Another SYW Austrian regiment: Pallavicini

Austrian infantry regiment Pallavicini (IR 15) was just recently added to my SYW Austrians. Raised in 1740, by Inhaber Lt. Gen. Gian-Luca Pallavicini (Genoa), they served well during the Italian campaign. Despite the Austrians being bested by the combined Spanish and Neapolitan army they particularly distinguished themselves at Velletri,. At the Battle of Madonna dell'Olmo, they made up part of the reserve formations.

During the start of the Bohemian campaign of 1757, both battalions were part of Koningsegg’s army facing Bevern’s Prussian. Both battalions served at the Battle of Reichenberg and the following month found themselves in the first line at the Battle of Prague. The defense of Dresden (1760) added further laurel’s to their war record.

More Austrians?

My Austrian Army has reached an adequate number of battalions that adding an additional white coated regiment would not seem redundant. I have sufficient numbers of Hungarians and Croats to balance out the overall colour scheme, but there are just so many white coated red facing regiments you can have. Still, the Austrians should outnumber my Prussians by 4 to 3.

An older model flag

Following the discussions we had about Austrian standards at TMP, I decided to follow a similar solution to an otherwise bland collection by letting my Pallavicini retain their older style flags of the 1740 period. As mentioned in Duffy’s book, The Army of Maria Theresa, prior to the changes, the fields were coloured uniformly within the regiment, whether yellow, green, red, or red-white-red. After the Succession war, many of the flags would be replaced as a consequence of the newer edicts with the well known yellow field with double headed eagle. I would like to think my regiment retained theirs.

For the older model, a fine illustration of the varied colours can be seen in the painting by Carl Rochling, the Battle of Hohenfriedberg, June 4, 1745.

Battle of Hohenfriedberg, Carl Rochling


cheers,