"Portuguese Legion Standard Bearers" Topic

I would like to confirm whether the standard was carried by an officer or NCO please?
Bicorne Miniatures figure is an officer whilst Elite Miniature have the standard bearer as an NCO.

Can anyone assist please?

18 May 1808 : organization of 6 (only 5 formed) regiments, each of 2 battalions, each of 6 companies – plus a depot battalion

As actually used in the 1809 campaign (decree of 10 March 1809) : la 13e demi-brigade d'élite, composed of 3 battalions, each of 4 élite companies.

Reorganization of 2 May 1811 : reduced the establishment to 3 regiments. The first regiment was supposed to be composed of 6 companies of grenadiers in its first battalion and 6 companies of voltiguers in its second battalion – however this unit only mustered some 31 officers and 500 other ranks by 1 July 1812, and so likely would formed as only 1 battalion. The second regiment (from 26 May 1812, per the request of the maréchal Ney) was composed of 2 "normal" French-style battalions (with élite companies). The third regiment was composed of 2 battalions, each of 6 companies of fusiliers (no élites). The second and third regiments were mostly Spanish prisoners, with only ~100 Portuguese in each regiment.

On the regimental staffs were two positions for flag bearers (1 per battalion). But there was never any issue of flags and no "unofficial" flags are known to me. While unofficial flags are possible, they might be least likely for the demi-briagde of 1809 (given it's formation date) and the 3rd regiment in 1812 – which was held as highly suspect by the maréchal Oudinot and was dispersed and assigned to lines-of-communication duties.

The maréchal Ney had more confidence in the Légion, and used the the first and second regiments as regular infantry – where they performed rather well. So giving these three (or four) battalions some unofficial flags might be pretty reasonable. This would align with his request to form élite companies in the second regiment.

Since the organization of the Légion comes after the 1808 decree creating officer eagle bearers in the French service, and given the Légion's greater supply of officers vs. other ranks, I would opt for an officer flag-bearers if I wanted to provide unofficial flags for the Légion.

There are four rather good sources for the Légion, if you want to research more deeply:

Ribeiro Artur – Legiăo Portuguesa ao Serviço de Napoleăo (1808–1813) – Lisboa, Ferin, 1901. [ link ]

Tenente Teotónio Banha – Apontamentos para a História da Legiăo Portuguesa – Lisboa, 1863 and re-published in 2007 [this is available on-line, but it is the original manuscript, and I had lots of trouble reading the handwriting]

Paul Boppe – La Légion Portugaise 1807–1813 – Paris, 1897 [This should be available on-line, as it is a standard work and out of copyright at least in theUSA, butI could not find a link for you, I am sorry]

Dominique-Jacques Jalabert – Documents des archives communales de Grenoble concernant la Légion portugaise (1808-1814) – Paris, 1969

And a nice website : link

- Sasha

Sasha
I am very grateful for the 'mine' of information and references given. Thank you.

Dear Disposalman,

Happy to help.
I always thought the story of the poor Portuguese sent all the way to Russia to all die in the snow fighting an ally of their homeland was rather tragically compelling. And various period images of these guys also seem to have a certain distinct charm.

A little more on the 3rd regiment, serving with Oudinot's corps north of the main French advance ….

The Russians, especially the governors in their Baltic territories, seemed quite interested in agitprop to lure away non-French from Napoléon. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of these same officials ended up in high places in the increasingly powerful Russian domestic secret police after the peace.

The fate of the Prussians under Macdonald is the most famous case, of course. But in nearby Saint-Petersburg there was a rather active and anti-French ex-pat community of Portuguese. They even led the formation of one of the very expensive and, it turns out, rather effective volunteer militia cavalry units.

The Russians tried using the Portuguese ex-pats to send messages to their countrymen under Oudinot. His rather effective detachment of gendarmes got wind of this and so the unit was broken up and their commander, the general Pamplona (who was himself pro-French) assigned as military governor of captured Polotsk.

Part of the problem for the agitprop initiative of the Russians, it appears, was that only a small percentage of the unit was actually Portuguese – the vast majority, as noted above, being Spanish prisoners.

- Sasha

Enjoyed reading that Sasha, thank you. I'm always amazed by your detailed knowledge of this period.

Best