KINGDOM OF PRUSSIA

COLORS OF INFANTRY REGIMENTS  •  CIRCA 1806

By 1806, the year of its catastrophic defeat at the hands of Napoleon, the Prussian Army comprised 60 infantry regiments (including the Foot Guards). By this time the regiments were no longer titled Musketeers or Fusiliers but simply Infantry, and were identified by numbers. Each regiment was formed with two musketeer (line infantry) battalions, two grenadier companies and a depot (training) company. Upon mobilization the grenadier companies were detached to form composite grenadier battalions and the depot company was expanded into a third musketeer battalion. The Army also included some 25 independent fusilier (light infantry) battalions. Only the musketeer battalions of the infantry regiments carried colors. These were of the pattern introduced by Frederick the Great in 1740 and in the case of some older regiments were of the original issue. The basis of issue was six colors per regiment: one Leibfahne and five Regimentsfahnen. The first battalion carried the Leibfahne and a Regimentsfahne; the other two battalions carried two Regimentsfahnen each. Most of these colors—more than 300—were lost during the battles of Jena and Auerstedt (14 October 1806) along with 38,000 Prussian troops killed, wounded or captured. This resounding defeat had a bitter aftermath, the once-proud Kingdom of Prussia being reduced to the status of an abject vassal of the Emperor of the French. But it also inspired a civil and military reform movement whose work bore fruit in 1813-15, when a revitalized Prussian Army played a heroic part in the campaigns that finally broke the power of Napoleonic France. Note: The regiments whose colors are presented on this page were raised after the period of the Seven Years War.