Coming back to my favourite painting of the Battle of Santa Lucia, I saw the marching Unterleutenant:
So I went on painting my Unterleutemamt to be put in between the marching troops. To do that I started from a marching soldier, similar to that of the painting:
Here a standard bearer of the KuK Infanterieregiment Erzherzog Sigismund Nr. 45
Yes, improved!. Because I didn't like the too black Campaignrock and the lack of collar distinction. So I added this one and modified the colour to a more correct grey/black colour.
Here the result:
Again I did some researches about the Austrian officers in the period. They wore 3 different kind of coats:
a) the "Uniformenrock" (tail-coat), white
b) the "Campagnerock" (tail-coat) black/grey
c) the "Oberrock" (coat) black/grey
I checked again in some paintings of the period and above all that of the battle of Santa Luicia, Again I focused on a detail:
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Here - for the first time - the map of the Piedmontese attack on the Village of Santa Lucia. The 10th Jaegerbattalion is defending the church of Santa Lucia and the cementary, while the Brigade Aosta (2 Regiments of 3 battallions each) is attacking, supported by the Brigade Guardie, still not deployed
Following my previous grenadiers figures, I went on to some researches on the headgear, and I decided to modify it a little, while I also increased the poses of the soldiers.
and again
I am going to present here the uniforms of the Regiments that partecipated to this Battle on 6th May 1848
As far as I know there is no precise map of the Battle of Santa Lucia, fought just in front of the walls of Verona on 6th May 1848 by Imperial Austrian troops and the Piedmontese Army.
I tried to paint the map, with the name of the Austrian unit deployed in defense of the town. It was a defensive circle of aroud 6 km, with some avant-poste to check the advancing coloumns.
The Battle was split in two different fightings: one for the conquest of the Village of Croce Bianca and another fighting - more intense - to conquer the Village of Santa Lucia.
For the moment, I decided to reproduce the entire map of the defense around Verona, while I will be preparing other maps indicating the Piedmontese attacking columns and the very Village of Santa Lucia and the famous defence of the graveyard.
The Austrian organization of the Army in 1848 provided that every Regiment should provide 2 companies (called "divisions") to form a Grenadier Battalion. All Grenadiers Battalion of the KuK Army were on 6 companies (i.e. 3 divisions) except 2 battalions with just 4 companies.
I am focusing now on the Battle of Santa Lucia in May 1848 where the Grenadier Battallion - called "D'Anthon" (from its commander Johann D'Anthon, Major of the Regiment Geppert, Nr. 43) - partedipated to that battle.
The D'Anthon Grenadier Battalion was formed by the following divisions (2 companies)
1) two companies from the KuK Infanterieregiment Graf Haugwitz - Nr. 38
2) two companies from the KuK Infanterieregiment Baron Geppert - Nr. 43
3) two companies from the JKuK Infanterieregiment Erzherzog Sigismond - Nr. 45
It is very curious to note that the Austrian Regiment nr. 43 and 45 were based only on Lombard and Venetian men, that means that at the Battle of Santa Lucia fought mainly North-Italians one against the others. This is quite in contrast with the Risorgimento's propaganda, where the Italians were all for the unification. I would say, it was the opposite. In fact. when some Piedomtese units asked to the Grenadiers of this Battalion to desert and join the Italian cause, the answer was a unanimous shooting against the Piedmontese.
This Italian troops, under the Kaiser command, fought with extreme courage in defense of the Empire; even Radezky and the Emperor later acknoledged the bravery of this troops. So - as often happens - the Italians fought each other, under different colours, but the History will tell us that it was a fighting between Austrian and Piedmontese.
This said, let's have here the uniforms of the 3 divisions of this Battalion.
My aim is to re-fight the Battle of Santa Lucia, in front of Verona in May 1848. The unique Austrian Cavarly unit present that day was the Radezky Hussar Regiment, whose I found the uniform and here I reproduce in the first plastic pose.
In reality, the shako (above all in the period of interest) was not conic but more like a cylinder, in this changing a little from the Napoleonic period. Herewith the same Regiment with the correct shako.
After some time from this post (today 30.6.2021) I finally added one Hussar of the Radezky Regiment (Nr. 5) in fighting pose.
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| Hussar of the 5 Radetzky Regiment (Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE) |
I would like to share with you the way I am drawing my papersoldiers. Now I am falling in love with the uniforms and history of the First Italian Indipendence War. Hence I had the necessity to draw an Infantry Officer of the Piedmontese Army.
In order to do that, I did as always tons of researches on the uniforms of the Piedmontese Army in 1848 and from that research I did my draw of the Piedmontese officer of the Aosta Regiment. To draw him, I took as sample/draft a Russian Officer of the Malarossia Regiment in 1805, (Battle of Austerlitz) and I modified it.
Was it an easy task? Well it depends.The figure gives you an idea and a right sense of proportion. Than it's up to you to make the tunic, the shadows etc.
This is the result:
