"Napoleonic Spanish Grenadiers" Topic
4 Posts
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spqrdave | 16 Apr 2009 9:36 a.m. PST |
I'm building a Napoleonic Spanish army and I'm curious about the how the grenadiers were utilized. Specifically, were the regimental grenadier companies detached to form grenadier battalions, either on a permanent, semi-permanent, or ad hoc basis? I can find no help on this question in my research. cheers, Dave |
Florida Tory | 16 Apr 2009 7:18 p.m. PST |
Yes, they were. Examples can be found in the various orders of battle in Oman's appendices. Both Mendizabal's and Carbajal's Brigades in Blake's Army of Galicia in October 1808, for example, had two battalions each of "United Grenadiers" that are specifically denoted as belonging to some of the old line regiments. (Oman, App. XI, Vol. I) In addition, you can find the occasional battalion of "Granaderos del General" in the orders of battle, though often Oman has these marked as new levies. Finally, there are the eight battalions of Provincial Grenadiers, that were the permanent militia units from in the old army. In no case, however, do there seem to have been enough united grenadier battalions to indicate that the practice was universal (like in the Austrian army), so it seems you could go either way with your army. Rick |
spqrdave | 17 Apr 2009 7:16 a.m. PST |
Thanks Rick. This is what I suspected but couldn't substantiate. I have seen references in OBs to Grenaderos del General but I was not sure what they were. Thanks for the info! cheers, Dave |
Florida Tory | 17 Apr 2009 12:09 p.m. PST |
Dave, I'm not sure about the battalions of Granaderos del General either, but I'm willing to make a few observations and a few inferences about them in absence of more detailed data. In terms of what Oman indicates about the Spanish armies of the period, there only seems to be 3 possible sources for these troops: grenadiers converged from the pre-1808 line regiments, new levies, or the provincial grenadiers. I discount the last possibility – the provincial grenadiers were units that had been formed on a permanent basis before the war (they weren't converged units) and when they appear in Oman's orders of battle, they are indicated by name. So for the sake of making a reasonable decision about what to do for the wargame table, I would assume that if the unit is one Oman marked as consisting of new levies then probably it was either specifically raised to by an elite reserve by an army commander (the "pick of the recruits") or was converged from the grenadier companies in a new, post-1808 formation, or was converged from replacements recruited to fill out one of the pre-1808 regiments. In any of these cases, they probably did not get issued any of the old style white uniforms on a large scale. I believe it is more likely they were issued the English-supplied uniforms, or uniforms captured from French supply columns & modified for Spanish use. For the other battalions, I would assume that they were united grenadiers, converged from pre-1808 regiments, under another name – and put them in whichever uniform looks more colorful to you, or is more probable to a specific campaign year or battle. Rick |
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