Schulenberg Jager Corps

Ah, skirmishers – the footnotes of military history. Yet, these seldom mentioned troops are the ones who make victory possible and whose absence can spell defeat. It was the skirmishers who made the Athenian victory over the Spartans at Sphacteria possible, it was the lack of skirmishers that doomed the Spartans at Sphacteria. It was also the skirmishers, especially skirmish cavalry, that sealed the fate of the Athenian’s Sicilian campaign.

Many authors omit any mention of the skirmishers and some just mention skirmishers in passing. However, in most ancient armies, skirmishers made up 25% of the army. Let’s jump forward to the 18th century. The author of the long titled The Operations of the Allied Army, Under the Command of His Serene Highness Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswic and Luneberg, the Greatest Part of Six Campaigns, Beginning in 1757, and Ending in 1762 mentions several small engagements where small bodies of troops were involved, what is often called the “Kleinkrieg” or “small war.” In these accounts, he gives us the names of commanders, names of the infantry regiments and cavalry squadrons of both sides – except for the “light horse” and the “jagers”.

The Hereditary Prince and General von Oberg had 100 jaegers under their command as the Advance Guard. Pulling up the ever handy Kronoskaf site, I discover there is only one regiment of Jagers in the Hanoverian army in February of 1758 and that is the Schulenberg Jaeger Corps consisting of 2 companies of mounted jagers and 4 companies of foot jagers.

The figures are 10mm Prussian Jagers from Pendraken Miniatures. They don’t make Hanoverian jagers. Which brings up a seldom mentioned point in this hobby, no one makes a complete range of Seven Years War figures in any scale. So, you often have to make do with figures which closely match the description of the troops you’re trying to portray. As an example, these jagers are wearing boots which I painted to look like the gray gaiters worn by the Hanoverians and of course, the sprig of oak leaves are missing from the hats. However, this is as close as we’re going to get at this time.

Here’s a photo to give you an idea of the size of 10mm figures:

The Count

The completion of these 8 jagers brings my total of painted figures to 217 for the year.

• 38 28mm Fantasy Figures.
• 67 10mm Seven Years War Figures.
• 57 28mm Old West Figures.
• 5 28mm Colonial Era Figures.
• 32 20mm Spanish Civil War Figures.
• 18 28mm Science Fiction Figures.
• Rebased 11 28mm Science Fiction Figures.
• 35 Terrain Pieces.

Your comments are always appreciated, they let me know you’re still out there and that I’m not in an alternate reality. Of course the current Trumpian reality has me longing for a much different one.