IR23 Infantry Regiment, Toscana (Grand Duke of Tuscany) completed.

Now that I have completed the IR23 Grand Duke of Tuscany Infantry Regiment I thought I would post some pictures of the full Brigade. Three 32 man battalions, two batteries of 3 pounder foot artillery, and GM Knesevich is command.
The figures are mostly 15mm Old Glory, Austrian Infantry in Helmet March Attack, with a couple of Road March thrown in for variety. The Mounted officers in the 2nd and 3rd Battalions are from Old Glory and AB. The Generals are from Old Glory. The artillery crew are from Warmodelling and Blue Moon and the guns from  Warmodelling.

Regiment advancing in Massed Column.

Regiment in Line

General-Major Vincenz Knesevich - Update Part Two

Here is a repainted (for the third time) General-Major Vincenz Knesevich. After getting some very useful feedback from Dave Hollins I have given this Austrian General a light blue coat with red facings. Hopefully it is correct this time.

General-Major Vincenz Knesevich - Update Part One

After doing a little bit of research, which basically involved looking at the few entries I could find about Vincenz Knesevich through a google search, I painted up a 15mm Old Glory Austrian general to match the only picture I could find of this Austrian officer. Unfortunately I got it pretty wrong. It is the right person, just the wrong uniform.

Thankfully I had some very useful comments from Dave Hollins, author of more than a few books about the Austrian army of this period. Not only have I had the honour of getting advice from a renowned expert, but Dave has kindly given permission to post the information he has passed on.

In my research I have managed to get a couple of things confused that Dave has clarified...

Vincenz was the son of GM Martin Knezevich Freiherr von Sankt-Helena and borna s you say in Gracac in the Licca District of the Frontier although the family came from Sankt Helena in Hungary (not Napoleon's last home!) in 1755. 

Aged 17, he joined the Hungarian Leibgarde (the ceremonial guard), but in 1775, he became an Unterlt in IR56 before transferring to the Wurmser Hussars as an Oberlt in 1778, rising to Rittmeister and a squadron commander. During the last Turkish War (1788-91) he was a Major in the Vukassovich Freikorps hussars and became their commander, before returning to the Wurmser Hussars as a Major and then joining the Vecsey Hussars in 1792. Promoted to Oberstlt in 1796, he then became an Oberst in 1797 commanding the Erz Josef hussars and licking them into shape, so he and they distinguished themselves at the Adda in 1799, for which Knezevich received the MTO (Militär-Maria-Theresien-Orden) on the battlefield from Suvarov. He further distinguished himself at the Trebbia and Novi as well as the siege of Cuneo.

He was promoted to GM in 1800 and then commanded a brigade based in Styria until 1809. He was appointed FML that year and collected the wreckage of Stoikevich's Korps, which he then led back to Dalmatia and besieged Agram (Zagreb). In that year, he was also made Inhaber of 3. Dragoner and retired in 1812. Appted Vice-Captain of the Kingdom of Croatia/Dalmatia in 1813, he returned to service that year and in 1815 was Military Kommandant of Venetia and promoted to GdK (in the red uniform!) before retiring to his estate in Sankt Helena, where he died aged 77. (Wurzbach, drawing on Hirtenfeld)

Vincenz Knesevich is shown in the painting at his most senior rank of General der Kavallerie, which was the equivalent of the Feldzeugmeister for Generals of Hungarian background, who had commanded or were Inhabers of Hussar regiments. He is wearing the ceremonial dress style of red Hussar uniform for that rank, which was first regulated in 1798 (before then, these Generals could wear a white or red version). He was promoted to Generalmajor in 1800, which was his rank at Marengo.

As such, the figure is actually wearing the Oberrock, worn on campaign, which was a mid-blue at that time with red turnbacks and the single gold lace for GMs. The shoulder sash is worn over the right shoulder, not the left! It is the MTO sash, which was not worn on campaign and has been copied from a formal portrait, and the hat did not have gold edging on campaign - it is rather like Wellington's in the Sharpe progs! The shabraque is fine too as the Generals used a Staff (ie: senior regimental officer) officer's schabraque on campaign.

Many thanks to Dave Hollins for the above information. I'm away to repaint, again, my GM Knesevich and to do a bit of research into GM August Graf Briey de Landres.

General-Major Vincenz Knesevich

At Marengo General-Major Vincenz Knesevich led a brigade consisting of three batallions of  IR23 Tuscany. Knesevich's Brigade, along with de Briey's and Marselle's Brigades formed Feldmarschall-Leutnant Von Kaim's Division.

I have tried to find some biographical information about Knesevich, but the sources I've found online are contradictory, and there seems to be a couple of Austrian officers of the same name. I hope this is accurate information.

Vincenz Freiherr Knesevich de Szent-Helena was born on  the 13 November 1755 in Gračac, in the military border area with Turkey. During Austria's Turkish War of 1788/89 he raised and commanded a Frei-Corps.
By the start of the War of the Second Coalition he had reached the rank of Oberst and commanded Hussar Regiment N°2 and was distinguished by forcing the surrender of a French Division at Verderio. He again was distinguished in the Battle of the Trebbia River on 17-20 June, in the Battle of Novi, and at the Siege of Coni.
On 29 October 1800 Vincenz Knesevich was promoted to Generalmajor and commanded an infantry brigade in Kray's division in northwestern Italy. By the end of May, he had transferred to FML Melas' division, and served in FML Von Kaim's main column at Marengo.

Vincenz Knesevich (1755-1832),
Croatian nobleman and general of the Habsburg Monarchy imperial army (from Wikipedia)

This picture is the only visual reference I could find of Knesevich. I'm not sure whether his uniform is correct for Marengo, or if it is more correct for when he was commander of the 2nd Hussar Regt (who wore light blue with red shako), but I liked the idea of him wearing red rather than the usual white. So, I put together a command base with a General wearing a red uniform (both figures from Old Glory).

Here is Knesevich's Brigade so far, the third Battalion of IR23 is still in progress.