Horse Artillery

The last officer, wears the uberrock and fatigue cap. I designed this officer with the battery commander in mind, as it was the higher-ranking officers that tended to wear these uniform items. Unlike the infantry officer's uberrock, cavalry officer's coats were made of blue cloth, as was the forage cap. This makes the officer's coat look similar to the gunner's litewka. The main difference was in the quality of the cloth and the tailoring; for example, the officer's collar was made of black velvet. Unfortunately, this is impossible to sculpt into a 25mm figure.

All belts were white leather. Sword scabbards in plain steel for the gunners although officers seem to have had theirs in yellow metal. All leather trappings on the horses in black leather.

Saddlecloths in Prussian blue with two lines of red piping along the edge. The officer's formal saddlecloth was similar to the men's but with five lines of piping along the edge. This is practically impossible to paint on a 25mm figure, so I have made the officer's horse with the more usual sheepskin cover used on campaign.

Note that Knotel shows the trooper's saddlecloth bulging substantially in front of the mounted gunners/troopers. Having done the research; this bulge covered both the brace of pistols and the trooper's greatcoat. How they managed to extract their pistols when required puzzles me!

The valaise on the rear of the saddle and the canteen box were covered in grey cloth and attached to the saddle with black leather straps. The officers seem to have had the edges of their valaise piped in red. The wallet on the side of the saddle contained items for the grooming of the horse, some references state that they carried spare horseshoes. Forage bags were linen coloured or grey."