The Pre 1798 Uniform (Cont'd)
Head-dress for fusiliers was the Casquet*, a squat, peakless leather cap with a taller false front bearing a brass plate; untill 1790 this was embossed with the Emperor's cypher, when it was replaced by a double-headed eagle. At the left side of the cap was the national pompom, a yellow woollen flattened ball with a black centre. Behind this was often worn the Feldzeichen, a sprig of green foliage (usually oak leaves), a relic of the 'field sign' used in the 17th century to distinguish friend from foe in the days before recognisable uniforms were used. The Austrian army was the only one to retain this archaic decoration, which they used into the early 20th century.
White leather equipment consisted of a wide belt over the left shoulder, supporting a large black leather cartridge box at the rear of the right hip, the box bearing a 14 x 17cm brass plate of an embossed, crowned double eagle. A wide leather waistbelt, fastened with a rectangular brass buckle, supported a bayonette and a short, curved sabre in a frog at the left side; for grenadiers and hungarians the sabre had a brass stirrup hilt, and for German fusiliers a simple cross-guard. Scabbards were dark brown leather with brass chape and throat, a characteristic feature of Austrian sidearms throughout being the extension of the leather over the upper part of the chape, creating a bulbous shape at the end of the scabbard. The tan hide knapsack was slung by a white leather strap over the right shoulder, resting at the left of the small of the back; a grey-brown greatcoat was folded atop the knapsack. The ovoid canteen with a reinforcing 'frame' of brown leather was carried on a woven fabric strap. The 1784 pattern musket was 150cm in length, with a calibre of 18.3mm and a weight of 4.8kg; the 1774 musket was also still in use, of similar dimensions but slightly heavier. The sling was white leather, and the lock had a waterproof cover for field service. The triangular-section bayonette was 32cm in length. It was common for grenadiers' musket stocks to be of polished walnut, and those of the fusiliers of stained beech, but doubtless such differences were not universal, especially in wartime.
Note:*Illustrated top left.
Grenadiers were distinguished by a grenade badge on the cartridge box and a brass match case upon the shoulder belt (originally the tube in which a lighted match was carried, in the days when hand grenades were still used), and by their headdress.** This was a peakless black bearskin cap with a high front bearing a brass plate embossed with the Austrian arms and trophies of arms, and a low rear section, with the top and reverse of the high front being lined with cloth bearing white lace decoration; the cloth rear resembled the 'bag' of a Hussar cap, the end of which crossed to the right side of the cap, where a yellow and black woollen pompom was carried. At this period the cloth rear was in the facing colour, with the white lace in a wavy decoration of varied styles.
Note:**Illustrated bottom left.
German Fusilier, 1790-98.(Print, after R. von Ottenfeld)
