heir hats and
helmets, and white lace round the arm, and the Swedes had green
branches. The Imperial colour in the field was red, therefore Gustavus
Adolphus prohibited his Swedes from wearing that colour,[6] the scarfs
of the Swedish officers at the battle of Luetzen were green, those of
Electoral Saxony during the war were black and yellow, and later, after
the acquisition of the Polish crown, red and white.

The soldiers were formed in troops or companies, and these were
combined in regiments which had administrative unity. The German
infantry regiments consisted of three thousand men, in ten companies of
three hundred men; they seldom reached their normal strength, and lost
their men in the war with frightful rapidity, so that there were
frequently regiments of from a thousand to three hundred, and companies
of seventy to thirty men. Cavalry regiments were required to be from
five hundred to a thousand men strong; the numbers of the troops were
different, and their effective war strength was still more variable.

The titles and duties of officers had already much similarity to the
modern German organization. He who had raised a regiment for his
Sovereign, was called the colonel of the regiment, even if he had the
rank of General; under him were the Lieutenant-colonel and Major. More
important for the object of these pages were the officers of companies;
the Captain of infantry or cavalry, with his Lieutenant, an Ensign,
and sergeant, or troop sergeant-major, non-commissioned officers and
lance-corporals, and finally the provost-marshal.

When an officer at the mustering of his company in a circle, was
installed as chief captain and father, he begged his dear soldiers, in
a friendly manner, to be true and obedient to him, recounted to them
their duties, promised to stand by them in every emergency, and as an
honest man, devote himself to them in life or death, and leave them
whatever he had. Unfortunately the captain's first duty was to be
faithful in money concerns, both towards the colonel and his own
soldiers, to procure clever good soldiers for the reviewing officer,
not to charge for more mercenaries than was right, and to give the
soldiers their full pay; but this seldom happened. The temptation to a
system of fraudulent gain was great, and conscientiousness in the
uncertain life of war was a virtue which quickly disappeared; even the
most honourable fell upon dangerous rocks when the pay had been long in
ar