Bavarian Staff

So Sunday’s scheduled game is a Franco-Prussian contest involving Prussian and Bavarian forces combining against the French. While there are two brigadiers for the two brigades of Bavarians, no senior commanders were available. Thankfully they arrived at the front on Monday.

Now, appropriately attired and mounted, they are ready to take the field. The three generals, Von der Tann, Von Hartmann  and Von Stephan, are supported by a small staff. Usually personality figures have only a passing resemblance to the character they represent, but I reckon these do a better than average job...with Hartmann on the left, Stephan in the centre and Von der Tann on the right.

Also in this set are three staff officers. What is in the message that is being passed?

Here they are in the configurations that will be used on the gaming table.

I have discussed Hartmann's biography in a previous post (LINK), but the other two had an equally colourful service history in the Royal Bavarian Army.

While Hartmann fought at Waterloo, General of Infantry Baron Ludwig Samson von der Tann-Rathsamhausen was born on the 18 June, 1815, on the very day of the battle, and was a descendant of an ancient baronial family widely spread through Francony and Hesse. His father, Baron Heinrich von und zu der Tann, served as chamberlain to King Louis I of Bavaria and as a result of that close association the younger von der Tann was trained as a royal page. Preferring a military life he sought (at the risk of offending his pstron) and obtained a commission as a second lieutenant in the Bavarian artillery. In 1840 he was made first lieutenant and posted to the General Staff, making captain shortly afterwards. In 1844 he served as adjutant to Prince Maximillian, a position he held when the prince succeeded his father as King. In 1848 when the first Schleswig-Holstein War broke out he was permitted to lead a Frei Korps,  winning success over the Danes. When the Danes finally gained victory, von der Tann returned to Bavaria as adjutant to the King, advancing to major-general shortly after and in 1860 rose to lieutenant-general. In 1866 he accepted the appointment of chief of staff for the Bavarian Army in the disastrous campaign against the Prussians, for which he was widely blamed. In the restructure of the Bavarian Army under Prussian guidance, he was given command of Bavarian I Corps in 1869. Despite the military reforms and Bavaria's acceptance of Prussian command over her troops, von der Tann was hardly a strong supporter of his new masters and at Wörth on 6 August 1870 blatantly ignored three requests from the Crown Prince of Prussia to attack before being directly ordered to do so. He fought at Sedan  and later in the Loire, where his corps suffered defeat at Coulmiers. He lived for another ten years after the war, passing in 1881.

Johann Baptist Ritter von Stephan was a very different sort of officer for a general in Bavarian service. Born in 1808 he had entered the army 1824 as a private soldier and by 1833 had made lieutenant. He transferred to the Greek service for four years, returning go Bavaria in 1837. By 1848 he was a major and adjutant to Prince Karl Theodor. Under this royal patronage his career took off - Lt Colonel in 1853, Colonel in 1855 and Major General in 1861 commanding the second Bavarian infantry brigade which he led in 1866. In 1870 he commanded the Bavarian 1st Infantry Division at Wörth, Sedan and Villepion, where he was twice wounded. He never fully recovered from his wounds and died in 1873