"Backpacks in combat" Topic

Since it seems like most 25/28mm Napoleonic infantry seem to be equipped with backpacks (which I get really tired of painting) I have to ask a silly question. Did Napoleonic infantry always go into combat with their complete kit? Are there any manufacturers that make figs without the complete kit?

Don't know the answer about Napoleonic packs, but the French at the battle of the Alma (1854) dropped packs before engaging. The French CO cited this when refusing Raglan's request to pursue the retreating Russians. His troops had to go back and get their packs.

A minor clue: at the 1806 battle of Maida, the British light infantry went into action with blanket rolls rather than packs. In mid battle Kempt had his men drop the rolls. Many in the front rank turned around to help rear rank men shed the rolls. The French brigadier mistook this move for flinching and ordered a bayonet charge that failed when the light infantry gave them a point-blank volley instead of running.

Austerlitz…French Lights shed packs before moving forward to engage the massive 1/2 columns.

I WISH that they didn't. It would greatly simplify painting them!

X,

Sometimes, when ordered to, yes they shed their packs, but this tended to be the exception.

Especially when you consider your pack contains pretty much all your worldly possessions whilst on campaign.

DB

Another reason why I am leaning towards ACW as my next big battalion period. Lots of figs come with no backpacks. I hate painting them as well. I have to admit I don't lavish much time on them. Anyway, the only person who ever sees them is me.

forwardmarchstudios: I agree with your sentiments.

I hate paintig muskets, why do all infantry in the horse and musket period use muskets, and why are all the cav on horses.

Should just be called "the and period" no musket no horses.

@Gunfreak – I agree with the horses thing. Hate painting them. Cavalry would be much easier to field without them – and cheaper to buy.

You should collect French cavalry during the retreat from Russia… not too many horses to paint.

Chalfant

I hate painting horses and Hussars with their stupid Pellises!

F

More or less packs bags were not dropped – what they did – lighten them, throwing away superflous gear – like parade breeches. at least for the French Army.

Otherwise looking at contemporary prints, soldiers seemed to wear back bags in most cases.

I remember reading that troops leading an assault of fortifications dropped their packs before the action. This suggests to me that the were worn at other times.

Don't like painting them, but if they were worn, I'll include them.

What's so hard about painting a back pack compared to the rest of the figure?

Horses! Bastard things to paint. After I've got through these naps I'm painting Anglo Saxons and Vikings.

Yeah. Every time I try to paint a horse the damn thing runs off…….

Regarding backpacks I think they would usually be taken off if troops were launching a raid from a camp, base or fort, or if they were expecting to return to a certain place after the battle attackers in seiges could dispense with them too. Light kit or light order I think it was called.

MOST of the time though troops would kee their packs as they would have been marching and expecting to advance or retreat after the battle. So I would expect most figs to have packs.

I have some pack less British from foundries old 25mm 1812 range.

I don't mind painting horses at all – it's all the tack that drives me batty.

I remember reading troopers did not like to get off their backpacks as with the ebb and flow of battle they could finish it way off the place where they had left them. Even the case could be that they retreated by a different route, missing their backpacks. That's why they started to keep their most needed belongings in the blankets/greatcoats tied up over their torsos and that. But you can find them without backpacks. IMHO, and sharing the opinion about having to paint them, the backpacks are nice additions, specially to marching poses. With sabretaches, pellisses, carabinier's cuirasses, heavies' helmets, musicians, sappers, shabraques and horses, backpacks are just another thing to paint…

Perry and Victrix backpacks often have lots of fiddly bits attached to them--extra shoes, mess kits, tin cups, and the like. Doing justice to these details (which I appreciate) means an extra hour or so per unit.

Dropping packs seems to have started around the same time that the satchel-style "snapsacks" were replaced by backpacks proper. Frederick the Great attempted to see if his men could load and fire more rapidly without their tournisters; it appears not, as he abandoned the idea and they kept them on.

During the AWI, the British routinely dropped their backpacks (adopted in place of the satchel style late in the F&IW) before going into action – accounts refer to it being done at Princeton and Monmouth, as well as other actions. However, this war also saw the introduction of the blanket roll (tumpline) as an alternative to the backpack where an operation was only expected to last a few days, the latter often being left aboard ship if the fleet was sufficiently close. (This may even have been done at Lexington and Bunker Hill, as backpacks were definitely not worn at either and in both cases the men carried rations and blankets).

Moving forward to the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era, the de Loutherbourg paintings of the landings at Aboukir and the action at Maida, both show blanket rolls being worn, the packs having been left on the ships. The Harry Pyne drawings of a light infantry detachment and their accompanying artillery on the march also show similar arrangements.

I have read accounts on troops dropping theirs and then not getting them back and lamenting there loss.