Size

The Romanian army initially fielded three divisions of infantry and three brigades of cavalry in 1877.  The Romanian army commanded by Prince Charles of Romania was consisted therefore of 30,000 infantry, 4,500 cavalry and 126 guns.  It's structure is shown here.

Organisation

A Romanian division was made up of two or three infantry brigades, a rifle battalion, and a regiment of artillery.

Infantry

There were two types of infantry fielded:  the Line Infantry and the Dorobantz or militia.

A Romanian infantry brigade usually consisted of one Line regiment and one or two Dorobantz regiments.  All regiments consisted of two battalions of around 750 men each, organised into four companies.

Cavalry

The cavalry also consisted of two types:  the Roshiori or Line cavalry and the Kalarash militia.

A brigade of cavalry consisted of three regiments, with each regiment comprising four squadrons of 125 men each.

Artillery

A regiment of artillery consisted of six batteries:  two of horse and four of foot.  Each battery contained six guns.

Equipment

Infantry

The Romanian infantry used the American Peabody rifle: a single-shot 0.5" breechloader.

Cavalry

The cavalry carried the same rifle as the infantry, with a sabre.

Artillery

The artillery used significantly inferior bronze copies of Krupp steel rifled guns.

The horse and light foot batteries used 4pdr guns with an extreme range of 3,800 yards.  The heavy foot batteries used a 9pdr gun with an extreme range of 5,000 yards.  Neither, however, had an effective range of more than 1,000 yards.

Uniforms

Infantry

Line regiments wore a single-breasted dark blue tunic with red facings.  Headgear was a dark blue kepi with a red band.  Trousers were grey with a darker grey stripe, tucked into high black boots.  Equipment was black leather and great coats were grey.

Rifle battalions wore a double-breasted brown tunic with green and black facings.  A black felt hat had a rim turned up on the right hand side, with a plume of black cock's feathers.  Trousers were grey with a narrow green stripe.  The greatcoat was grey with green facings.

The permanent cadres of the Dorobantzi wore the same uniforms as the line infantry, but with a black sheepskin cap with a brass badge and a black cock feather.  The schimba, or men who filled up the ranks in time of war, were issued with white patrol jackets with blue collars, cuff and facings; with white trousers.

Cavalry

The Line cavalry were dressed as Hussars:  with a red jacket and black braiding, with dark blue breeches.

The Kalarashi militia dressed the same, but with dark blue jackets.

Artillery

The artillery dressed like the Rifles, but with a yellow stripe on their trousers and a dark blue kepi with a black band.  Collar and cuffs were black.

Quality

Romanian line troops should be average; with the militia average to poor.