Spanish Light Infantry battalion 1st Cataluña, 1805 uniform

As I was finalizing my orders of battle for the Talavera Campaign and battle, I found that I needed a third unit of Spanish Light Infantry. 

I decided to do this unit, the 1st Cataluña battalion, wearing the later 1805 uniforms, when all battalions of Light Infantry had dark blue coats. 

Light Infantry facings, 1805  (per Osprey by Rene Chartrand)

Battalion	Cuffs and Tunbacks	Lapels	Collar	Piping	Buttons
1st Aragon	Scarlet	Scarlet	Scarlet	White	Pewter
2nd Aragon	Scarlet	Scarlet	Blue	White	Pewter
1st Cataluna	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Brass
2nd Cataluna	Yellow	Yellow	Blue	Yellow	Brass
Taragona	Yellow	Blue	Yellow	Yellow	Brass
Gerona	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Yellow	Pewter
1st Barcelona	Yellow	Blue	Yellow	Yellow	Pewter
2nd Barcelona	Yellow	Yellow	Blue	Yellow	Pewter
Barbastro	Scarlet	Blue	Scarlet	White	Pewter
Vol. de Valencia	Crimson	Crimson	Crimson	White	Pewter
Vol. de Navarra	Crimson	Blue	Crimson	White	Pewter
Campo Mayor	Crimson	Crimson	Blue	White	Pewter

Funken gives a similar table, but has blue piping for the following regiments:  2nd Aragon, Barbastro,
Navarra, and Campo Mayor.

And for yet another, slightly different scheme see the diagrams on the Little Warts site.

I have, in fact, followed his scheme for this unit (white piping, brass buttons), although it is hard to see in the pictures.

 I wanted the unit in a "firing" pose for Light infantry, and figures that had plumes on their bicornes (these light infantry units had green plumes instead of the red plumes common to almost every other Spanish uniform). 

Thus, when I was ordering my Hussars, Generals, and Militia from Eagle Figures this spring, I threw in a unit of these guys. The figures, and especially plumes, are slender, and at least 1/3 of the plumes had broken off in shipping (although there were 2 extra figures in the order as partial compensation). Choosing durability over appearance, I epoxied the broken plumes on in a "swept back" fashion. I think they look tolerable. 

The flag is from an old Orv Banisek  (? spelling) flag sheet, and is that of the Macarquibir Regiment.

Militia Honrados de Lorca, 1808

Another unit of Spanish local civic Militia. Although the multitude of Spanish Militia units wore a variety of colors for their uniforms, I have used only units wearing brown for simplicity of identification.

Lorca is a city in the Province of Murcia, and extends to the Mediterranean coast. Settlements at that location pre date the Roman era by many cetnuries. 

Like the previous Militia unit, these are Eagle figures.

Most of these figures wear a blanket over their Right shoulder, which makes them both distinctive and fun to paint. 

Properly, the red facings should be piped in white. That seemed a bit much for me for a Militi un it, so I eft out the piping.

Light brown coat and pants, red collar, cuffs, and lapels, brown turnbacks, all piped white.
Pewter buttons. Silver plaque on the front of the top hat. Hmm, I need to add the plaques!

Un poco mas Guerrillas - Eagle Figures

Some more unsavory characters to make life miserable for the French - this time by Eagle figures. 

These figures are notably more slender and a bit slimmer than the (Eagle Figures) Militia of Coruna seen previously. 

OPne suspects these were earlier sculpts by a different sculptor than the more recent figures. 

They certainly fit the bill regardless. 

A second set of six - the figure in the Bicorne is a Brigade games figure; the difference in height and stockiness is apparent. 

"Death to the French!"

I tried to suggest an embroidered yoke on the black apron of the  angry señora.

Once again, it would seem that many of these figures could just as well be used as pirates. 

Either way they can expect no quarter if they are captured!

Militia Honrados de Coruna - Eagle figures

After the French evacuated Galicia in 1809, this unit was among many such troops raised for maintaining local order and self defense. 

Properly, the facings should be piped in white and the belt work black. I did my unit a bit differently. 

There is a detailed article on The Napoleon series about this unit. Flag is a generic one printed from Warflag/Napflag. 

These are Eagle figures, a new manufacturer for me. Their service was excellent. 

Dark brown coat and pants, Medium green facings piped white. Pewter buttons.

A little mood music, Maestro!

This 1947 film about the inquisition and the conquest of Mexico by Cortez is still well worth watching; it was shot on location in Mexico, and the smoking volcano in the background on many shots was completely real. The score by Alfred Newman is outstanding. The USC band uses the "Conquest March" from the end of the movie as one of their signature pieces. At UConn , we had our own fantastic arrangement of "Captain" based more upon the first part of the opening Title theme. I will have to see is I can digitize my old mid 1970's  vinyl recording of it some day, as it is an extremely stirring piece of music... especially when played by 160 musicians! 

ADD: Marco from Chile was kind enough to send me a photo of some Spanish standards from the museum in La Coruna. Now I will have to do a replacement flag for this unit to match! Marco assures me my unit will fight much better with the proper flag to inspire them!  :-)

Marco says that the flag on the left of the picture is that of the Militia of Santiago; he notes that flag has the complete Royal arms in its center. The middle, dark blue flag is an artillery flag of the 4th regiment (see the flag carried by my 12 pounder battery). The flag on the right is that of the Militia of La Coruna. Surprisingly, it appears to have a red field (although not as red, at least 200 years of ageing later, as that in the lining of the crown). Marco comments that he has seen originals of the white flags of the Spanish units, and none of them have aged to a color anything like this. 

The central device of the Coruna flag is the "reduced' (simplified) Royal arms, with the red Lion of Leon quartered with the Tower of Castile, and the fleur-de-lis of the Bourbons superimposed upon them, as seen above (image also supplied by Marco). This is surrounded by a "trophy" of flags, etc. 

In the typical style of Spanish standards of the era, the four corners of the Coruna flag bear the arms of the city - a heraldic "Pillar of Hercules". Image once again supplied by Marco. 

Húsares de María Luisa - Húsares de Extremadura

This regiment dates back to 1793, originally as the Carabineros de María Luisa, then becoming the Húsares de María Luisa in 1803. In 1808 the regiment was used to form the 1st and 2nd  Húsares de Extremadura, which later merged back in to a single regiment. The same uniform was retained throughout, aside from a change from the Mirleton to a shako, starting perhaps as early as late 1809. 

The trumpeter wears "reversed colors" for the dolman and pelisse. The officer subsitutes silver for the white lace, and, oddly, even has silver epaulettes on the pelisse!

A fantastic source for information on all of the Spanish Hussars (and for many other Spanish troops as well) can be found at the Little Wars site.

These very nice castings are from Eagle figures, the only manufacturer I could find that does them in the fabulous Mirleton in 28 mm. With this uinit, we are back to "proper" 8 figure, 4 stand regiments!

I am afraid this unit didn't have a stellar battlefield record, earning the nickname "Run Away Marys" for their contribution to the War of the Oranges with Portugal  in 1801. Of course, they weren't officially Hussars yet then, so maybe that accounts for it!  :-)