"Suggestions for choosing a French Division (Penninsular war)" Topic

Hi All.

I need a little help as I am a beginner when it comes to Napoleonic period.

I am building a French division for the penninsular war.

Any suggestions on a good division to pick that was represented for most of the war and has good variety of units.

Cheers.

I'd pick one from Talavera. Most were fairly standardized

My current favorite is Solignac's division. Three regiments of line, each of 3 battalions (pretty standard stuff). However, one of the regiments (15th) is documented as having worn the white uniform (with black facings) to Spain, and made efforts to keep them as long as possible.

The legere regiment is the Irish Legion, so green uniforms with yellow facings!

It was not, alas, at Talavera.

But since it is "your" Peninsular War, then it matters not in which campaigns the division participated. Solignac's division is a good choice just for the variety of uniforms – standard blue, white, and green. They'll look great on the battlefield and you'll always be able to tell which regiment is which.

Jim

I have been "building" composite "divisions" for the French in the Peninsula.

Ist is one battalion each of actual units in the Ist Corp under Victor.

1st Brigade: the 9th leger; 24th line; 96th line; and on battalion of sailors.

2nd Brigade: 16th leger; 8th line; 45th line; and 54th line.

3rd Brigade: 27th leger, 63rd line; 94th line; and 95th line.

Except for the sailors, 1 battalion of each regiment (11 total)formed a division at Fuentes de Onoro.

This corps also fought at Talavera de la Reina against the British. The 9th leger made the night attack against the British defending on the hill.

I have some detail for each of these regiments if you need information.

GdeP

I immediately thought of 1er Corps under Victor as well. Get your figures in campaign dress and you can have all sorts of trousers to break up the routine of blue and white uniforms.

Have fun!

I have always been under the impression that while the Legion irlandais worn green uniforms in legere cut they were still line troops. You will find many of the foreign units as well as many Conderation of the Rhine contingents wore legere style clothing.

As a beginner can we assume this will be your first French formation?

Whilst Solignac's Division does indeed sound interesting you might find its a bit of a one off and difficult to re-use for other battles and campaigns. I would make an alternate suggestion – paint up some standard French Ligne and/or Legere Battalions first before adding in the unusual and exotic.

In Napoleonic wargaming I'd always recommend building yourself an initial force of bog standard units you can use in lots of different actions and campaigns BEFORE adding some of the more exotic and colourful units. That way you get maximum utilisation of your initial money and efforts.

Just my 2 cents, after 25+ years of building out almost every Napoleonic contingent that fought in the period.

Thanks chaps, great advice.

I have always been under the impression that while the Legion irlandais worn green uniforms in legere cut they were still line troops.

I think all the foreign regiments were meant to be light infantry, but by the Napoleonic Wars there wasn't much difference between the line and the lights anyway. Saying a unit was "light" in the French army is a better descriptor of their uniform than what they did on the battlefield.

Wise words from nsolomon99. Though in practice few people will object if you field foreign or exotically uniformed units in place of standard ones. Still, it's always good to build a solid backbone of standard line units. Besides its best to use these for any learning curve.

But if you want another slightly exotic example, there is Loison's/Ferey's division. This has a brigade of legion Hanovrienne (red uniforms) and Legion du Midi (brown/sky blue ones). It was in action as Bussaco and Fuentes de Onoro. It also has 26, 66 and 82 Ligne regiments.

There is a difficulty in getting the headgear accurate for Legion du Midi. These (or the centre/chasseur companies) are often shown in helmets that look like dragoon ones without the horse hair. But I have also seen them illustrated with shakos.

I guess it depends whether you want a "standard" French Division or a rather mixed one that was actually present in one particular theatre (e.g. Loison's/Ferey's in the Army of Portugal as suggested above.)

A standard division would be 3 line regiments of 3 batts and a light regiment of 3 batts.

However, in practice, very many real divisions did not conform to this blueprint – even when the regiments were all French. For example, the 5th Corps in Germany and then Spain had 2 light and 2 line regiments in one division (Gazan's) and 4 line in the other (Girard's). Why didn't they ever even it up?

It's all rather fluid.

I'd go for Laval's German Division.

@ Garde de Paris:

"I have been "building" composite "divisions" for the French in the Peninsula.

Ist is one battalion each of actual units in the Ist Corp under Victor.

1st Brigade: the 9th leger; 24th line; 96th line; and on battalion of sailors.

2nd Brigade: 16th leger; 8th line; 45th line; and 54th line.

3rd Brigade: 27th leger, 63rd line; 94th line; and 95th line.

Except for the sailors, 1 battalion of each regiment (11 total)formed a division at Fuentes de Onoro.

This corps also fought at Talavera de la Reina against the British. The 9th leger made the night attack against the British defending on the hill.

I have some detail for each of these regiments if you need information.

GdeP"

Hi. My friend is collecting the British, Portugese and Spanish for Talavera. I am starting to work out what I need to do to collect the French. Obviously the German Division will require different troops, but I am interested in the French troops such as Victor's 1st corps and cavalry.

Would I be able to use generic French troops for all of the above or anything different?

Thanks

James