Slitherine

The large flask that was carried: What was it made of? Illustrations in the Osprey books show it as wood/metal?

Those little pre-measured charge thingies...what were they made of? I thought leather or such, but one Osprey photo of an original one seems to show them as metal??

Blathergut wrote:The large flask that was carried: What was it made of? Illustrations in the Osprey books show it as wood/metal?

Those little pre-measured charge thingies...what were they made of? I thought leather or such, but one Osprey photo of an original one seems to show them as metal??

http://www.northamptons.org.uk/musket.html

On that site it says wood was used. Hows the painting going.

SloOOOoOOOoooOooOoow!

Bloody detail in the things!! At this rate I'll have a whole 1 BG painted by the time the rules come out!

Cool site. Thanks!

Just checked that link out. The videos are quite good, half the time I am not sure whose side I am watching, must have been the same for the poor troops on the field too.

deadtorius wrote:Just checked that link out. The videos are quite good, half the time I am not sure whose side I am watching, must have been the same for the poor troops on the field too.

I have tried to research the early 30 year war period mostly Manfelds Army I think the field signs would have been more use than any uniform or flags, both of which could be hard to see through the smoke of a battlefield and also the fact that both sides then spoke german. I would have thought it would have been difficult.

I keep reading that officers would often run up to a body of troops only to be captured since they turned out to be enemies. In one battle both sides used the same call sign. Have to admit ECW there is not a whole lot of difference from 1 side to the other in appearance.

deadtorius wrote:I keep reading that officers would often run up to a body of troops only to be captured since they turned out to be enemies. In one battle both sides used the same call sign. Have to admit ECW there is not a whole lot of difference from 1 side to the other in appearance.

Or in any european war until the start of the uniform period 1660's I think not having read much of that. But I do know that in the early 30YW entire regiments could change ides and still keep their clothing I was going to say uniforms but since they did'nt have any.............

[quote="deadtorius"]I keep reading that officers would often run up to a body of troops only to be captured since they turned out to be enemies. In one battle both sides used the same call sign. Have to admit ECW there is not a whole lot of difference from 1 side to the other in appearance.[/quote]

Field signs were used by officers and some troops vs. uniforms for the ECW/TWY period. These were passwords and coloured sashes/ribbons/hat bands etc or things like oak leafs or even feathers etc. There was no consistency though so this was just an attempt to help reduce confusion.

From memory I believe Royalist armies generally preferred red as a colour for field signs, while Essex's army used orange and I have heard comment of the Fairfaxes in the North (before the NMA) using blue. Other colours are likely as well as I understand it and signs and passwords etc. were changed over time, just to add confusion.

As you can expect with this type of identification it was easy to confuse a friend from an foe and vice versa. There are cases of officers removing field signs to escape through enemy lines and many other stories from this.