"Artillery Units at The Battle of Fuentes de Oņoro" Topic

Hi,

In my pursuit of recreating the above battle in 1:50 scale with 28 mm figures, I am just painting up the artillery units present at the battle.

I think I am ok with the British-Portuguese forces: 8 units of 6 guns each (2 RA, 2RHA and 4 Portuguese with a 1:6 ratio of howitzers to 9lbers). I am not sure about the Portuguese artillery uniform though, does anyone have an online source?

I am unsure about the French artillery, I understand there were 32-36 guns divided into 2 groupings one with the Montbrun's Reserve of Cavalry and then a smaller unit with the French Army of Portugal. Does anyone know what was the actual breakdown: ie the proportion of HA to FA and was there any Guard Artillery and what guns were contained within each unit.

I thank the members in advance for any help they can offer.

Not much help, but here's what I've got from A Nafziger list for Fuentes:

2 Corps – 8 guns

6 Corps – 14 guns

8 Corps – 4 guns

9 Corps – 8 guns

Reserve Cavalry Corps – 6/2nd Horse Artillery (4 x 4 pdrs & 2 howitzers)

Reserve – Guard Artillery Battery 2 guns

Thanks, I appreciate your help, it is definitely difficult to find information on this.

John

I'm not surprised it's difficult – it just may be that the records aren't there. This was largely the same French force that had to abandon much of its heavy stuff in the withdrawal from Torres Vedras only a month or two before, wasn't it? I'm just guessing, but there might be more than a bit of non-standard organisation as they borrowed horse teams and equipment from other forces.

Well it is always more interesting to paint non standard units, so I think I will look at it that way.

Thanks,

John