"Frustrated over Spanish Army research material" Topic

I'd love to add some Spanish to my collection, but where can I get some detailed information on the units, OBs and uniform details? There are some great 25mm figures out there but I have little idea about which ones to get for which year and what units wore a particular uniform.

My Funcken book is sadly thin. Is the Osprey book accurate? I've read that there a problems with it. This is a great army with a fabulous history in this period and it's sad that there's not more focus on the Spanish.

Please help a motivated fanatic!

Best references, if you can find them, are by Jose Maria Bueno Carrera, such as "El Ejercito y la Armada en 1808" and "Uniformes espanoles de la Guerra de Independencia".

Bibliographic references are here:

link

Allen

For uniforms try:

link

You might want to have a look at

napoleon.com.es

The first Osprey book on the Spanish (by Otto von Pivka, if I recall correctly) is said to have a few problems.

However, the more recent 3-volume Osprey set on the Spanish army seems to get a good press.

I feel your pain, I have had some issues finding information on their army as well.

I think the Line btlns were made up of entirely musketeers (fusiliers) who "ALL" wore red plumes. The Grenadiers were in separate btlns and "ALL" wore tall backless bearskins. This is up to 1811 before the new uniforms came in. ???

Hi
The best works about Spanish Armies are the Bueno's books. The Osprey set is also very interesting. The first one is useless
Rafa

There's also a magazine published by the Spanish napoleonic association, Ristre napoleónico with a lot of research on the napoleonic spanish army. They also publish Ristre, which covers napoleonic and up to ancients affairs and uniforms of the spanish army.

For Napoleonic Ristre:

link

For normal Ristre:

link

Hi Clay,

I built up a Spanish Army over the last year using the following sources:

Uniforms:

In addition to the bits and pieces in the Funcken and the first Otto von Pivka Osprey you mentioned, I found that Rene Chartrand's three volume Osprey set was invaluable, both for specific uniforms and for getting an idea of what other units may have worn ay various times and locations during the conflict. If you are interested in the first part of the war you'll want the first two volumes, the second two if you are interested in the later period. The third volume covers Joseph Napoleon's Spanish as well.

Vol 1 link

Vol 2 link

Vol 3 link

The link that Steven H Smith was very useful, as was this one link .

This book has a couple of interesting plates in as well as both flags and uniforms, although I wouldn't trust all of the details link .

Orders of Battle

For orders of battle and tracking individual Spanish units, the Napoleonic Army Handbook was invaluable and uses some of the harder-to-obtain-in-English material link . Oman's history generally has good orbats as well TMP link and Digby Smith's data book is okay link .

If there is anything in particular you would like to know and I'll try and help as best I can.

Regards

I strongly recommend Lahoz & Gonzalez, "Los Uniformes del Estado Militar de Espana del Ano 1815" – much of the Osprey information appears to havve been taken from this book. The coverage is especially complete, since it includes the Spanish colonial forces in North & South America and the Philipines, which are totally ignored by Oman, the Osprey books, and other sources concentrated on European campaigns.

I also second the recommendation for any of Bueno's books.

You could also find more references in past TMP threads with the search function. Just a couple of examples:

TMP link

TMP link

Also, the first link listed identifies some recreation units that maintain websites. I have found others using Google searches.

Rick

Uniformes espanoles de la guerra de Indepencia – Jose Maria Bueno Carrera , Madrid , Aldaba DL 1989, ISBN 84-86629-20-9

Good luck, I couldn't find a copy. Great thread.

You guys are outstanding as usual and have overwhelmed we with detail. Having survived the layoffs at work and letting my wife buy her own XMAS gifts – now I can go look for these books and cram more stuff on my shelves!

Would it be useful for me to just get a complete copy of Oman's "A History of the Peninsular War"? I've often thought about it….it's certainly referenced a ton.

Oman is a good data source. I used to mostly survey the OOBs in the appendices, but in the past few years I have come to realize there is a fair amount of additional unit identification data in the text and footnotes. This is particularly worth the effort to dig out for the late war period (1813-1814). The appendices for those volumes tend to be divisional summaries, and have less detail at the regimental level.

Rick

Shane –

I did a great deal of research on the Spanish army in putting together the lists for our rules. If you would like a copies of the stuff I have, email me offline and I'll send it to you. You assumptions about the organization is close. The Spanish army underwent a number of reorganizations and uniform changes during the period, but until 1808 the line numbered 3 battalions of four companies each. The first battalion had two musketeer companies and two grenadier companies in those cool bearskins. The other two battalions had four companies of musketeers. The light infantry were single battalion entities of six companies each. As a Texan, I am partial to the Tercios Espanoles de Tejas, and their very cool uniforms. Anyway, let me know if I can help you. These guys can be pretty confusing.

Clay

If you can afford Oman buy it. I have the set and if you're really into the Peninsular war I'd say its a must have. I'll stick my neck out and say you'll never need to ask another question about an OOB again! But its so, so much more than that.

Gates' Spanish Ulcer is what I view as an 'abridged Oman' and worth having as well.

I've just joined and found this thread very interesting and informative. The first 2 parts of the Osprey 3 volume set are now quite expensive and hard to find. Is there any information about the "Tercios Espanoles de Tejas, and their very cool uniforms" any where else?

Further to my previous comment, is the information on the Tercios Espanoles de Tejas in the Osprey books?

Chouan, I think I've seen something about them somewhere. Let me have a look on my books and tell you something in a couple of days, though I'm not completely sure I saw it on my library.

Bargration, thank you for the information, I will definately speak to you via email. I want to make sure my records for the Spanish are perfectly historical indeed.

Shane

If near a large national library later volumes of the 16 volumes of -:
Clonard, Count de, Historia organica de las armas de Infanteria y Caballeria Españolas desde la creacion del ejercito permanente hasta el dia.,Madrid, 1851-62.

An excellent bibliography here -:
link

From which I can recommend as a modern abbreviated version of Clonard -:
El Ejército de los Borbones (tomo IV & V). M. Gómez y V. Alonso. Ed. Ministerio de Defensa. Madrid 1995

& the Bibliography agrees with above comments on Ospreys
(well a bit more bluntly actually :>)
#
Spanish army of the Napoleonic wars (volúmenes I -1998-, II -1999- y III -1999-). Ed. Osprey Military (Men-at-Arms series 321, 332 y 334). En inglés. Ojo: no confundir esta obra con el horrosos y malísimo "Spanish Armies of the Napoleonic Wars", de la misma editorial (serie Men-at-Arms, número 51), perpetrado por Otto von Pivka.
#

Hi Chouan,

There is a short section about the Tercios de Tejas in Osprey MAA 321 Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars (1), and there is a plate of its uniform at the time of Baylen. It is basically an early-war Spanish line infantry uniform in dark blue, with red facings and yellow-lace edging, with a silver collar badge. The Osprey reckons that only two Light Infantry tercios were in fact raised, although the target had been four each of infantry and cavalry; and that the tercios were converted into the Cazadores of Bailen and the Cazadores of Las Navas de Tolosa on 12 August 1808.

However, the Napoleonic Army Handbook lists the formation in the cavalry section, saying that three infantry units and a cavalry unit were in Spain at the time of the outbreak of the war. It claims that these troops fought at Ucles as well as Baylen and were only disbanded 01 December 1811.

The same handbook has the Tolosa Cazadores fighting at Tudela and then Ucles, before it and the Baylen Cazadores are incorporated into the Murcia Regiment (an old line infantry regiment) on 01 Mar 1809, which subsequently fought at Talavera, Ocana, Albuera and Saguntum.

Hope some of that helps

Regards

I'm still defeated by this. Oman is the future for me…..

Thanks very much Whirlwind, that's good enough for me.