop, firing pistols only before contact, then laying about with cold steel. The fact they were kept in reserve behind the foot during the battle must mean that they had not reformed completely. The so-called Reiters were still operating as slow maneuvering pistol firing units (Cornets) in deep formations, but their overall use was in decline, since the superior musket armed infantry formations of the period would now cause heavy casualties on the slow moving Reiters. They were now used to support the foot in the battle.

Dragoons (dismountable infantry) were on the rise, except once dismounted, it was hard to get them to remount, true mobile infantry was still a concept for the future. They usually would lead the advance at the start of the battle.

An average Imperial company was 75-85 troopers. Two of these would form an squadron of 160 men. Dragoons were similar, ten companies would form a regiment.

Light horse armed with bow and pistol were called hussars, from the Hungarian, meaning 20. Original hussars were formed from town and countryside levies with 1 in 20 men forced to join the light horse. Like the Turkish Akinji, they were great plunderers. There were also Serbs and Slav lanced armed horse available, if they weren't fighting as allies of the Turks which usually was the case. The Turks were especially bothered by arquebus armed Croats, which could fire while mounted, with surprising accuracy. Like the Horse, the light horse operated in squadrons, 250 men being the usual mentioned number. A regiment would consist of 6 squadrons.

The Austrian Army numbered approximately 80,000 men at the start of the campaign. These were organized into 23 foot regiments, 10 cuirrasiers regiments, 7 Dragoon regiments, 7 Reiter regiments, with the remaining 8,000 organized as light horse. There were also some cossack mercenaries, while the number is not given it couldn't be great.

Regiments: Foot

    Tercio de Bade, 3,400
    Mansfield: 800
    Heister: 1,000
    Beck: 1,000
    Neuburg: 1,000
    Strassdo: 600

Regiments: Horse

    Pallfy Cuirraisers
    Montecculio Cuirraisers
    Taafe-Gotz Cuirrasiers
    Mercy Reiters
    Dunewald Reiters
    Sachen-Launurg Reiters or Cuirrasiers, accounts differ. Likely they were a unit in transition.

Dragoon regiments

    Styrum
    Castelli
    Herbeville
    Hussars
    Ricciadi's 4 squadrons
    Esterhazy's 6 squadrons

    and over 8,000 light unorganized horse and foot Serbs and Croats, that did not take part in the battle, so were not included in OB, but excelled in the pursuit.

Uniforms

As Montecucculi started to reform the army in 1670, he adopted Pearl Grey as the coat color. The infantry would still be wearing hats and dyed buff knee length coats of different colors for the most part, but standardization would be coming to fore. They wore buff belts It is unknown the cuff and sock colors for the infantry regiments was worn at Vienna, but here they noted at the start of the War of Spanish Succession as:

    Tercio de Bade, 3,400. No info available
    Mansfield: 800. Red
    Heister: 1,000. Red
    Beck: 1,000. Red
    Neuburg: 1,000. Lt Blue
    Strassdo: 600. No info probably Lt. Blue

Regiments: Horse

The Horse was wearing 3/4rs armor, or just the breastplate usually painted black to avoid rust over a grey coat. There were no distinctive cuff colors. Helmet was the lobster type. Reiters wore an closed visored helmet, other than that there was little difference.

Dragoon regiments

Dragoons wore the hat, under the grey coat was a leather coat for added protection. Dragoon's boots were not as heavy as the horse. Dragoon cuff colors at Vienna are unknown.

Light horse

The flashy Hussar uniform was still in the future. They usually wore a shortee jacket that was closed by loops of braid. A fur muff with feathers was often worn on the head. Pants were worn baggy, tucked in short boots. (Quite a change from the later Hussar in those impossible tight pants.) Colors were shades of red, for the Hungarians, blue and green for other Balkans' people.

At Vienna, the relieving army Austrian contingent had about 8,000 foot, 10,000 horse with 12 guns. They were on the left flank of the allied army, under the command of the Duke of Lorraine, brigaded with the Saxons. They broke the half starved Yerli Kulu and Gonullu with some Timarot reinforcements, by early afternoon.

2. The Saxons

The Saxons fielded six 1200 men foot regiments. These were the closest units to 18th century infantry of the whole allied army as they no longer carried pikes. Everyman was armed with muskets. For protection against horse, they were to use their musket supports as long bayonets. Knotel believes that this translates as plug bayonets, but I doubt it.

The Horse were cuirassiers. There is no information on the numbers of a horse squadron, but there were two regiments. There were 4 regiments of Dragoons. Each Dragoon regiment was 600 strong.

The infantry wore hats, long coats, with large cuffs, stockings in the waist coat color. Tan Buckskin breeches, with buff belts completed the uniform.

The distinctions were:

    Liebregiment (Saxon Guard): Red coats, White cuffs, socks.
    Ruess: Grey coats, Pale blue cuffs and socks.
    Trautmansdorf: Grey coats, Dark blue cuffs and socks.
    Flemming: Grey coats, Grey cuffs, white socks.

    The other two are not named, but would be similar.

The Horse

The Horse wore a natural metal lobster helmet, steel cuirass, short coat, buckskin breeches, and black boots. The dragoon uniform is unknown, probably round hat, long coat, breeches and boots.

Unfortunately there is no information on the horse or dragoon uniform colors at Vienna. 12 years later the following was true:

    Horse: Red coats, yellow breeches, steel cuirass, lobster pothelmet.
    Dragoons: Red coats, tan breeches, black round hats.

At the battle, the Saxon army was brigaded with the Austrian tercio de Bade. The contingent under the command of Elector Georges III had about 6,400 foot, 2,600 horse and dragoons with no guns. They were on the left flank of the allied army, under the command of the Duke of Lorraine. They helped break the Yerli Kulu and Gonullu and repulsed the Timarot reinforcements with musket volleys, alone. By early afternoon the Turkish right wing was in full retreat, allowing the Turkish center to be flanked. The Saxon horse was used to stiffen the Imperial Austrian infantry, and was not engaged.

3. The Bavarians

In 1679 the Elector Max Emanuel raised 7 regiments for service with the Imperials. Each was of 6 companies, each company numbered 200 men, 1/3 being musket armed, the rest carried the pike. By the campaign, only 1/4 were pike armed, the rest carried muskets. The uniform was a broad sleeved knee length large pocketed buff coats in distinctive colors, white socks, buff belting and black full brim hats. The regimental distinctions were as follows:

Regiments:

    Berlo: Pearl Grey coats, white cuffs.
    Puech: Green coats, Yellow cuffs.
    Degenfeld: Pearl Grey coats, Dark Lilac cuffs.
    Montfort: Dark Grey coats, Dark Blue cuffs.
    Perusa: Light Blue coats, Red cuffs.
    Steinau: Light Blue coats, Red cuffs.
    Preysing: Light Blue coats, Yellow cuffs.

The officers wore the cuff color as their coat color, and the reg's coat color as the cuff color. The army did not adopt light or Savoy blue coats universally until the decree of March 5, 1684, after Vienna.

The Horse

The Horse were all cuirassiers. Each regiment was 6 companies of 150-200 men. The squadron is not mentioned as the maneuver unit. They were armed with a straight heavy swordsharpened to point. They also carried a wheel lock carbine and two pistols. They wore breastplates fore and back under their coats. A three bar lobster helmet, deerskin breeches and heavy boots completed the ensemble.

The Horse was ordered to charge the Turks in a three deep formation. There is no mention of using pistols in this formation as they were removed before the campaign. (Perhaps to encourage them to charge home?) The regimental distinctions were as follows:

    Haraucourt: Light-grey coats, Blue cuffs.
    Bartels: Light-grey coats, Green cuffs?
    Beauvau: Light-grey coats, Red cuffs.
    Schurtz: Light-grey coats, Brown cuffs?

Artillery

The Bavarian artillery at Vienna consisted of 2 24#, two 18#, ten 12#, six 6#, and four mortars. Train consisted of 700 men, 79 wagons, with 706 horses. 130 rounds per piece were available. Only 8 guns of calibre unknown got into action.

The army was assigned to the center under the command of Prince of Waldek. They were brigaded with the Franconians under command of General of Brigade, Degenfeld, for the attack on the Turkish camp defended by the best Turkish troops. The elite Turkish cavalry charged the Bavarians, shook them so, that the Mercy reiters were ordered to support, but refused, forcing the Bavarian cavalry to be used instead. This might have been the crisis of the battle, but the Turkish cavalry could not close, and were repulsed by volleys from the Bavarian infantry.

Finally, the now exhausted Turks were routed by the Bavarian and imperial cavalry. The Turkish musket armed foot stiffened by Janissaries stood steady however, until their right flank was turned by the Saxon and Imperial infantry, and forced the Janissaries to abandon the Turkish camp to the allies, which they then spent the rest of the battle looting.

4. The Franconian and Imperial Circles

There is not much data on this contingents. Their inferior fighting ability, (they had been just levied) caused their deployment in a second brigade behind the Bavarians. They numbered 4 infantry regiments, 2 Cuirassier regiments, 1 Dragoon regiment for a total of 6,500. Uniforms: There is no true info available on contingents, but they must have been similar to Austria. Grey coats are mentioned for one of the regiments. There is no information on the on the horse other than they wore cuirasses over buff coats, breeches, with black boots, and metal lobster pot helmets. There is no information on the Dragoons.

The Franconian and Imperial circles contingent were in the second line behind the Bavarians. In order to add reinforcements, Austrian horse and reiters were transferred to the center from the left to aid them. They were kept in reserve the whole battle, it seems both Sobieski and Waldek, didn't trust them to attack and were afraid they would break if charged.

More Siege of Vienna

Back to Dispatch Jan 2000 Table of Contents
Back to Dispatch List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2000 by HMGS Mid-South
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