Musketeer, Line Fusilier, 2nd Foot Guard

The Infantry of Prussia and the later German Empire infantry wore a dark blue single breasted tunic with red piping down the front and on the tails in back. The trousers were of dark gray cloth, usually with a thin red stripe, and over which certain regiments, most often grenadiers in illustrations, wore white coveralls. For identification, however, numerous distinctions were maintained.

Cuffs: The Brandenburg Cuff was worn by most regiments. (see figure 1) The cuff normally red, the patch red with three yellow metal buttons. An exception is the patch of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Guard Grenadier Regiments. which was blue, while the 117th Line, for some obscure reason, had a cuff patch matching the shoulder tabs.

The Swedish Cuff (figure 2) was worn by the four "Gard zu Fus" Regiments, The Guard Fusiliers, and the 100th, 101st, 109th, 119th, 123rd, and all Saxon Regiments. The non-Saxon units had two white vertical bars with buttons at the top.

Buttons: These were of yellow metal except for the let Foot Guards (Gard zu Fus), the Guard Fusiliers, and the 1st and 3rd Battallions of the 89th (Grenadier) 40th (Fusilier), 115th, 116th, 117th and 118th Infantry which had white metal. Buttons at the tops of the skirts in back of the tunic were shaped like hooks to carry the belt.

Collar: Scarlet. The following regiments having two bars of white lace:

All regiments of the Prussian Guard.
1st and 3rd Battallions of the 89th Grenadiers (the 2nd Battallion had yellow)
100th, 101st, 109th, 115th, 119th, 123rd Infantry

Shoulder Straps: The shoulder staps varied according to army corps. Since the assignments of regiments to different corps varied somewhat, and the army went from 1 Guard and 8 Line corps in 1866 to 1 Guard and 12 Line in 1886, this may lead to some confusion, especially as the regiments of lesser states when added to the empire were assigned high numbers, which were sometimes matched to their old state regimental numbers (Regiment number such and such, let Mecklinburg etc.) However, for the help it may provide, we are including the corps patch and regimental assignments in this article as of 1886.

The Corps assignments of the various German units determined their shoulder strap colors. By 1866 there were a total of 12 line corps. In 1866 there had been only 8, which in the sort of thing which accounts for campaign rules about being able to maintain more forces when you win more squares.

Corps	Infantry Regiments	Strap	Piping
I	1, 3, 5, 41, 44, 45	White	White
II	2, 9, 14, 21, 34, 420' 49, 54, 61	White	None
III	8, 12, 20, 24, 35, 48	Scarlett	White
IV	26, 27, 31, 36, 66. 67, 71, 72, 93, 96	Scarlet	None
V	6, 7, 18, 19, 37, 46, 47, 58, 59,	Yellow	White
VI	10, 31, 22, 23, 38, 50, 51, 62, 63	Yellow	None
VII	13, 15, 16, 17, 39, 53, 55, 56, 57	Light Blue	White
VIII	25, 28, 29, 50, 40, 65, 68, 69, 70	Light Blue	None
IX	75, 76, 84, 85, 86	White	Yellow
X	73, 74, 77, 78, 79, 91, 92	White	Yellow
XI	32, 80, 81, 82, 83, 87, 83, 88, 94, 95	White	Light Blue
XII	97, 98, 99, 128, 129, 150 131, 132, 135, 137, 138	Scarlet	L.Blue

Guard Corps
1st Foot Guard	1st Grenadier	White
2nd Foot Guard	2nd Grenadier	Scarlet
3rd Foot Guard	3rd Grenadier	Yellow
4th Foot Guard	4th Grenadier	Light Blue

Also, the Mecklinburg-Schwerin Grenadiers, Regiment number 89, had white shoulder patches in the first and third battalions, the 2nd Battalion had scarlet edged dark blue.

Helmet: Most contemporary illustrations show brass scales on the spiked helmet of units in the Prussian Army of 1870, while many troops simply wore the soft garrison cap (apparently common to all arms) in 1866. Later on, however, the metal scales seem to have been dropped except in the Guards and the lot to 12th Grenadiers. The metal base of the spike was round in Prussian units and when the Saxon and Wurtemburg units adopted the Prussian style helmet after 1871 the followed suit. The Bavarians, however who retained their traditional pale blue infantry uniformes adopted a arose shaped base for the spike.

The eagles worn on the front of the helmets Came in two basic patterns. Guard units with the eagle had eagle with wings straight out, which, for obvious reason . was known as the "Guard Eagle." Line troop a wore a brass eagle with wings turned up, the Prussian or Heraldric Eagle.

Some regiments had differing patterns of brass on the helmet front. These included the 90th to 96th regiments in the German Empire, which had coats of arms in lieu of eagles, and the 92nd had also a scroll marked "peninsula in honor of that regiment's years in the King's, German Legion.

Selections of Scruby figures in plumed helmet, or Ochel types in "helmbusch" bring to mind the fact that certain units also wore plumes on the piklehaubes. These included all guard regiments, which wore white plumes, except for their 3rd Battallions and the Guard Fusilien the third battaIllion. of a regiment being regarded as a "fusilier" battallion. The fusiliers wore black plumes.

The same pattern was followed by the 109th, 110th, and 119th, white in the first two battallions, black in the third.

Belting is a more confusing situation. Most regiments had black belting. For grenadiers, however, the straps going over the shoulders and sometimes even the waistbelt are white. While undoubtedly there was a more thorough rationale than I have been able to detect in perusing contemporary illustrations, the best your author can come up with is that white belting all or in part seems to have something to do with being grenadiers. It is not uncommon for the waist belt to be black and the straps over the shoulder to be white in grenadier units.

Short swords: These appear to have been carried in 1866 and 1870. Illustrations tend to show Prussian infantry with a bayonet of the triangular pattern but a full-bladed and halted weapon worn on the left side in a black leather scabbard tipped brass or black painted metal scabbard. The fusiliers on the other hand, are often shown with a brass hilted saber bayonet: Since the fusilier units were traditionally light infantry, and the third battallion often formed the skirmisher detachment of a regimental advance, the use of a saber bayonet probably followed the rationale of the British rifle regiments sword bayonets, roughly to enable the bearer to fire without the encumberance of a bayonet, but, if caught at close quarters, to have a weapon he could in a pinch handle without having to fasten it onto his rifle.

In any case, when painting the bladed weapon in scabbard on the left side of a Prussian soldier, the following sword knot coding may prove useful:

The Tuft at the end is in all cases white; above it is a conical piece, above which is a smaller ball. The conical piece is white in the first, Scarlet in the second, yellow in the third, (or fusilier) battallion, and light blue in the fourth(this was not around until long after the 1870-71 war) The balls at the top indicate company within the battallion, i.e.:

White: 1st, 5th, 7th, 13th,
Scarlet: 2nd, 6th, 8th, 14th

These numbers pertain to regimental companies and although it is not clear in Gleichen's "Armed Strength of Germany," it would appear that even companies within a battallion were Scarlet, odd white.

Boots: Short boots were apparently worn by all infantry, and, according to regulation, the grey trousers were to have been tucked into the boots. Several illustrations of Prussian troops in action in 1870-71 show the trousers rolled up just above the ankle and on the outside of the boots. When worn the white coveralls fell out -side of the boots full length.

It may be useful, if not invariably certain, for the wargamer to emphasize white belting and or coveralls, for his grenadier units in the 1870 period, depending, of course, on figures available.

National Cockades: This item obviously applies to the German Empire and to its numerous predecessor states, as the cockade for the Prussian units when worn, was a constant black and white.

Prussia Black and White
Bavaria White and light blue
Saxony Green and White
Hesse White and red
Saxe Weimar blue, green, yellow
Mecklinburg red, yellow, blue
Oldenburg blue and red
Brunswick light blue and yellow
Lippe Detmold Red and yellow
Baden yellow and red
Schaumburg Lippe red, blue, and white
Waldeck and Reuss Black, red, and yellow
Anhalt dark green
Schwarzburg dark blue and white
The Hanse Towns white and red

After 1870 some regiments (please, don't ask which ones) were raised there by the German Empire, and these were assigned the same cockade colors as the Empire troops (Marines, Schutztruppen, etc.) which were black, white, and red.

When worn with the picklehaube, the cockade was worn on the fastening of the chin strap. Cockade disks also appear on the front of the Hussar busby.