Officers

Officer’s coats were made of better material than the men’s. They had longer tails reaching down to the back of the knee. There was an elaborate arrangement of pockets and piping on the tails. The longer pocket ran vertically along the upper part of the tail to just below waist height. It almost touched the second smaller pocket which was arranged horizontally just below waist height. Both cuff flaps were in jacket colour with their edges piped in facing colour. The longer pocket had three buttons on the flap, the shorter two, sometimes three.

Officers wore fringed epaulets which conformed to the French rank designations. These were in button colour. They also wore a gold coloured gorget with a silver badge in its entre. Grenadier officers had button coloured grenades at the ends of their turn-backs. All musketeer and grenadier officers wore a straight bladed sword in a red leather scabbard. The sword belt and frog were white leather. Sword knots were silver with thin black threads woven into the material.

The white officers’ breeches were tucked into the top of knee-length black boots.

Officer’s shakos were similar to the men’s but were more elaborately decorated. At the top of the shako there was a metal grenade or tulip instead of a pom-pom. This was always in the button colour. The grenadier officer’s red plume was inserted into the top of the grenade. Regimental officers are occasionally shown wearing white plumes but it was unusual for musketeer officers to have one. The upper edge of the officer’s shako was decorated with a band of lace in button colour. This had a scalloped lower edge ending in what look like small crosses on the upper body of the shako. The white cockade was identical to the men’s but was held in place by a button coloured ribbon. The shako plate was the royal cipher surmounted by the crown, also in button colour. The heavy ornamental cords worn by officers were silver irrespective of button colour. Similarly, the chin scales were always in yellow metal.

On campaign, officers changed into their ‘Interimsuniform’. This was the equivalent of the French officer’s ‘surtout’ or the Prussian ‘Liebrock’. It was made of a nondescript light blue/grey material that is difficult to describe. What is certain is that it must have made them rather obvious targets. This jacket was double breasted, with two rows of buttons along the front, but it did not have the facing colour lapels of the uniform coat. Instead it had a line of piping along the edge of the breast opening which continued along the bottom edge of the coat and down the edge of the turn-backs. There is only one illustration of the back of this jacket (Berjeaud). It shows the tails in jacket colour, piped in facing colour. What is surprising is that the elaborate vertical and horizontal pocket arrangement is replicated on this jacket. Again the pocket flaps are in jacket colour and the edges are piped in facing colour. Collar and cuffs were in facing colour. The rank epaulettes and gorget were also worn.

The white breeches were usually replaced with grey overall trousers although it is common to see officers wearing grey breeches tucked into the tops of their boots. Another fashion was to have overall trousers made in the same colour as the campaign jacket, in the blue/grey material. Whether the trousers were grey or blue/grey, they often (but not always) had a line of facing colour piping along the outer leg seam of the trousers.

The shako was stripped of ornaments and covered. The metal grenade must have been difficult to remove from the shako as it is most unusual to see an officer without the grenade, even on campaign. Officers frequently replaced the shako with their bicorn. The only decorations on this were the white cockade – held in place with a button coloured ribbon – and tassels at the points of the bicorn, also in button colour. Peter Bunde thinks that officers may have had a plainer shako for field duties as the elaborate lace on the top edge of the ‘parade’ shako was expensive to produce.

There is next to no information about the overcoats or greatcoats worn by officers. Grey coats are frequently seen carried over the shoulder in the Prussian style (for added protection) but there are few images of officers actually wearing these items. 

There are sufficient illustrations of officers wearing the white jackets on campaign for us to conclude that this was not uncommon. Officers are shown wearing the white jacket with covered shakos and grey overalls. There could be a variety of reasons for this – certainly an effort to reduce their target profile could be one – but the more mundane reason is probably the supply problems that beset the Saxons in both Russia and Germany.

Shabraques for mounted officers were in facing colour with a broad button-coloured edging. Saddles were brown leather and harnessing was black. Grenadier officers had grenades on the rear corners of the shabraque in button colour.