Colonel Maximilian von Westerhagen

Maximilian von Westerhagen was the Colonel of the von Ditfurth Regiment from 1778 onwards.  This regiment fought at White Plains and Newport.  Westerhagen appears in the scenario for the latter as a brigade commander (hence why I wanted a personality figure to represent him).  The regiment also participated in the siege of Charleston in 1780, where it remained until 1782.  I haven't yet painted this unit, as it only appears in one "British Grenadier" scenario: Newport.  I haven't been able to find out anything substantive about the regiment's colonel.  It seems that Westerhagen was awarded the Hesse-Kassel "pour la vertu militaire" in 1781, a military award modelled on Prussia's "pour le merite". But it looks like pretty much every senior officer in the Hessian Americas corps received this award at some stage between 1777 and 1783.  

This is another figure from the Eureka Miniatures Russian Revolutionary Wars range, one of two officers "with lapels".  The standard uniform for the Ditfurth Regiment was "sulphur yellow" cuff, collar and lapels, with white waistcoats and breeches and silver lace for officers.  Now I've painted the its colonel, I feel I should add the Ditfurth fusiliers to my collection... 

1 figure. Painted August 2024.

Lieutenant-General Friedrich Wilhelm von Lossberg

Friedrich Wilhelm von Lossberg (1720-1800) was one of the general officers in the Hessian corps.  Rodney Atwood, in his invaluable book "The Hessians", says that he came from "an old soldier family which had migrated from Thuringia in he seventeenth century to escape religious persecution". When he arrived in America in October 1776 he was a colonel in command of the First Brigade of the Second Hessian Division, which was under the command of Lieutenant General Wilhelm von Knyphausen. He became a major general in 1779 (or 1780, depending on what book you read) and then a lieutenant general in 1780 (or 1781, ditto), before ultimately commanding all German forces left in North America in 1782 once von Knyphausen had left.  As he was nominated for general command before the Hessian contingent arrived in America, von Lossberg did not personally command any Hessian regiments during the AWI.  However, in 1780 he was appointed as chief of the von Mirbach Regiment, which was consequently renamed the Jung von Lossberg Regiment.  "Jung" means "young", as Friedrich's older brother, Lieutenant-General Anton Heinrich August von Lossberg, was already the chief of the existing von Lossberg Regiment, which in turn was renamed Alt von Lossberg (or "old").  One way of remembering the different between these two regiments is that von Mirbach/Jung Lossberg was a musketeer regiment, whereas (Alt) Lossberg was a fusilier regiment.

As the new commander-in-chief of the Hessian troops in May 1782, von Lossberg was responsible for the repatriation of these men. The German soldiers were offered land if they remained in North America (including an offer from the British government of land in Nova Scotia). Apparently about a quarter of the troops accepted. Von Lossberg appears to have been an effective and respected commander. Sir Guy Carleton paid tribute to the "exemplary behaviour of the Hessian troops under his orders."

Von Lossberg appears as a brigade commander in the Springfield and Newport scenarios. These battles took place in August 1778 and June 1780 respectively, which means von Lossberg held different ranks at each of them. This figure is from the Eureka Miniatures Revolutionary Wars range. It is one of a pair of Russian mounted officers - see here. The figures are advertised as having no lapels, but I didn't notice that to be honest and it was easy painting them on. I followed the uniform as provided in the newish Osprey on German Troops in the American Revolution. One of the colour plates has von Lossberg as a lieutenant-general in the uniform as chief of the Jung von Lossberg Regiment, which is what I've followed here. This figure is pretty close to having the correct uniform for Newport (all that's missing is the tricorne's white feathers, which denoted the chiefs of regiment and/or general officers), but raises the question as to what uniform von Lossberg might have worn at Springfield, which took place before he was promoted to major-general. The answer may be that he wore the uniform of a colonel in the Leib Regiment, as he seems to have held that post prior to being promoted to major-general (although at the time of the regiment's arrival in America, Frederick II, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, was its chief and Colonel Friedrich von Wurmb was its commanding officer in the field). Anyway, who cares? Here he is, ready to take the field wherever the Landgrave requires.

The is the first of a number of Hessian personality figures that I will be posting about over the next week or so.

1 figure. Painted August 2024.

Relaunch

I didn't want to write another "relaunch imminent" post until I knew it was definitely going to happen; by which I mean I'd prepared a number of posts that are ready to go on a variety of periods.  As it happens, the immediate impetus for a return to blogging has been painting more AWI - what better way to restart than by returning to the blog's roots?  That in turn was prompted by a reorganisation of my lead-pile a couple of weeks ago, in which I found all kinds of long lost figures which I decided I wanted to paint.  I then had a few days off, which gave me some time to actually paint those figures and take some photos.  So in terms of forthcoming AWI posts, we currently have a run of Hessian personality/command figures (see left for the first batch; I was having a bit of a "greys" moment when painting the horses), more Queen's Rangers and some Continental command.   

In other historical periods, I see that a number of Paraguayan War and ACW units are missing.  I've just finished some more 1815 French and there are a couple of Carlist War things in the basing process.  And talking of basing, I've been discussing with my US friend Bill Nevins how to do specific basing for New England in "fall" - more on that later.  And talking of Bill, I've been working on an AWI commission for him for far longer than he ever expected, and I'm intending to turbo-charge that by recording my progress here as well.  I spent most of the first half of this year painting various bits and bobs for 7TV - a couple of photos are attached, but I'll take some better ones and will then spend a week or so posting about these figures.  I had great fun painting stuff for a 1920s "The Mummy" game and, more recently, various characters from 1980s films and TV series.  Thinking further back, I spent Lockdown (which still doesn't seem that long ago) largely painting original "Frostgrave" figures, before the War of the Triple Alliance and 7TV took over.

Anyway, let's see where we get to; but I'm really going to try to get this rolling again on a regular basis.  Below is a taste of things to come.