Austrian Jägers

"The Austrian army was not well served by light infantry units. Not until 1798 were regular light infantry battalions formed, from the various Frei-Corps, which thus largely ceased to exist. Not surprisingly, given the general inability to recognise the merits of light infantry, all the battalions were disbanded in 1801.
To replace the light battalions, a regiment of Tyrolean Jägers was formed in 1801.In 1808 nine 'divisions' of Jägers were formed, four in Bohemia, two each in Austria and Moravia and one in Inner Austria.On I December 1808 each 'division' was expanded into a six-company battalion, in wartime each battalion was expanded to 860 men.
Jägers wore pike grey breeches and a singlebreasted jacket, grass green collar, cuffs and turnbacks, yellow buttons bearing the battalion number, and a black 'Corsican hat' (Korsehut) with a feather and a leather chinstrap; this 'round hat' with an upturned brim had a 2* in. high brass shield specified, bearing the battalion number, but this is not shown by all sources. Hornists had grass green wings laced white. Officers wore cocked hats with gold lace and loop, and gold horn turnback badges; field officers had the usual sword belts and gold cuff lace, leatherwork for lower ranks being black. Overcoats for 'other ranks' were dark 'mixed grey' with six buttons, for officers of dark 'Moorish grey' with grass green collar and cuffs. "

Taken from Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars (I): Infantry. Philip Haythornthwaite-Bryan Fosten. Osprey MAA 176 (1986)


Three Austrian Jäger battalions (Nos. #1, #2 and #7) were part of the Liechtenstein's 1st Light Division, and were present in Lindenau with a force of 1,920 men, i.e. 32 figures at a 1:60 scale (I'll use 'one-half' NB). There are not 1/72 plastic figures depicting this Austrian unit, but HäT make a natural susbtitute: 8008 Napoleonic Brunswick Avantgarde Jaeger wearing the unmistakable 'Corsican hat' (Korsehut). This was one of the first HäT sets, so the overall quality is somewhat low when compared with the last HäT releases but it is the only feasible alternative.

The 'Grey devils', as the Austrian Jägers were named, will be the next painting project, after I (hopefully) finish the Grenzer (now in the production line!)

Bicentenary of Medellín (march 28,1809)

The battle of Medellín (March 28, 1809) was the final battle of Marshal Victor’s invasion of Extremadura of March 1809 and one of the most costly Spanish defeats of the Peninsular War. The Spanish Army of Extremadura under General Cuesta, had been forced out of its defensive positions on the Tagus River and had retreated to Medellín on the Guadiana River and then eastwards to La Serena, where on 27 March he was joined by the Duke of Albuquerque. This gave Cuesta a total of 19,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry and 30 guns, sufficient to risk battle.
On the other side, Marshal Victor had followed Cuesta over the mountains between the Tagus and the Guadiana, and after detaching troops to garrison the key-points of the route, he reached Medellín with 13,000 infantry, 4,500 cavalry and 50 guns.

The battlefield at Medellín was a triangle of land bordered by the River Guadiana to the north and the Hortiga to the west, with Medellin at the north western tip of the triangle, on the west bank of the Hortiga. Both Victor and Cuesta were willing to risk a battle. Victor’s army was the better organised and more experienced, and was superior in cavalry. Cuesta’s only numerical advantage was in his infantry, but this was split between raw recruits and men who had been defeated Gamonal and the Somosierra Pass. The one redeeming feature of the Spanish position was that the French were fighting with their backs to the River Guadiana. If the Spanish could win the day, their victory would be a large one.

Cuesta advanced in a thin line of infantry, that repulsing the first French cavalry attackse forced Victor to order a fighting retreat to a new position. However hte battle was decided on the Spanish left, were Cuesta ordered charge the bulk of the Victor's artillery. The Spanish infantry fought with impressive determination, and actually managed to reach the guns, but Victor sent the Latour-Mauburg's cavalry into the attack. The Spanish cavalry try counter-charge but they turned and fled, exposing the flank of the Spanish line. A similar collapse occurred on the Spanish right so the Spanish infantry was hit from the front and the rear.

The result was a massacre. At least 7,500 Spanish troops were killed in the battle with some battalions were virtually wiped out. The French took at least 1,850 prisoners and 20 guns. French losses were much lower, between 1,000 and 2,000. Cuesta retreated towards Sevilla. The Central Junta congratuled him despite the defeat and the heavy losses and by mid April, the reinforcements bring the Army of Extremadura back to same size as it had been before the battle. Victor remained in Extremadura until the middle of June and then participated in the campaign of Talavera.

Extracted from Military History Encyclopedia on the Web
Spanish activities Programa del Bicentenario de Medellín

Battle of Ciudad Real (march 26-27, 1809)

The battle of Ciudad Real (March 26-27, 1809) was a bloodless French victory over a Spanish army that had attempted to force the French out of La Mancha. After several detachments, the Count of Cartaojal, commanding the Ejército de la Mancha was left with only 10,000 infantry. After remaining inactive at Ciudad Real for three weeks, in late March Cartaojal made a sudden reckless dash towards Toledo. On 24 March he reached Yébenes, only twenty miles from Toledo, but was then forced to retreat when strong French reinforcements began to arrive. Cartaojal retreated to Ciudad Real, where he took up a very weak position on the plains between the town and the Guadiana.

By now he was facing a French force 13,000 strong under General Sebastiani, who decided to attack the weak Spanish position. On 26 March French dragoons captured a bridge across the Guadiana at Peralvillo, north of Ciudad Real. Cartaojal was able to drive then back off the south bank, but not to recapture the bridge. The next morning (27 March), Sebastiani sent his infantry across the bridge. This threatened to outflank the Spanish right wing, and Cartaojal responded by ordering an instant retreat, sending his cavalry to cover the retreating infantry.

Sebastiani’s cavalry soon broke through the Spanish cover, and began to chase the Spanish infantry across the plains. By the time a heavy rainstorm ended the pursuit on the following morning the French had reached as far as Santa Cruz de Mudela, thirty miles south east of Ciudad Real. Despite this long pursuit across an open plain the French only took 2,000 prisoners, for the Spanish infantry had broken up into several columns, each of which was willing to disperse if threatened. Neither side suffered any significant casualties during the short battle.

Extracted from Military History Encyclopedia on the Web
Information in spanish Historia y Arte de Ciudad Real

ALKAID issue No. 3

The issue No.3 of ALKAID REVISTA MULTITEMÁTICA is coming out March, 25. This magazine conjugates different fields: science, environment, literature, poetry, wargames… The issue No.3 contains several articles related with Napoleonic history:

Un general de Napoleón a la caza de "El Charro": Monsieur Thiébault and Don Julián (A Napoleon's General chasing "El Charro": Monsieur Thiébault and Don Julián) by M.A. Martin Mas
A description of the paralel lifes of thes two men, fighting one another during the Peninsular War around the Salamanca-Ciudad Rodrigo area. M.A. Martín is a very known Spanish author specialized in the Peninsular War. The article is illustrated with several drawings of the late Dionisio Álvarez Cueto.

Dionisio Álvarez Cueto: La historia en dibujos by Rafael Pardo
A necronological note devoted to the Spanish draftsman and cartoonist Dionisio Álvarez Cueto, one of the more known anf famous Spanish specialist in historical drwaings and cartoons, illustrated with some of his contributions.

The magazine is in Spanish and is available by subscription. Go to ALKAID EDICIONES web site, http://www.alkaidediciones.com/ , and download the Subscription Form or contact me throught the e-mail address: rpardo@qa.uva.es

Madame Lavoisier in the Ada Lovelace's day

The Ada Lovelace's Day is a blogging international day to draw attention to women excelling in technology (The Ada Lovelace Day Collection). To take part, you must to choose a tech heroine and then publish a blog post, any time on Tuesday 24th March 2009. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), know today as Ada Lovelace, is mainly known for as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs for the early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Babbage's analytical engine.

My heroine is Marie-Anne Pierette Paulze (1758 – 1836). She is considered today as the mother of the modern chemistry, although is most commonly known as the wife of Antoine Lavoisier (Madame Lavoisier) but many do not know of her accomplishments in the field of chemistry.
To known more about this amazing scientific see the Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze biography

The OOB for Lindenau

This OOB has been built by using the books of Nafziger (Napoleon at Leipzig. The Battle of the Nations 1813) and Smith (1813 Leipzig. Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations).

Austrian (25,190)
III Corps Gyulai
1st Division Crenneville (3,600)
1st Brigade Hecht
- 1/Warasdiner Kreuzer Grenz Regiment
- 1/Warasdiner St George Grenz Regiment
- Klenau 5th Chevaulegers (7 squad.)
- Rosenberg 6th Chevaulegers (6 squad.)
- 6 pdr. Foot battery (6 guns)
2nd Division Murray (7,700)
1st Brigade Lamezna-Salins
- E.Ludwig 8th Infantry Regiment (3 bat.)
- Wurzburg 23th Infantry Regiment (3 bat.)
- 6 pdr. Foot battery (8 guns)
2nd Brigade Weigel
- Mariassy 37th Infantry Regiment (2 bat.)
- Gyulai 60th Infantry Regiment (2 bat.)
- 6 pdr. Foot battery (8 guns)
3rd Division Hessen-Homburg (7,600)
1st Brigade Czollich
- Kottulinsky 41st Infantry Regiment (3 bat.)
- Kaiser Franz 1st Infantry Regiment (2 bat.)
- 6 pdr. Foot battery (8 guns)
2nd Brigade Grimmer
- Kollowrath 36th Infantry Regiment (2 bat.)
- Frohlich 28th Infantry Regiment (2 bat.)
- 6 pdr. Foot battery (8 guns)
1st Light Division (attached) Liechtenstein (5,000 men)
1st Brigade Hessen-Homberg
- Jager Battalion no. 1
- Jager Battalion no. 2
- Kaiser 1st Chevaulegers (6 squad.)
- 3 pdr. Horse battery (6 guns)
2nd Brigade Grimmer
- 1/Broder Grenz Regiment
- Jager Battalion no. 7
- Levenehr 4th Dragoon Regiment (4 squad.)
- St Vincent 4th Chevaulegers regiment (4 squad.)
- 6 pdr. Horse battery (6 guns)
Reserve artillery
- 12 pdr. Foot battery (6 guns)
- 6 pdr. Foot battery (6 guns)
- 6 pdr. Foot battery (6 guns)

Mensdorf Streifkorps (790)
- Erherzorg Ferdinand 3rd Hussar Regiment (2 squad.)
- Hessen-Homburg 4th Hussar Regiment (1 squad.)
- Gorin no. 1 Cossack Regiment
- Ilowski no. 10 Cossack Regiment

Thielman Streifkorps (1,500)
- Hohenzoller 2nd Chevauleger Regiment (2 squad.)
- Klenau 5th Chevauleger Regiment (1 squad.)
- Kienmayer 8th Hussar Regiment
- Silesian Hussar Regiment (Prussian) (2 squad.)
- Silesian National Cavalry Regiment (Prussian) (2 squad.)
- Jagodin no. 2 Cossack Regiment
- Gorin no. 2 Cossack Regiment
- Austrian/Cossack Horse Artillery battery (4 guns)

French (15,060)
Leipzig Garrison Margaron (5,500)
Brigade Bertrand
- 4/35th Leger Regiment
- 1/132nd Ligne Regiment
- 138th Ligne Regiment
- 1st Provisional Regiment (2 bat.)
- 1st Provisional Cavalry Regiment (4 squad.)
- 2nd Provisional Cavalry Regiment (4 squad.)
- 6 pdr. Horse artillery (6 guns)
Baden Brigade Hochberg
- Baden Lingg Jager Battalion
- 1/2/2nd Baden Line Regiment
- Baden battery (6 guns)

IV Corps Bertrand
12nd Division Morand (5,700)
1st Brigade Belair
- 1/2/3/4/8th Leger Regiment
2nd Brigade Toussaint
- 1/2/3/4/3th Ligne Regiment
3rd Brigade Hulot
- 1/2/4/23rd Ligne Regiment
- 1/2/3/137th Ligne Regiment
- 6 pdr. Foot Artillery (8 guns)
- 6 pdr. Foot Artillery (8 guns)
15th Division Fontanelli (1,900)
1st Brigade St-Andrea
- 1st Leger Regiment (2 bat.)
- 6th Ligne Regiment (1 bat.)
2nd Brigade Martel
- 1st Ligne Regiment (1 bat.)
- 4th Ligne Regiment (1 bat.)
3rd Brigade Moroni
- Milan Guard (1 bat.)
- 6 pdr. Foot Artillery (8 guns)
- 7th Ligne Regiment (1 bat.)
- 6 pdr. Foot Artillery (8 guns)
39th Division Franquemont (1,000)
1st Brigade Stockmayer
- 4 Combined Wurtemberg Battalions
2nd Brigade Jett
- 1/1st and 1/3rd Wurtemberg Chevauleger Regiment
- 6 pdr. Horse Artillery (6 guns)
29th Light Cavalry Brigade Wolf (220)
- Westphalian Chevauleger Regiment (1 squad.)
- Hesse-Darmstadt Chevauleger Regiment (1 squad.)
Reserve Artillery
- 6 pdr. Foot Artillery (8 guns)

4th Heavy Cavalry Division
2nd Brigade Quinette (740)
- 16th/17th/21st/26th/27th Dragoon Regiments (@ 1 squad. each)
- 5/13th Cuirassier Regiment
- Horse artillery (3 guns)

In the actual battle, the Austrian commander left several detachments to guard his flanks and communications, so only near 20,000 Austrian troops were available, i.e. a number clearly insufficient to take Lindenau.

Lindenau (October 16, 1813)

The battle of Lindenau (October, 16) was the western section of the battle of Leipzig, the climatic culmination of the autumn campaign in Saxony.
In 1813, Leipzig was the hub of ten major roads. Three of the roads approached the city from the west, merging into a single road at Lindenau that passed across the Elster and Pleisse Rivers on a series of bridges (5 principal and six minor ones) and causeways, forming a natural bottleneck.
Lindenau was the only real withdrawal route for Napoleon, but for some reason (maybe political Austrian considerations) the Allied did not choose to block the Napoleon's exit to France. The only Allied troops in the zone were the Ignaz Gyulai's III (Austrian) Corps, the General von Thielmann's Freecorps and the Austrian Liechtenstein's (Austrian) First Light Division, totalling (after detachments of flank-guards) around 20,000 men, a force very inadequate to take Leipzig.
The defence of the area was commended to Margaron's Leipzig garrison, that received first the help of the Quinette's brigade from the 4th Heavy Cavalry Division and around midday the help of the Bertrand's IV Corps, very diminished after its routs after the battles of Dennewitz and Wartenburg. All these tropos, including French, Italian, Badeners and Wurtembergers, amounted to around 14,000 men.
The actual battle of Lindenau was a stalemate, but the Allied achieved the immobilization of the Bertrand's Corps in this area. These troops were desperately needed in the southern front (Wachau), where just one more Corps would probably have given the victory to Napoleon.

Bibliography
- Hofschröer P., Leipzig 1813. The Battle of Nations Osprey Publishing, London, 1993
- Nafziger G., Napoleon at Leipzig. The Battle of the Nations 1813. The Emperor Press, Chicago, 1996
- Riley J.P., Napoleon and the World War of 1813, Frank Cass, London, Portland, 2000
- Smith D., 1813 Leipzig. Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations Greenhill Books, London, 2001

Austrian Grenzer

The Grenze was the permanent Frontier behind the Danube and Save Rivers, flanked by the Croatian and Carpathian Mountians, between the Austrian and Turk Empires. The most of 850,000 population of the Grenzer, hold their land direct from the Crown as free peasants but, in return, they supplied at least one soldier for guarding the frontier or, when required for the Army.
These soldiers formed the main light units of the Austrian army. All Grenzers were trained as marksmen and skirmishing, usually acting as advanced-guards. They could be deployed in open order but still were able to fight like the Line.
In 1813, one battalion of the Croatian Warasdiener-Kreuzer Grenz (899 men) and other of the Warasdiener-St. Georger Grenz (1,016 men) were assigned to the 1st (Light) Division of the Austrian 3rd Army Corps commanded by the Feldzeugmeister Graf I. Gyulai. This Corps fought during the Leipzig campaign and participated actively in the battle of Leipzig (october 16-18) in the Lindenau sector, conforming the only western way of retreat for the French Army. My next effort will be surely the battle of Lindenau, so I'll need some Grenzer infantry.

COLOR SCHEME
In 1813, the Grenzer wore the uniform of the 1809 regulations, i.e. a black-brown jacket of Hungarian cut with pointed cuffs and bear's claws; a white waiscoat; hungarian blue trousers of the looser Croatian cut; a trosuer belt; black gaiters; a calfskin backpack; black leather-work and a shako with peak, which from 1811 onwards had the bell-top wider than the base. The facings of both the Warasdiener Kreutzer and Warasdiener St-Georger were crab red in 1813 with, respectively, yellow and white buttons.

FIGURES
My old Grenzer were painting conversions from ESCI 227 or ITALERI 6002 French Line infantry. However, this time I'll use the new 8204 HäT Austrian Grenzer, kindly sent to me by some months ago by Harris (the HäT's owner). The sprue has 12 figures, i.e 12x120 = 1,440 men in terms of Napoleon's Battles.



Information taken from Osprey MAA 299

11-M. Fifth anniversary

Bavarian infantry à l'Armand d'Arc

Look at these new pictures from a new ficitional infantry unit for the African campaign of my Argentinian friend Armand d'Arc.

The unit is composed from 342 rank-and-file and 27 officers. The figures used are 1/72 plastics 8028 Bavarian Infantry from Hät. Many of the figures, particularly the officiers, the musicians at such, are conversions from that set.


The unit depicted is a fictional one, Fussjâgers Company, and being light infantry, they carry a green plume in the typical bavarian helmet. The unit will play a main role in the battle of the next year.
Enjoy his work!

The battle of Peterdohna is finished!

The battle of Peterdohna is finished. Barclay de Tolly, the Allied C-i-C, has realized the presence of Napoleon himself in the battlefield so, in compliance with the Tranchenberg Plan, a general retreat has been ordered.
This wise decision has ended nine hours of bloody fight. The losses of both sides have been enormous (15,000 - 16,000 men each) and the Allied were allowed to retire unmolested by Napoleon, because of the bad state of the French infantry.


See the full narrative at the main web site