"They Fought with Extraordinary Bravery: The III German" Topic

"In October 1813, the soldiers of one of Napoleon's staunchest Allies, Saxony, defected en masse in the midst of battle at Leipzig. Almost immediately III German Army Corps was formed with these same soldiers as its nucleus and augmented with returning former prisoners of war, volunteers and militia. Commanded by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar the Corps was sent to the Southern Netherlands to take part in the final defeat of Napoleon amidst of a constant changing command of control structure, in which the Swedish Crown Prince Bernadotte played a major and dubious role. Although for the greater part inexperienced and badly armed, fighting against the much superior French I Corps which even contained Imperial Guard units, III Corps struggled to prove that it could be trusted, paying a major role to protect the Netherlands against the French as these regions tried to regain their own identity after decades of French rule."

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Amicalement
Armand

Not to be confused with the III Prussian Korps under von Bulow which had been formed in 1813 and also fought in the Netherlands in 1814.

Jim

Wow ! Great presentation.

To my knowledge Saxe-Weymar commanded to a 20 to 25 000 corps, supported by troops from Bülow's Corps, Winzingerode's Russians and the British expeditionnary corps. The Army of the North had more than 100 000 men in the Netherlands-Belgium area.

The "much Superior I French Corps" never has more than 12 000 men on the field including Roguet's Division taken from the Anvers garrison late march 1814. Before that Maison was campaigning with less than 7000 men for the most part conscripts, even the so-called imperial guard !

The biggest part of the French "army" in Belgium and North of France were garrisons mainly formed with poorly trained and armed conscripts.

It must not have been so hard to offer the Belgians their new Dutch Identity.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

hard for me to see deserters as brave

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand