Alin_Alexandru

So as promised if I find more information I'll post it. I got the Historia magazine that had the article about the Phanariote armies and there's some more information there as well as some interesting images. Before I start, all information will be from what's in the magazine as I don't know what sources were used exactly. The troops of both Moldavia and Wallachia were very similar to each other (since most pahariote voivodes ruled some time over one then were moved to the other) with minor differences in terms of clothing and colors (at least from the 19th century Wallachia used blue and yellow for their troops and Moldavia used blue and red). First let me talk about the armament, the uniforms and other general information. About the armament, all the troops whether they were infantry or cavalry always carried a bladed weapon (either a saber, a yatagan or a knife) as the troops liked to get into close combat, not liking to use guns that much (at least towards the start of the 18th century). The main weapon used by cavalry was the lance but they also carried pistols or carbines in some cases, interestingly in Moldavia bows were still used until the mid-18th century, could've been the same in Wallachia, these were mentioned by Dimitrie Cantemir as some soldiers were still using them and are also mentioned in the Russo-Turkish War of 1735-1739 used against the Austrian cavalry to great effect, this seems to be the last time bows were used in a war by the Phanariote armies. About the uniforms, it seems that there were indeed standardized uniforms though don't know how many were provided and how many were either made or bought by the individual soldier, still they had rules to follow in terms of appearance, especially since many were mercenaries. Steel helmets were used by some of the cavalry, though most wore hats, so did the infantry; it's unclear whether or not there were cavalrymen who also used cuirasses (though I do believe this was the case for a type of cavalry as you'll see in an image further down). In terms of colors, most troops used green, blue or yellow with red being reserved for the nobility (this is only for the beginning of the century, and even before red was used by some kinds of troops like the Roşii as mentioned before); peasant troops, those tasked with guarding the borders used what colors they could in their clothes and wore peasant clothing as well. The troops also received a regular payment from the army 'budget' as detailed in a 1776 document, they were also exempt from certain taxes and obligations. So as you can see the armies did have their standards but as pointed out previously I don't think these could compare to the western armies. Now moving to the types of troops presented in the drawings: -First the Tălpaşi also called Talpoşi, these were an infantry unit created by Şerban Cantacuzino, this seems to be the earliest of the illustrations, from the 18th century (not exactly from the magazine since I found a better quality version elsewhere) -the Plaieşi, they were border troops guarding the mountain passes. The drawing represents a Moldavian Plaieş. The next drawings all seem to have been made by G. Asaki (Gheorghe Asachi) in the early 19th century (before 1812). The originals are apparently kept at BCU Cluj but sadly they aren't digitized, I've checked their site, so I only have info from the magazine. These are all probably from Moldavia, as said before blue and red were used by Moldavian troops, Wallachia most likely had the same troops but with blue and yellow uniforms and maybe with some other differences here and there. -First, a Lăncier (Lancer) of Soroca. Similar to the Uhlans, using the lance as a primary weapon, also carrying 2 pistols and a carbine. Note the red and blue colors of the uniform and the lance pennon. -Next 2 border troops, infantry and cavalry also from the start of the 19th century. Very interesting uniforms. -A Ciohodar of the guard. They were a guard corps that also acted as servants of the Princely Court. The drawing shows a Moldavian Ciohodar. Here's one showing the Wallachian ones during Alexander Mourouzis' reign. Similar clothing with differences in the type of hat. -Next an Idicliu or Edicliu of the mounted guard. They were low ranking nobles serving the Princely Court. -A "Copil de casă" ("Child of the house"). They were the sons of boyars, they accompanied the voivode in his activities at the Princely Court. Possibly also helping in commanding various units during war. -And finnaly an Arnăut (on the left). They were Albanian mercenaries, though by the 19th century there were also Serbs, Greeks and even some Romanians in their ranks. And a Panţâr (on the right). The term Panţâr was derived from "panzer" meaning armor, probably through a Slavic term like the Polish pancerny. They seem to have appeared from as early as the 16th century and are similar to the Cuirassiers, what's interesting is that looking at the shape of his chest from the drawings, he seems to be indeed wearing a cuirass underneath his clothing (could be that it's just his belly but it looks a bit too domed like a 19th century cuirass for this to be the case :P) And these are the troops presented in the drawings. The article from the magazine goes over all types of troops mentioned in the 18th century (like the article on their site) but these are the only drawings. Now, how effective were these troops? Not so much, as noted by various travelers, the troops were good at performing peacetime activities like maintaining law and order, catching criminals, guarding the borders and the courts, escorting officials, but were not good during war. Part because the boyars leading them were not well prepared, they did read various military publications and knew some tactics and how to train their troops, and with this they could put up good parades and shows, but they had no proper Academy training so in war they weren't able to do a lot; to add to it the morale of the troops was low considering they had to fight on the side of the Ottomans which they didn't like. Nevertheless they did have some succes in the various wars, sometimes fighting against the attacking Russian and Austrian empires or sometimes fighting along them against the Ottomans.

You're welcome! If I manage to find more information I'll be sure to post it.

There were some standardised uniforms but not like in the west. As far as I know and as the article from Historia says the armies were mostly made up of mercenaries so this means they provided their own equipment, probably the state gave them weapons and ammunition but not sure about uniforms (again for most troops). However there were some rather standardised uniforms (maybe some were provided by the state, but probably still bought by individual soldiers), for example the Rosii who were regular light cavalry (they were exempt from taxes and had to provide military service) and wore red uniforms, don't have an image of them in the 18th century but here's a reconstruction of such cavalryman during Michael the Brave's reign so they probably still wore similar clothes: As for other uniforms, I searched for more pictures and managed to find this: These troops appear to be some kind of princely guards, the first image is Nicolae Mavrogheni (ruled between 1786-1790) dressed in "war uniform" very similar to that of (again what I think are) his guards. Other uniforms I could find were these The "uniforms" of the Potecasi (frontier guards, light cavalry), they wore pretty much peasant clothing. And the uniform of their commander. Another example is this These horsemen are probably Wallachian or Moldavian (because they don't look like Austrian or Russian cavalrymen), who fought together with the Austrians and the Russians at Focsani in 1789. I also managed to find this image of a parade during the phanariote rule, but couldn't find a better quality version yet. But here are multiple troops being shown, the original image probably also had a description of each one. Alright so about the transition from pike and shot to musketeer units. Unlike in the west pike and shot tactics weren't really as popular in the east, from what images there are of warfare over here pikes weren't used as much, that isn't to say pikes weren't used at all, but with a lot more fire arms in formations so the transition between pike and shot must've happened pretty quickly. To give an example of what unit formations were used in the east, here's an illustration of what I think is a Hungarian unit in the 17th century (from what description I could find) Another example could be seen in the Stockholm Roll where the Polish don't actually carry any pikes during the shown parade. I believe the reason for this is that cavalry was used a lot more than infantry so they would be the ones to engage enemy cavalry instead of infantry having to defend themselves from cavalry attacks. For example from the account of Paul Strassburg, Secret Counsellor of the King of Sweden, when he visited Wallachia during the reign of Leon Tomsa, the Wallachian army had 10 000 horsemen and 2 000 infantrymen according to what the voivode told him.

The armies were not recreated in 1830, what happened in 1830, specifically 1831-1832 was a modernisation of the two principalities through the "Organic Regulation" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulamentul_Organic . Both Wallachia and Moldavia had armies even during the phanariote era, the 18th and early 19th century. The armies were mostly made up of mercenaries and were very colourful, with a number of 27 different troops being mentioned throughout the century, check here: https://www.historia.ro/sectiune/general/articol/armatele-uitate-trupele-tarilor-romane-in-lungul-secol-fanariot . As you can see from the article the armies were mostly made up of cavalry with various units like, between others, Hussars(or rather equivalent of), Uhlans, Dragoons, and even some kind of Cuirassiers (probably those existed only in first half of the 18th century). However we have very few illustration of these troops, in fact there's next to none. There's this one of a Wallachian tolpatch(on the left), dated to around the 1740's so mid 18th century there's this one of "A Wallachian" from an 1805 album, but probably copied after a much earlier illustration The earliest 19th century illustration of a soldier from Wallachia might be this one Titled "A soldier from Bucharest" it was made in 1869, however the soldier appears to be wearing a Russian medal which means he participated in one of the two Russo-Turkish wars that took place then, though it's probably the war of 1828-1829 because he should've looked much older if he was in the war of 1806-1812. The uniforms you mentioned are from the Wallachian Grenz infantry of the Austrian Empire.