First Carlist War Painting Guide: Cristino Infantry

This is my painting guide for the Spanish government infantry of the First of the Carlist Wars. It covers:

• Line and Provincial Infantry
• Light Infantry (except Reina Gobernadora)
• 7th Light Infantry Regiment: Cazadores de la Reina Gobernadora
• Marines
• Chapelgorris
• Other Volunteers
• Guards Infantry

Line and Provincial Infantry

Item	Grenadiers	Fusiliers	Cazadores
Jacket (Shell, Frock, Coatees)	Turquí
Jacket Collar	Red	Yellow	Green
Jacket Epaulettes	Red	–	Green
Jacket Cuff flaps & piping	Red	?	White
Jacket Sardinetas (bars on the cuffs)	Yellow	–	Yellow
Jacket Buttons	White
Greatcoat with Epaulettes and Sardinetas as appropriate.	Grey
Trousers	White or Pale Grey
Shako	Black
Shako Cockade	Red
Shako Plume & Band	Red	Yellow	Green
Brass Shako Emblem	Grenade	Rampant Lion	Hunting Horn
Shako Pompom (Marines only)	–
Forage cap	Turquí
Forage cap tassels & piping	Red	Yellow	Green
Alpargatus (rope soled sandals)	Brown
Boots	Black
Equipment (eg Waist belt, cartridge box)	Black
Pack (Leather)	Brown
Pack (Linen) – sometimes replaced the leather pack in the field	White
Greatcoat bag above pack – often retained to hold a rolled blanket	Blue and white striped
Gun barrel	Shiny Metal
Drummers	red and gold lace, and probably white chevrons on their sleeves

You’ll notice considerable variation on trouser colours in the illustrations. Cairns (1994b) says they wore white or light grey in the field, although other colours (particularly civilian brown) would be used as need. However, the illustrations often show Turquí trousers, although this might be a peculiarity of dress uniform alone.

Marines

The Marine uniform was essentially the same as the Grenadiers of the Line Infantry, i.e. yellow sardinettas, red epaulettes and in fact using red as a colour differentiator (Cairns 1994b). The significant differences between Marines and Grenadiers is that the Marines had a blue pompom on top of their shako. The Marines also would not have had the brass grenade on the shako, but I don’t know what emblem they used, if any.

Light Infantry (except Reina Governadora)

The Light Infantry wore a green uniform (Cairns, 1994b).

Item	Carabineros	Cazadores	Tiradores
Jacket (Shell, Frock, Coatees)	Green
Jacket Collar	Red	Yellow	Green
Jacket Epaulettes	Red	Yellow	–
Jacket Cuff flaps & piping	Yellow
Jacket Sardinetas (bars on the cuffs)	Yellow
Jacket Buttons	White
Greatcoat with Epaulettes and Sardinetas as appropriate.	Grey
Trousers	Green
Shako	Black
Shako Cockade	Red
Shako Plume & Band	Red	Yellow	Green
Brass Shako Emblem	Hunting Horn	Hunting Horn	Hunting Horn
Shako Pompom (Marines only)	–
Forage cap	Green
Forage cap tassels & piping	Red	Yellow	Green
Alpargatus (rope soled sandals)	Brown
Boots	Black
Equipment (eg Waist belt, cartridge box)	Black
Pack (Leather)	Brown
Pack (Linen) – sometimes replaced the leather pack in the field	White
Greatcoat bag above pack – often retained to hold a rolled blanket	Blue and white striped
Gun barrel	Shiny Metal
Drummers	red and gold lace, and probably white chevrons on their sleeves

7th Light Infantry Regiment: Cazadores de la Reina Gobernadora

Reina Gobernadora (Cairns, 1994b, figure 5) were like other Light Infantry except they had grey frock coats (instead of green coatees), white epaulettes in all companies, grey collars (like the coat) with collar patches showing company distinctions, grey trousers with a green welt down the seam, and black equipment.

Notice the pompom and collar patches are green. This probably means the figure is from the Tiradores company. Following the normal scheme red would be for for right flank carabineros and yellow for centre company Cazadores, Green for left flank Tiradores.

The illustrations from NYPL are problematic as they are for the period 1824-29 and are certainly not wearing the uniform described by Cairns (1994b).

Chapelgorris

The Chapelgorris were a volunteer unit associated with the British Auxiliary Legion (Cairns, 1994b) . According to Cairns they were dressed in the Carlist manner with a red beret, black frock coats, and red or white trousers (I assume red in winter). They were increasing equipped by the Legion, so a sprinkling would be wearing British kit, like scarlet shell jackets instead of the Black Frock coat.

As you can see from the pictures, it would seem some wore a red shako or a forage cap. One of the figures is wearing a regulation greatcoat.

Other Volunteers

Other volunteer units wore black or rifle green uniforms (Cairns, 1994b). I guess a unit would be either black or rifle green. I also guess that the uniforms would otherwise follow those of the regulars, but probably with black equipment instead of white.

Guard Infantry

Fig 7 in Cairns (1994b) is a Guardsman in campaign dress; Fig 6 is the same guy in dress uniform. Apparently they left their bearskins at home when on campaign and wore shakos and forage caps like the line infantry.

Item	Grenadiers	Cazadores
Jacket (Shell, Frock, Coatees)	Turqui
Jacket Collar	Red / Turqui	Yellow
Jacket Epaulettes	Red	Yellow
Jacket Cuff flaps & piping	Red
Jacket Sardinetas (bars on the cuffs)	White
Jacket Buttons	White
Greatcoat with Epaulettes and Sardinetas as appropriate.	Dark Grey
Trousers	Red
Shako	Black
Shako Cockade	Red
Shako Plume & Band	Red	Yellow
Brass Shako Emblem	Grenade	Grenade
Shako Pompom	–
Forage cap	Turqui
Forage cap tassels & piping	Red	Yellow
Alpargatus (rope soled sandals)	Brown
Boots	Black
Equipment (eg Waist belt, cartridge box)	White
Pack (Leather)	Brown
Pack (Linen) – sometimes replaced the leather pack in the field	White
Greatcoat bag (above pack – often retained to hold a rolled blanket)	Blue and white striped
Gun barrel	Shiny Metal

Note: Provincial regiments were distinguished by having yellow lace.

All of the illustrations from NYPL are presumably some kind of formal uniform. In particular they lack the red trousers that Cairns (1994b) shows:

References

Cairns, C. (1994b, November). A Savage and Romantic War: Spain 1833-1840. Part II: The Cristino forces. Wargames Illustrated, 86, 36-46.

New York Public Library (NYPL): The Vinkhuijzen collection of military uniforms