Bavarian "Horse Artillery" and Train

 

"Bavarian Horse Artillery" is somewhat of a misnomer. The first thing approaching this was a 2 gun section composed of the of Reitende Artillerie Kompanie in 1800. The horse battery was separated from the Artillerie-Regiment in May 1801, and the following year was reformed as an independent, 8 gun company. In March of 1804, the Horse company was disbanded and incorporated in to the Foot Artillery battalions. 

    From W. J. Rawkins, The Army of The Kingdom of Bavaria, 1792 – 1814  "Following the French occupation of Vienna Napoleon invited Maximillian Josef to accompany him to the Vienna Arsenal and presented him with Austrian guns, limbers, caissons and ancillary wagons and harnesses to fully equip two complete 6pdr horse artillery companies (Artillerie zu Pferd). This equipment with ‘wurst seats’ fitted to the gun trails was issued to two of the existing foot artillery battery converting them to horse artillery. The gunners rode on the wurst seats and the limber and the non-commissioned-officers were mounted on horse obtained fully trained from the cavalry who also provided to trained trumpeters for each company. 

    These new companies were initially organized in the same manner as the Austrian ‘wurst artillery’ but this was found unsatisfactory to Manson (the chief of the Bavarian Artillery arm), who disliked the weight that the wurst seat added to the light 6 pdr field guns which prevented the gun being laid by a single gunner. In 1806 the horse batteries were re-organised and began to be issued with new equipment specially designed by Manson and the companies ceased to be known as Artillerie zu

Pferd and were styled as ‘Leichte-Artillerie’, or ‘Mobile-Artillerie’.  

    The wurst seats were removed from the cannon trails in 1807 and replaced with Manson’s design for ammunition and tool caissons with a wurst seat on which the light artillery crews could ride. This system remained in use with the light companies until 1817."

The uniforms of these troops were the same as the foot artillery, except with a white plume on the Raupenhelm in place of the red of the Foot Artillery. 

Gunner's shabraques were dark blue with a deep yellow border, piped red. Officers shabraques were red with a broad gold border, piped red. A spare Bavarian Dragoon figure has been pressed into service as a mounted artillerist. These figures are all by Lucas Luber and Piano Wargames.  

In September 1806 the Bavsrian Artillery Train came under full military control as the ‘Führwesen-Bataillon’’. The new battalion was composed of eight companies, each divided into two "half-companies,  with one such assigned to each of the field artillery companies.

The limber and crew are by Lancashire Games, one of the few manufacturers I know of who do Bavarian limbers and train figures. I have no idea if the unusual seat atop the limber is correct; I am inclined to doubt it! 

As of 1806, the train uniform was a light grey jacket with cornflower blue collar, cuffs, and lapels, and grey facings piped light blue. White metal buttons and shoulder scales were worn. The breeches were light grey.  An artillery Raupenhelm was worn without a plume. 

As with the artillery carriages, the Bavarian limbers, caissons, and wagons were painted light blue with the metal fittings painted black. 

Baden Artillery Train, 1809

The Baden Artillery contingent needed some transport. of course, no one makes dedicated baden train figures!

Some Bavarian Train figures are close enough, though;  just somewhat different uniform colors. 

These are Lancashire Games Bavarian Train, painted as Badeners - dark blue coats, light blue facings, and red turnbacks. The Limbers and equipment is dark grey with black metal fittings, just like the Artillery carriages themselves. 

"Lancastrian" Prussian Landwehr

Here's the rest of the Lancashire Games 28mm Prussian Landwehr; I finished them just before the Waterloo event, and they made the trip to Manchester, but the Corps box they were got misplaced until after we'd already scrounged Greg's troop box for some Saxon proxies. Thus their first tabletop appearance will probably be at Historicon for the battle of Ligny.

This unit is painted as the 7th Silesian Landwehr; photos taken outside on a cool Spring morning!

A break in the clouds casts a shadow over the new guys.

I used CC Deep Yellow for their facings.

The improbable but gorgeous and evocative standard was a free download form Westfalia games site - it may not be available any longer

As discussed previously, despite the storage/transportation issues, I do like some of my Infantry units in a "Firing" pose.

A unit of Westphalian Landwehr.

I used CC Jubilee Green for their facings.

The nice, fun if unlikely flag is once again from the Wetsphalia Miniatures site.

Ragged but determined looking troops!  The Rhine may be fine but a cold stein for mine...

A rump of a Brandenburg Landwehr unit.

I figured the extra standard bearer would serve as a pikeman!

This unit's flag is from the Warflag/Napflag site. 

The white shoulder straps suggest that these men form part of the 1st Brandenburg Landwehr Regiment.

Prussian Landwehr - Lancashire Games Pt 1

Here are the first of the Landwehr figures that were part of my Lancashire Games order back in January. Since these were ordered specifically to beef up my Prussians for the 1815 events, I chose to paint them in the colors of some of the provinces that were added as Prussia retook territory it had lost as a result of the treaty of Tilsit. Although the 1814 regulations called fro the Landwehr to switch from the Litewka to the single breasted kollet jacket, it is likely that transition was slow and incomplete; hence my "new" Landwehr still wear the Litewka. I have covered the uniforms of the Landwehr infantry previously here.

This unit is the 3rd Rhein Landwehr Regiment.  The Rhein Landwehr was very late in forming, and didn't even make it to the front for the 1815 Hundred Days campaign... except in my army!

Both the flags seen in this post are speculative (the Landwehr weren't even supposed to carry flags), and are free from the following: http://westfaliaminiatures.com/images/flags/flagsample_01.png

The Provincial color for the Rhein units was "Madder Red", a natural dye that can vary quite a lot in hue. I chose to use a darkish red (Delta Ceramcoat [CC] Morocan Red). Because most reds don't cover well over Prussian blue, I undercoated the collars and cuffs with CC Adobe Red, a dusty red to dark pinkish color. Rhein units had brass buttons on their coats. Although regulation called for just provincial colored piping on the cuffs, examples of full cuffs in the facing color are known, and as I prefer more color, I have gone with that.

These Lancashire figures have a great many minor variations, and as you can see, the Landwehr have all manner of encumbrances hanging off them as well! The "Magic Wash" has done a good job of picking out the details of the sculpting. 

This next unit is the 2nd Elbe Landwehr regiment,. once again using Lancashire Games figures. I used a different method for doing the flesh on these units than my usual; this time I painted the hands and faces first with CC Dark Flesh (I usually use a stain of CC Terrra Cotta), and then highlighted with CC Medium Flesh. I'm not sure which I prefer!

The Elbe units had light blue facings and brass buttons. I used CC Bluejay foe the facings, as well as the hat band and trim on the schirmutze caps. The Landwehr cross on the front of the caps is well sculpted.

Once again. plenty of equipment hanging off these fellows!

Quite a number of the men in this units have lost their caps - or perhaps they have stowed them on a warm, late spring day in June, 1815?

Prussian Napoleonic Grenadiers, 1808 - 1814: Part 2

    In June 1813 IR #8 Garde zu Fuss (whose Grenadier companies were not detached) was taken out of the numbered sequence, and re-designated as the 1st Footguards, with a 2nd Footguard regiment being raised at the same time. The remaining regiments moved down a number to fill the gap and a new 12th IR was raised. In late 1814, the six Grenadier battalions were formed into two new Guard Grenadier regiments. #1 Czar Alexander and #2 Kaiser Franz; this was accompanied by new uniforms, at least theoretically! Thus the Prussian Grenadiers per se no longer existed by the time of the Waterloo Campaign (which probably won't stop me from using some of them at Ligny, to represent the best of the Line units). Here's the rest of the Lancashire games Prussian Grenadiers painted up...

The Pommersches Grenadier battalion. In this picture you can see that half the men have the white shoulder straps of the Erstes Pommersches IR #2, and the other half the red shoulder straps of the Colbergsches IR #10, the two Line regiments contributing their two Grenadier companies each to create the unit.

These are once again 28mm Lancashire games figures; ordering using their Battalion packs is definitely the way to go whenever possible! The white facings are those of the parent Pommeranian regiments.

The figures in this unit has a much more uniform appearance than the earlier ones; that is not an accident - about half of the "Advancing" pack figures are in this pose, so I consolidated the bulk of them into this one unit to give it a more classic, "toy soldier" look. 

For this unit, even the secondary equipment is uniform, unlike the others!

I am very pleased to field these guys, having been on the hunt for Prussian grenadiers post 1807 wearing their plumes for quite some time; I am told that Elite and Hinchliffe also make Grenadiers (Guards) in the Busch as well. 

Until now, my only Prussian Grenadiers were the nine Minifigs seen above, part of the 100 or so such figures that Jamie sold me at Historicon back in 2003, very nicely and neatly painted as seen, for $1/figure. The obvious difference in size between the "true 25mm" Minifigs and the "heroic" 28mm Lancashire is apparent, although they don';t look as badly together as I might have thought. 

Jamie had painted them as the Silesian Battalion, but as I wanted to use the yellow facings for an all Lancashire unit, I repainted them with the crimson (Knoetel says "karmesin", or carmine) facings of the Westpreussisches Grenadier Battalion, opting for the more purplish interpretation of that color.

I hadn't even planned to ever *do* a Prussian Napolonic army until Jamie's troops jump started me. That was followed by another lot of Minifigs from Joe, then some new Old Glory figures. My Prussians underwent a significant expansion for 2013 (1813 - Dresden, etc), adding some Reeserve Infantry regiments, Landwehr cavalry, and Uhlans. 

With the shift to doing Ligny at Historicon this year, these Grenadiers are the first of the push to expand my Prussians once again. After this, I'll have 4 units of Lancashire Landwehr Infantry to paint, then a bumper crop of Old Glory Prussians - 4 Landwehr Infantry, 4 Line Infantry, 4 Regular Infantry, 2 Dragoons, 2 Hussars, 1 Landwehr Cavalry, and 4 Artillery batteries. 

Just like the actual Prussians of 1813, I'll be scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel to field them all. Enough typing - back to the painting table!

Although written following the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, this is a very famous march, and the video has great images from the 7 Years War, Napoleonic Wars, Austro Prussian War, and concluding with the Franco Prussian War. (Ignore the comments, as usual)

Prussian Napoleonic Grenadiers, 1808 - 1814: Part 1

    In the aftermath of the debacle of 1806 and the subsequent treaty of Tilsit, the territory of the Kingdom of Prussia was cut in half, and its army was even more drastically reduced. From a starting strength off 55 Regiments in 1806, there were to be but 12 Infantry Regiments (including the Garde Regiment zu Fuss, originally numbered as #8). The final composition of these regiments was set on December 1, 1808. Each regiment was to have 2 battalions of Musketeers and one of Fusiliers, each of four companies, plus 2 companies of Grenadiers, which were brigaded separately to form Grenadier battalions. Each company had 5 officers, 12 NCO's 20 Gefreite (a uniquely German designation for senior/distinguished privates in line for promotion to Unteroffizierre [Corporal]), 115 privates and 3 musicians - 155 men per company, which was to be augmented with yet an additional 50 privates upon mobilization.

The Grenadier battalions thus formed (and the regiments their companies were drawn from) were:

1st East Prussian Grenadier Battalion (Regts 1 and 3)
2nd East Prussian Grenadier Battalion (Regts 4 and 5)
Pommeranian Grenadier Battalion (Regts 2 and 10)
Leib Gtrenadier Battalion (Regt 9*)
West Prussian Grenadier Battalion (Regts 6 and 7)
Silesian Grenadier Battalion (Regts 11, 12)

* The Leib Grenadier Battalion had a unique organization, all four companies coming from IR #9, "Leib-Infanterie"). The 8th (Footguard) Regiment retained its Grenadier companies with the regiment itself.

The Zweites Ostpreussisches Grenadier Battalion. The facing color for East Prussia is variously described as "Brick Red" or Dull Orange.  These are the 28mm  Lancashire Games figures seen (unpainted)earlier this month.

The Grenadiers, when wearing full dress as seen here, had the tall black busch plumes on their shaklos; NCO's had the lower 1/4 of the plume in white, while drummers/musicians had their busch in red.

The Prussian Grenadiers were used as front line combat troops rather than being held in reserve, and saw much action in 1813 and 18914. 

The Lancashire Games figures come with a rather large number of variations on the "Advancing" pose, randomly supplied - I counted 5 poses, many with head and/or equipment sub-variants. 

They ate large figures, close to Front Rank in size. Although it's hard to see, especially with the characteristic Prussian habit of wearing the grey great coat rolled and slung across the chest and left shoulder, the shoulder straps have two different colors, reflecting the two different regiments the Grenadiers were drawn from - half have light blue (from the Viertes Ostpreussiches IR), half have yellow (from the Drittes Ostpreussisches IR). 

This four stand unit is the Schesisches Grenadier Battalion.

It has the yellow facings of Silesian units, and is composed of variants of the "Firing" pose packs from Lancashire Games. 

If you look closely you'll see some of the pose, head, and equipment variants.

The Grenadiers should have a brass eagle plate on the front of their shakos, while the Line infantry shakos have the Royal Cipher in brass on the front. However, these figures have (very nicely sculpted) "Guard Stars" on the fronts of their shakos, which would be appropriate to the Footguards (in silver). I debated how to handle that, and decided to just keep the stars and paint them in brass. Purists beware!

As I've noted before, I like some of my Napoleonic infantry in "Firing" poses. In perverse contrast to the above, larger unit, for this one I kept the shoulder straps all in just the red of a single (Zweites Schlesiches) parent regiment.