Russian
Auxiliary Corps in Saxon Service
1704-1706
As a
consequence of the Saxon army's setbacks in Poland the Russian tsar promised
to assist the Saxon elector August the Strong with an auxiliary corps of 12 000 men.
A corps numbering 10 000 men commanded by Johann Reinhold von Patkul also
arrived to the theatre of war in 1704 when they conquered Warsaw and
laid siege on Posen (Poznan). But it retreated to Saxony when the Swedish
main army approached. A Cossack force of 1 200 man on foot was destroyed by
the Swedes when they did not manage to cross the river Oder in time. In Saxony
the corps, now only 6 000 men strong, reorganised and later took part in the
battle of Fraustadt 1706. There they suffered a catastrophic defeat with
over 4 000 men killed. The remains of the corps were merged into a single Regiment
which would join the Russian main army.
The information I have on the auxiliary corps in the tables below come from Vlad Velikanov's
blog
Oderint dum probent and Oskar Sjöström's book "Fraustadt 1706 - Ett
fält färgat rött". Velikanov's notes refer to 14 June 1704 when the
corps left Kiev to join the Saxons while Sjöström has focused on 1706.
Between these dates a reorganisation of the corps occurred in Saxony which
explains the different lists of regiments.
1704 |
Companies |
Strength |
|
1706 |
Battalions |
Strength |
Duke of Holstein's Regiment |
9 |
985 |
Schöpping |
1 |
|
Gulits' Regiment |
8 |
937 |
Belling |
1 |
|
Nelidov's Regiment |
8 |
865 |
Patkul |
3 (including a grenadier battalion) |
Danilov's Regiment |
8 |
910 |
Holstein |
1 |
|
Herman Deldin's Regiment |
8 |
919 |
Bilits |
1 |
|
Krikowski's Regiment |
8 |
942 |
Gulitz |
1 |
|
Romanowski's Regiment |
9 |
895 |
Arnstedt |
1 |
|
Kakhowski's Streltsy Regiment |
4 |
438 |
Cadeus (streltsy) |
1 |
400 |
Lewinston's Regiment |
9 |
979 |
SUMMA |
10 battalions, 6 300 man |
Bils' Regiment |
9 |
956 |
The 1 800 Russians who survived the battle of Fraustadt and
escaped captivity created a new regiment (3 battalions) led by Rentzel.
This then found their way to Russia and participated in the
Poltava campaign. It received the provincial name of Suzdalski. 1718. |
Baturyn's Regiment |
8 |
972 |
SUM |
88 companies, 9 798 men |
In the book by Lars-Eric
Höglund covering the Russian army there is a different list of regiments in
the auxiliary corps and detailed descriptions of their uniforms. Instead
of
Velikanov's 11 regiments there are 17 Regiments (but still the same number
of men). Höglund's information comes from
Alexander Bespalov who according to
Velikanov falsified his research on the auxiliary corps:
"Bespalov falsified both the list of
Regiments & data about its uniforms. The most of Regiments never were a part
of the Corps or acted in Poland. Archive documents state very clear about
Corps organization & it doesn't meet with Bespalov's data"
Because
of this I chose not to report Höglund's descriptions of the auxiliary corps' uniforms.
But regardless of the accuracy of this data it is actually not particularly
relevant for the battle of Fraustadt. During its stay in Saxony the
auxiliary corps was reorganised in such manner that the number of regiments
was reduced. It is likely that several regiments then received white coats
with red facings. The sources have however conflicting information whether
the Russians had green or white coats at Fraustadt. But one source says that
they had both and that seems most likely to be true. In any way, from the
Swedish point of view at Fraustadt the Russians would have appeared as if
they were wearing red coats. The Saxon commander von Schulenburg had
actually ordered the Russians to turn their uniforms inside out so that they
would look like Saxons.
There are also pages covering the
Saxons and
Swedes in the battle of Fraustadt. |