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Swedish Uniforms in
the Battle of Fraustadt
The following page is a very
speculative description of how the Swedish regiments' uniforms looked during
the Battle of Fraustadt. This is because several of these
regiments were issued new uniforms in 1704 that have not been described by
the sources. They are: The Liv-Dragoons, Bremen Dragoon Regiment, Nyland Cavalry
Regiment and the Södermanland and Kronoberg Infantry
Regiments. I have assumed for these and similar cases that the new uniforms
were the same as the ones they had before.
But there is also uncertainty
about when the Swedish army got its distinctive Carolean uniforms with tricornes
and turnbacks. There are two likely dates for when these
novelties came into general use. Either it first happened during the stay in
Saxony in 1706-07 or it already happened in 1704 when many regiments
received new uniforms. But the process may have been very protracted and it
is only with the Battle of Gadebusch in 1712 that we have a contemporary
depiction of an army dressed in the classic Carolean uniform. On this page I have
therefore depicted the Swedish regiments with both the older and the younger
appearance. The exceptions are Närke-Värmland, which recieved new uniforms in the
autumn of 1705, and Södra skånska, which definitely wore turnbacks
from at least 1702. It is quite possible that both variants appeared simultaneously
among the different regiments during this battle. The tricornes and turnbacks
do not have to have come at the same time either.
The latter seems to have occurred partially in the cavalry already at the
beginning of the war but not at all in the infantry.
For the Vallack Regiment, however, there are no known uniforms at all and I
am not only unsure of what colours they might have had, but also what cut
they had on the uniforms.
Older Uniforms
Right (North) Wing
(The Bremen and Pomeranian dragoon squadrons were
deployed behind the other squadrons)
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