Infanterie-Regiment von Seybothen

Markgrafschaft Bayreuth

Füsiliers of the 2nd Anspach-Bayreuth Infanterie-Regiment von Seybothen during a reenactment at Schloss Fasanerie near Fulda, Germany. The regiment actually consisted of only one battalion of 1 Grenadier and 4 Füsilier companies with a total of 570 officers and enlisted men garrisoned at Bayreuth, Franconia. The unit arrived in New York on 3 June 1777, and it participated in several campaigns alongside British forces in North America until it was captured on the evening of 14 October 1781 while defending Redoubt No.10 during the Allied siege of Yorktown. Many of the soldiers who were exchanged and released from captivity in May 1783 eventually settled in America; less than a third of the Franconian auxiliary contingent returned to their Fatherland later in the year, unarmed and without their flags.

The unit, formerly known as Infanterie-Bataillon von Drais, was designated Infanterie-Regiment von Voit when it left its garrison at Bayreuth to join the Anspach-Bayreuth army for the journey to America in 1777. The troops were to be shipped from Ochsenfurt on Main to Dortrecht, Holland, thence to Portsmouth, England, and New York in the American Colonies. When the troops arrived at Ochsenfurt there were not enough ships to transport them, and the infantry mutinied when the conditions on board turned out to be unbearable.

Infanterie-Regiment von Voit, 1777

Kommandeur
- Obrist Voit von Salzburg
Regimentsstab
- Adjutant Premier-Lieutenant Seidel
- Lieutenant und Auditeur Hernbauer
- Regim. Quartier Maitre Daig
- Feldprediger Pieret
Füsilierkompanie
- Major von Seybothen
- Premier-Lieutenant von Adolsheim
- Second-Lieutenant von Strahlendorff
- Second-Lieutenant von Molitor
Füsilierkompanie
- Capitain von Beust
- Premier-Lieutenant von Quesnoy
- Second-Lieutenant von Weitershausen
- Second-Lieutenant von Diemar
Füsilierkompanie
- Capitain von Eyb
- Premier-Lieutenant von Kruse
- Second-Lieutenant von Tunderfeld
- Second-Lieutenant von Weinhard
Füsilierkompanie
- Premier-Lieutenant von Witzleben
- Premier-Lieutenant von Beust
- Second-Lieutenant von Reitzenstein
- Second-Lieutenant von Altenstein
Grenadierkompanie
- Grenadier-Capitain von Seiz
- Premier-Lieutenant von Molitor
- Second-Lieutenant von Streit
- Second-Lieutenant Wagner

Major von Seybothen became the commanding officer of the regiment, and the unit was named Infanterie-Regiment von Seybothen, when Obrist von Voit took command of the Anspach infantry regiment.

Bibliography

Wise, Terence: Military Flags of the World, 1618–1900, Flag No. 217

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