General Bachmann's Regimental Flag (Switzerland)

Last modified: 2024-10-05 by martin karner
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See also:

• Swiss Army Flags
• Swiss cantons war and military flags
• Swiss Mercenary Flags
• Helvetic Legion
• Glarus canton
• Switzerland
  
  
• Das Regiment Bachmann 1799–1801 (by Freiburger Geschichtsblätter, 1992, German)

Niklaus Franz von Bachmann from Näfels (Glarus) was a Swiss general who fought in the Napoleonic Wars on the side of the Britsh-Austrian-Russian coalition (War of the Second Coalition).
He is considered to be the rediscoverer of the Swiss Cross, which had been forgotten since the late Middle Ages as a common symbol of the confederate troops.
In 1799 he took over command of the Swiss troops fighting against Napoleon on the Allied side. In the spring of 1800 he introduced the red armband with the
white cross for his regiment (source). This can be seen as the birth of the modern Swiss Flag, although the flag as such had not yet been introduced (This only happened
in 1821 through the efforts of General Dufour). The red armband was introduced generally in the Swiss troops as a common sign in 1815, when the Diet appointed Bachmann
commander-in-chief of the federal troops.

The flag presented here was handed over to Bachmann's regiment on 15 March 1800 in Schwabmünchen, south of Augsburg (Bavaria). The cloth was originally red,
before it faded over time. On the obverse it shows the Latin motto Pro Deo et Patria (For God and Fatherland) surrounded by a wreath of oak and laurel leaves.
The reverse has the same design, but with the motto in German (Für Gott und Vatterland). When the regiment was dissolved in February 1801 after the war had ended,
Bachmann took the flag with him to his home in Näfels. In 1891 his great-granddaughter donated the flag to the Historical Association of the Canton Glarus.
Afterwards, through unknown circumstances, its trace was lost and it was considered missing. In 1948 the Historical Association luckily found the flag and bought it back
from a Monsieur de Pacquement from Paris and brought it back home to the Cantonal Museum in Näfels. In 2012 it was transferred to the Cantonal Archive in Glarus
for conservation reasons.
Source and photos: Südostschweiz/Glarner Nachrichten, 28.3.2024

Martin Karner, 17 May 2024