Bavarian Army

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Introduction

By 1756, the Electorate of Bavaria had not fully recovered the exhaustion of its resources during the War of Austrian Succession 1740-1748. The young Elector Maximilian Joseph III was therefore forced to decide on severe cutbacks. In 1753 the entire army was reorganised. In its new organisation, Bavaria's army entered the Seven Years War. It was formed in 8 infantry regiments totaling 17 battalions, 4 regiments of cavalry with a total of 36 companies – mostly non-mounted, and 1 artillery brigade. All regiments were below strength. Effective strength before the 1757 recruitments was 5,100 infantry and 1,190 cavalry with 270 horses. In addition, Bavaria would now raise its regular Kreiskontingent (Imperial District contingent). It agreed to raise a 10,000 men Auxiliary Corps consisting of 10 battalions, on basis of a subsidy contract with France settled on March 29, 1757. By October 1757 it mustered some 6,000 men and remained much below strength throughout the war.

Bavaria’s Auxiliary Corps served with the Austrian armies with all campaigns. The Reichskontingent serving with the Reichsarmee would here often be referred to as Regiment Kurbayern.

Garde

Line Infantry

Organisation
Generalities about drill
Generalities about uniforms
Armament and equipment
Generalities about colours

  • Leib-Regiment (II. and III. battallion with the Auxiliary Corps)
  • Kurprinz (its II. battalion with the Aux. Corps)
  • Herzog Clemenz (Aux. Corps)
  • Minucci, 1759 la Rosée (Aux. Corps)
  • Morawitzky (Aux. Corps)
  • Preysing (its I. battalion with the Aux. Corps)
  • Holnstein (its I. battalion with the Reichskontingent)
  • Pechmann, 1759 Meinders, 1761 Herold (with the Reichskontingent except its grenadiers)

The Leib-Regiment had 3 battalions, all others 2, each with 1 company of grenadiers and 4 companies fusiliers. The grenadier company had a book strength of some 100 men, the fusilier company had 140 men. Each battalion had 2 light 4-pdrs battalion guns.

Cavalry

Generalities about the standards of the cuirassiers
Generalities about the guidons of the dragoons

The regiments on an establishment of 9 companies with 38 men each, and in wartime organised in 3 squadrons. 35 men from each cuirassier company, and 17 from each dragoon company received mounts only in 1760. All Bavarian cavalry remained on peacetime establishment and did not take the field.

Artillery

Engineers

  • Ingenieurkorps (12 officiers)

Garrison Troops

  • Rothenburg (1 garrison company in 1756, in 1758 augmented to 1 battalion)

Light Troops

Husarenkorps Piosasque
Freikompagnie Pindter

Reference

  • Bredow, Claus, v; Wedel, Ernst v.: Historische Rang- und Stammliste des deutschen Heeres, Neudruck der Ausgabe 1905, Osnabrück 1972
  • Großer Generalstab, Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung II (Publisher). Die Kriege Friedrichs des Großen. Dritter Teil: Der Siebenjährige Krieg 1756–1763. Vol. 5 Hastenbeck und Roßbach, Berlin 1903,

    - chapter A: Die Truppen der Deutschen Mittel- und Kleinstaaten, 5. Kurbayern, page 7-9
    - appendix: supplement 4, Truppen des Kurfürstenthums Bayern, page 9-10

  • Keilpflug, Wolfgang: Einige Bemerkungen über kurbayrische Uniformen, in: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde, No. 284/286, XLIII Jg. (1979), page 109-113
  • Keilpflug, Wolfgang: Einiges über die Uniform des Regiments Kurbayern 1757-1763, in: Zeitschrift für Heereskunde, No. 380, LX Jg. (1996), page 58-60
  • Königlich Bayrisches Kriegsarchiv (Hrsg.): Geschichte des Bayrischen Heeres, Dritter Band: Geschichte des Kurbayerischen Heeres unter Kurfürst Karl Albrecht-Kaiser Karl VII. - Kaiser Karl VII. - und Kurfürst Max III. Joseph 1726-1777, bearbeitet von Karl Staudinger, München 1908
  • Kraus, Jürgen: Bayerische Fahnen: Die Fahnen und Standarten des bayerischen Heeres vom 16. Jahrhundert bis 1918, Wien 2017
  • Kühlmann, Hermann: Geschichte der Bayrischen Fahnen und Standarten, Textband II, Das Zeitalter des Absolutismus 1679-1777, Manuskript, München 1967
  • Münich, Friedrich: Geschichte der Entwicklung der bayerischen Armee seit zwei Jahrhunderten, München 1864
  • Schirmer, Friedrich: Die Heere der kriegführenden Staaten 1756-1763, hrsg. von der KLIO-Landesgruppe Baden-Württemberg, überarb. u. aktual. Neuauflage 1989
  • Schleich, Ludwig: Das bayrische Auxilarkorps 1757-1759, in: Die Zinnfigur, 35. Jg. (1987), no. 3, page 85-89; no. 4, page 104-107 and 117-119; no. 5, page 151-154
  • Woelflein, Andrew: Herbert Knotel’s German Armies in Color: as Illustrated in his Watercolors & Sketches, Atglen 2007
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