"Wurttemberg Jaegers - at Borodino?" Topic

Can anyone tell me if there were units of Wurttemberg Jaegers (infantry) at Borodino? I believe there were mounted Jaegers. Did they fight dismounted?

Thanks for your help.

The 1st & 2nd Jager battalions were part of the 25th Division in Ney's 3rd Corps.

Prince – can you tell me if these were the horse jaegers? Did they fight dismounted?

Pretty sure they were foot. You got a thing for mounted jagers?

Foot battalions.

Definitely foot battalions; but there was also attached to Ney's corps cavalry the Wurttemberg Jager zu Pferd Regiment Nr 4 "Konig" who would under most circumstances have fought mounted.

On Plate 49 in Faber du Faur's With Napoleon in Russia it shows Wurttemberg Light Infantry fighting off Russian cavalry under Murat.

@Brechtel198 – I don't have access to my Faber du Faur at the moment. So is it Light infantry or Jager (from my memory Murat took refuge with the Jager)? Apart from the Jager battalions there were also 1st & 2nd Light Infantry battalions in the Wurttemberg Division.

The translation states that it was light infantry. The troops in the painting look like Wurttemberg Jagers, but I'm not sure.

In the Napoleonic times (and later)A "jager zu pferde" in Germanic armies was the equivalent of a "chasseur a cheval" in the French Army. The Germanic term "jager zu fuss" was a light infantryman. And they were for the most part (except the Prussians after 1811) armed with muskets, not rifles.

Jim

The Germanic term "jager zu fuss" was a light infantryman. And they were for the most part (except the Prussians after 1811) armed with muskets, not rifles.

I cannot agree on this, Jäger, the term was usually only used when they were equipped with rifles or at least part of them with rifles, for the Württemberg Jäger – a part was armed with rifles, Faber de Four shows this quite well.

Those armed with either rifled muskets or smooth bore muskets were termed light infantry or Füsiliere in the Prussian Army.

Hi,
Marchand's 25th division at Borodino was already much reduced in size (only 1800 by 10.August). It was made of 1 converged light battalion and 2 converged line battalion.
The first one had 4 companies from the Jäger König + Jäger N°2 + 1st and 2nd Light inf Batt.
The other two were formed with remnants of the 4 line régiments (N°1, 2, 4 and 6).
They distinguished themselves at the Fleches.

According to Chuquet, there were 1197 foot, 444 cav and 385 artillerymen at Moscou. And only 1169 present on the 1. October call (with 5289 more in hospitals and garrisons).

@ColCampbell – afraid I agree with vW.

For example the Wurttemberg foot jager were armed with a mix of rifled muskets & rifled carbines. Front rank with the rifled muskets.

@Brechtel198,
Agree Faber du Faur print says Light Infantry but apparently it was the Konig jager battalion that Murat led forward along with the French 72nd de ligne to retake the southernmost Bagration fleche.

indeed just look at the Faber du Faur prints, you can clearly see rifle armed Jäger.

1st jager bottom left:
link

2nd & 1st Jager

I love discussing the German minor nations. You can argue for hours over what they were armed with, what they wore and no one is ever completely right! ROFL

I disagree you only have to read German sources about that, it is very clear when their fire arms changed, like when entering Spain, they had to leave behind their cherished rifled carbines or carbines, which they regretted very much especially in Spain when fighting the guerilla.

It is of course a philosophical question if anybody is ever completely right.