Mustering of Colonel Homburgs Dragoons

"Well Colonel, what do you think of your unit?"

"A fine body, I must thank you Baron, and the Stadtrat, for providing me with such a well turned out unit."

"You realise that we had to cut a few corners to raise them in time"

"Yes, but you have not stinted in the things that mattered, disciplined troopers and excellent horseflesh"

"I trust you'll remember our little arrangement"

"Certainly Baron, I would have agreed to the arrangement without your offer of a generous discount on the raising fee for the regiment, but I now feel obliged to make any additional effort required"

Frundsberg Dragoons (2)

"Sire, we have completed our assessment as to whether we can provide the Dragoons for Colonel Homburg."

Please tell us more"

"Basically dragoons do not have to be fully trained cavalry so it would not be wise to transfer any of our existing cavalry to a new unit."

"Agreed"

"However we have the equivalent of a couple of squadrons in training and after discussing the issue with the infantry colonels I believe we can raise the same number of men from the infantry with sufficient experience of horse riding"

"Interesting, so the infantry can provide a core of expertise for dismounted operations."

"Exactly, and the two months available for training should be sufficient to bring both groups up to a common standard."

"And the officers and NCO's?"

"Far less of a problem sire, we have more than enough potential volunteers eager to see action against the Ottomans"

"And as for equipment and horses?"

"Again no problem, we have sufficient weapons in the arsenal to equip the unit, and dragoon horses are readily available from our contractors"

"Excellent, but as for the uniforms? you realise we would prefer that the unit is clearly seen as originating from us"

"That is also possible, we still have enough yellow cloth, which when combined with some surplus black lining material will make the unit sufficiently Frundsberg in appearance."

"Thank you Major Stollen, I will inform the Stadtrat and Colonel Homburg that we will proceed with raising the regiment as requested"

New Dragoons requested

A new request arrives in the Freistadt, which initially causes some confusion in the Stadtrat.

"Colonel Homburg, graciously requests the assistance of the Freistadt in the raising of a regiment of Dragoons for the service of Hesse Kassel"

"What support those mercenaries in Hesse Kassel!!"

"An outrage"

"They are up to their usual tricks"

"Gentlemen can I clarify the request, we do know the officer concerned and he was Captain Homburg of the Stocwold Horse Regiment before he was offered a position by Hesse Kassel with promotion to Major, a position for which he was well qualified but we were unable to offer at the time"

"It's still Hesse-Kassel up to its tricks and just using this man as cover"

"Gentlemen Colonel Homburg is certainly intelligent enough to see through any attempted tricks and to get involved would be counter to his calvinist upbringing"

"There's more too it than meets the eye, I'm sure of it"

"The dragoons are to be part of the Hessian contribution to the Reicharmee to help relieve Vienna and defeat the Ottomans.

"So the Hessians will just get us to do the work so that they can claim the credit"

"Colonel Homburg has noted that possibility and suggested that we equip the unit with Frundsberg uniforms"

"Seems as though this fellow is being straight with us"

"I think so gentlemen, as his promotion is to Colonel in command of this regiment and he knows that his career will be in ruins if he uses the gutter sweepings that are all that remain in Hesse after the formation of the rest of the contingent"

"It certainly seems worth considering"

"Yes, and the price is quite reasonable"

"Why not indeed"

Gentlemen shall I ask the muster-master to see if this request is feasible within our current resources and the time available?"

Chorus of "Ja"