"Peninsular War Project: Request for Background Information" Topic

Hello all

Longtime lirker, first time poster. My Flames of war group has decided to expand to Napoleonics. We will be using FoGN and Black Powder rulesets. I have decided to build two armies for the Peninsular War both British/Allied and French. I am doing a series of posts to help me address my lack of detailed knowledge about the Peninsular War. In this post I am looking for:

1. Any good online resources about the battles, units and uniforms of both sides.

2. Any recommendations as to "must have" books on the subject.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer.

"The Spanish Ulcer" by David Gates

Books:

Oman's History of the Peninsula War remains (IMHO) the definitive resource. I believe that it is now available for Kindle. Alternatively the books are about 6 or 7 volumes. I bought my set from Caliver.

The Gates book mentioned is excellent as well.

Oman is online – start here: link

Regards

So is Napier:

link

Regards

britishbattles.com

and see this thread for some inks TMP link

Regards

I would pick one of the battles that interests you and then select some brigades or divisions from both armies involved in that battle, building your wargame order of battle from that.

If you are new to Napoleonics and the Peninsula War in particular, then you might take a look at the Osprey Campaign series books on the major battles. This is a good way to get a quick overview of the period and the books provide a useful amount of information and detail, without overwhelming you.

Oman and Napier are good sources, but they are rather dated and both are multi-book sets (about 7 volumes of each, IIRC), so the cost of acquiring hard copies can be prohibative.

Charles S. Grant (son of The Charles Grant) has written a nice series of books about the Peninsula War and these are very useful. They combine first hand accounts of the battles with good maps that make it easy to translate the battles into tabletop wargames.

Orders of battle for the Spanish & other participants in the Peninsular War
link "Estados de la organización y fuerza de los ejércitos españoles beligerantes en la península, durante la guerra de España contra Bonaparte"

uniformes.s5.com Spanish military uniforms 1800-1980.
link Spanish infantry uniforms 1789.
link Spanish uniforms 1808-14.
link Knotel plates of Spanish Army plus access to plates of the uniforms of the Cadiz garrison in 1810.
link The Artwork of Dionisio Álvarez Cueto showing some Spanish units in 1808.
link The Artwork of Dionisio Álvarez Cueto showing some Spanish units at Bailen

WoW. I am overwhelmed with the speed and quality of responses. i feel kind of like the guy dying from thirst who gets a chance to drink from a Fire Hose. Many thanks for the great suggestions.

Take a look at Nick Lipscombe's "The Peninsular War Atlas"-a lifetime's reading!

Second the recommendation for the Lipscombe Atlas, it is outstanding! link

Regards

Take a look at Nick Lipscombe's "The Peninsular War Atlas"-a lifetime's reading!

I stumbled across that the other night. Glad to see that myimpression is supported by other people with more experience. Now to take a deep breath and prepare for the "withering fire" from my wife after I order this…

A further 'Hurrah' for Col Nick Lipscombe's great work, and also may I recommend anything you can get by Peter Edwards, another former British Army officer with recent operational experience, which, whilst he is honest about the many errors made, also allows him to write without that smug sense of 20/20 hindsight which some pure academics find difficult to overcome…

Similarly 'Wellington's Masterpiece' by Brigadier Young and Col Lawford is very good on Salamanca…

Been reading Gates' book "The Spanish Ulcer" I have to agree with others, that it is an excellent starting point.

I would endorse very strongly the recommended books – all good choices.

You may find the following links to be of use:

Maps of Peninsular War link

Napoleon Series Map Archives – high quality maps on various battles, campaigns, & other items of interest on the Napoleonic Wars. Maps from variety of sources and about 75% of them are in colour. link

Alison's Atlas at link

Portuguese Uniforms – lots of good stuff from Geronimo at link

Álbum de la Infantería by Conde de Clonard (1861) version with pictures & minimal text of spanish Army:
link
part 1 of Album de la Caballería by Conde de Clonard (1861)
PDF link

part 2 of Album de la Caballería by Conde de Clonard (1861)
PDF link

part 3 of Album de la Caballería by Conde de Clonard (1861)
PDF link

The Peninsular War Atlas is great, and the Gates book is a terrific foundation especially as it quite nicely covers a lot of the French Spanish battles.

I thought that The Peninsular War by Charles Esdaile was also a very good rounded account:
link

In terms of individual battle accounts, the following are also good:

Albuera – Guy Dempsey (a very enjoyable read)
link

Salamanca – Rory Muir
link

Talavera – Andrew Field (which is another good account alongside the Edwards book mentioned above
link

In terms of uniforms, I find I can't do without CE Franklin's volume on the British:
link

Chartrand's Ospreys on the Spanish are I believe amongst the best written:
link

Lucien Rousselot's 'Napoleon's Army 1790 – 1815' is also terrific:
link

One thing you should realize from the start is that there is Napoleonics, and then there is the Peninsula – and whatever you read about the former seldom applies to the later.

It's as if you said to yourself "I like boxing, I'm going to study the greatest boxer in history!" and then decided to limit yourself to studying an underweight, fever-addled boxer who was forced to fight with one arm tied behind his back while the audience pelted him with filth, and then his opponent sneaks back into the ring (after running away in the first round) and keeps slapping him until he goes home.

It might be a fight of some sort, but it ain't the great art. The main event is stage right!

(I have to go now and make an appointment with my dentist to have my tongue removed from my cheek.)

;)

Cheers,

Christopher

LoL

Thanks Cat. One of the other guys wants to build all the armies for Austerlitz so I got to take Peninsular. I am sure I will get to push some big Austrian battalion/regiments around at some point.

Hello, Plutarch 64:

In terms of uniforms, I find I can't do without CE Franklin's volume on the British:

By any chance, can you tell us any details about the 5th, Northumberland, Regiment of Foot in this boook? My data are decades old, and I plan to buy Victrix or Perry plastics to do them next year at 40 figures, for the Peninsular War in stovepipe shakos.

GdeP

RexGator: Back in the 60's, I met another figure collector, who was interested in war gaming, and we first acquired a couple hundred flats of French on one side, Prussian, Russian and Austrian on the other. We found Jack Scruby, and did just a couple units of his "30mm" figures, and along came Stadden and Willie! I traveled extensively on business in those days, but studied data at the time as a grounding for building a future army. We had not yet decided to focus on the Peninsular war, for
Stadden did some elites for Austria, Russia and Prussia, and Willie had more of the "line."

I remember using 8" x 5" cards, one for dark blue facings for the British; and other for yellow; buff; greens; white; black; and light blue (French and Swiss in British service.

We decided to focus on units that were in the Peninsular early in the war, and up through the development of the IVth Division.

We made the same mistake common to most beginners in painting popular units that may have been wrong for the war: French Old Guard Grenadiers in full dress – there, but only for a short while. 33rd French Foot in white uniform faced purple – never served in Spain; Paris Guard in dark green faced red, with voltigeurs wearing bearskins! This uniform appeared at Bailen early in the war where they were captured, never to appear again. (I took the unit name as my "moniker" here on TMP, as well as for where I live in Texas.)

On the British side, I did 36 of the 7th Fusiliers (converted from Staddens) with much-too-large bearskin caps, in full dress with white breeches and black leggings. I also did 30 Waterloo era with buff (27th adn 40th together at Waterloo, and also earlier in Spain); and 30 with dark blue facings (I thought KGL, but 1st Foot and 4th Foot also had been in Spain.)

For the British, here is what we planned to paint:

Lowry Cole's IVth Division (modified):

7th Fusiliers
23rd (?or 21st?) Royal Wel?h Fusiliers, both together in the IVth Division, actually in conical shakos, overalls, etc. Dark Blue facings.
3/27th Inniskillings and
40th Foot, both buff, both in the IVth Division. (Both regiments had battalions at Waterloo, which could allow you to use spare 1815 figuresd!)
Adding the 79th Cameron Highlanders – heresy, never in the IVth – to the Fusiliers – mine with bearskin, the scots with the feathers bonnet and kilts, Dark green facings, making a showy unit!
Adding the 48th Foot, to the 27th and 40th, which did serve at times in the IVth – buff facings. Kind of boring but all good units.
To this we planned the Loyal Lusitanian Legion in green (later became 7th Cacadores in brown)
One battalion of 11th Portuguese- Sky blue cuffs, edging red.
One battalion of 23rd Portuguese, also had sky blue collars edged red, both actually in IVth as 2-battalion regiments.
One battalion of 12th Portuguese, sky blue cuffs edging yellow; and One of the 24th, with sky bluee collars also , edging yellow. These were NOT in the IVth.

Mythical VIIIth British Division:

-5th Foot, (Gosling Green); -45th Foot (dark green); and
-88th Foot (yellow, Connaught Rangers, hard-fighting Irish regiment). All three were in the same divison – Picton's IIIrd?

-4th Foot (dark blue) – I did these very early as staddens and for Waterloo, and they could be any blue facings regiment. Not associated with others here, but was at Corunna early in the war, also at Fuentes de Onoro in 1811? (Could be switched with the 79th above, and called "2nd battalion, 7th Foot!")
-28th Foot, North Gloustershire, yellow. Won the back -number in Egypt, took French back packs. I did 20 Willies Austrians as this unit, so we intended to take it to 40 figures. It was at Corunna, Busaco, and in IInd Division at Albuera under "Daddy" Hill.
-34th Foot, Cumberland, green facings. It was at Vimiero early in the war, with the 28th at Albuera, and they served on together.
Final "British" brigade has
-43rd Foot, Monmouthshire Light Infantry, faced white. Had two battalions in the famed Light Division, which in most rules seems to be "gaming supermen!"
-50th Foot, black facings. Vimiero; Corunna; Fuentes. Another stray I plan to do by painting collars and cuffes of my Willie/Stadden mix 43rd and 5th foot, replacing with marvelous new figures by Perry (43rd) and Victrix (5th)
-95th Rifles, 1/2 battalion. Dark Green uniform, faced black – again, 3 battalions in the Light Division
-1st portuguese Cacadores. Dark Brown with sky blue cuffs, edging green, our choice was early Barretina, 5 companies with a few riflemen included.

We also planned a later cacadore battlion in Dark Brown, to go with 8 battalions of Portuguese Line, as a Portuguese division. We liked one battalion from 8 different regiments where the edging contrasted with the regimental color, so NOT 1st Port or 13th (white with white); 5th or 17th (red with red); 9th or 21st (yellow with yellow). The 2nd, 14th and 10th served in the actual Portuguese Division, and I think we planned 4th & 16th (one each); 8th (yellow cuffs, red edging); and maybe the 6th and 18th (red, yellow edging).

Spanish are another rainbow story!

GdeP

I forgot to mention that the cards mentioned above showed dark blue, yellow and buff as the most common facings there, with the greens coming on 4th. white and black were much more rare. Light blue may only have been that French ?emigree? regiment in the 7th Division.

Also, you can add 3 or 4 men of the 60th Royal American rifles to a brigade; perhaps 3 or 4 of the Brunswick Oels to another to up your rifle numbers. I recall that one company of each was in the IVth Division, added to a particular brigade.

GdeP

@ GdeP – According to Franklin the 5th Northumberland had "gosling" green (close to a mid-green) facings, although he also quotes Pearce as stating that the facings were olive.

The officers had silver lace and buttons, and all soldiers (as opposed to just the grenadiers) had a white plume.

In the illustrations Franklin also notes that the drummer's jacket until at least 1812 was white with red piping, after which it presumably would have been changed to scarlet, and which is a bit different to the usual facing-coloured jacket.

PM me if you would like me to look up any further information.

Thanks, Plutarch 64! I did NOT know they all had the white shako plume! That seems a designation for fusiliers. Did they also have shoulder wings, as for grenadiers/light/ fusiliers?

GdeP

Apologies GdeP, I misquoted Franklin in that what he actually says is 'All ranks wore feather plumes' with no specific mention of colour (I can only say that I haven't had my first cup of coffee yet).

I have double-checked the rest of what I wrote, and it is correct. The shoulder wings were, as would normally be expected for line regiments, only for the grenadiers and light.

GdeP

That is a fantastic army you have there and an amazing amount of info for me to chew on. I really appreciate you taking the time to share with me.

A pet peeve: the Peninsular War was fought in the Iberian Peninsula. Not in the Peninsular.

Peninsular is an adjective. Peninsula is a noun.

That said, many gamers say the war was fought in the Peninsular. Sigh.

An excellent study on one battle: Salamanca 1812 by Rory Muir.

Visteogames: I am US born and raised, but try to use the terminology found in British sources. Colour instead of (regimental) color; Peninsular (war); and the like. "Welch" or "Welsh?" You are right, though, in that we should write that "the (x) Foot was in the Peninsula from 1809 through 1813."

Plutarch64: On another post, one of our brothers recommended NOT doing the 5th because of so many unconfirmed peculiarities! Odd green facings; green drummer coat before 1811; white in 1811, but to red soon after? So much not confirmed. The 5th was eventually known as the Northumberland Fusiliers, but I don't think it was during the Napoleonic Wars.

RexGator: A pleasure, I assure you. It also helps me document the old plan, hoping to see it come to pass.

What I have painted these last 10 years in Texas has been on the French side, but lots of Old Glory 15's of Austrians in the 7YW!

GdeP

Spanish Maps of Peninsular War Battles

Batalla de Rioseco 1, Batalla de Rioseco 2
Batalla de Bailen 1, Batalla de Bailen 2, Batalla de Bailen, 3
Batalla de Burgos o de Gamonal
Batalla de Espinosa de los Monteros
Batalla de Tudela
Batalla de La Coruna
Batalla de Tamames
Batalla de Ocana
Batalla de Albuera

Druzhina
sites of wargaming interest

The 5th was named after the a duke of Northumberland not the region. In Spain it had a very high proportion of English soldiers 83%. Of these a high number seem to have come from Lincolnshire.
I've given them a kind of "pea green" facing to match the victrix regimental flag I got from victrix.

The 45th I have painted too. I also re enacted with them for a while. The historical battalion SEEMS to have been about 60% English and 33% Irish. The Irish lads seem to have come from all over. But there was a strong trend amongst the English recruits to be from Nottinghamshire but also with Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Yorkshire seemingly popular recruiting grounds. A soldier, James Talbot of Nottingham, is the one of of two soldiers to have 14 bars on his campaign medal (the other is a KGL vet)
The 45th were one of a few battalions to serve the whole war in theatre along with the 40th foot and another battalion I can't remember.

Both of these units were in the 3rd. Division. The 45th was in the 1st Brigade and the 5th in the 2nd.

Great resource Druzhina!

A MAP OF NORTHERN SPAIN?
----------
Is there a map of norhtnern Napoleonic Spain suitable for a campaign? (Or all of Spain as a secondary request.)

I can put hexagons on it for movement and such. However, it needs to be just a map without arrows for units moving to and fro, garrisons and all – just a plain map.

In a book?
From a boardgame?

Tally-Ho,
Bill

Try the 1801 map of the whole Peninsular by Cary at

This blows up to a very large size at 5000 × 4503 (8.6MB).
The link is
[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1801_Cary_Map_of_Spain_and_Portugal_-_Geographicus_-_SpainPortugal-cary-1801.jpg]picture]

Large map of the Pyrenees & surrounding provinces can be found at
link

Click on "objetos digitales" at the bottom of the page;Click on the dikette when the image appears;
Finally when the next page opens click on Descargar to save.