"Major Dundee French in 28mm" Topic

1) What scale? No shortage of Second Empire French, and I think there have been two lines specifically for the Mexican intervention.
2) What are you actually looking for as "suitable?" Because much as I enjoyed Major Dundee, The Undefeated, and Vera Cruz so nearly as I can tell the French did not send a lancer regiment to Mexico.

Foundry minis would work well

And Robert as always is exactly right – the French forces in Mexico included two cavalry Régiments de Marche but they were drawn from the Chasseurs d'Afrique and the Chasseurs à Cheval – certainment, pas des lancers!

Oh, field the lancers anyway! I certainly would if I were doing anything along those lines. I just wanted to be sure what you wanted.

And I'd second the Foundry recommendation. They do a nice "Maximillian Adventure" line, but you can pull suitable lancers from the Franco-Prussian War line.

I agree, use them if you like them. AND, I'd point out, the Mexicans and the Plains Indians all used lances, and they are not hard to add as a weapon. Who is to say the French chasseurs might not have armed themselves that way?

I say START with the minis you like and then make up the story to suit.

As far as that goes, there was a regiment of Confederate lancers, in Texas iirc. Why not have the POWs in Dundee's force be some of them!

link

Company B, 5th Texas Mounted Rifles of General Sibley's (C.S.A.) Army of the Southwest in 1861. Two companies of the 5th were armed with lances and at least Company B took part in a charge at the Battle of Valverde in what is today , New Mexico. By Don Troiani.

Okay, I'm an opportunist!

But if you want French Cavalry--or Imperial Mexican Lancers--and most everything else along those lines, take a look here:http://www.thevirtualarmchairgeneral.com/405-Viva%20Juarez.htm

If nothing else, they are WAY less expensive than Foundry, or anyone else, and are fully compatible with their 28's.

"When I say 'Come,' you come. When I say 'Charge,' you charge. And when I say 'Run!,' you follow me and run like hell!"

Best line in the film!

TVAG

No. The best line in the movie was "when you left, you gave me a command: from then on, I gave the orders."

But THE best line was in the book and not the movie. It's the climax, but in the book version, the French have artillery support. They're are firing ball into Dundee's skirmish line without much effect. Lt Graham is dropping howitzer shells into packed lancers, which is more impressive. Dundee watches the artillery duel for a bit and says "those French surely need a good gunner. Do you suppose if we gave them Lt Graham they'd let us go?"

I used every kind of French cavalry I owned to refight the fight at the Rio Grande. Historically there were never any French lancers in Mexico. There were Chasseurs d'Afrique, who actually operated in the area, so I used mostly Chas d'Af figures. There is a small contingent of them among the lancers in the film. By the way, I noticed that the voice over by Bugler Ryan, as they ride back into the US, says that their opponents at the river were "French IRREGULAR cavalry". Whoever wrote the script did their research and were probably thinking of the Contra Guerilla force who were also operating in the north of Mexico.

If they'd been filming Waterloo or Gettysburg, I'd agree with you Brynden. But given the whole Major Dundee story is a lie, I won't fault them for using plausible and nice-looking ones.

Robert,
What do you mean that the story is a lie? It wasn't billed as true as I recall.

They say "largely based on the journal of Trumpeter Ryan," as I recall. If you'd rather say "fiction" nnascati, feel free. My point is that arguing about what French cavalry the Dundee Expedition really faced starts from a false premise, and can't be taken too seriously. There MIGHT have been a Dundee Expedition, but there wasn't. And the French MIGHT have sent lancers, though Napoleon III did not.

I'm as happy as any Holmes fan to argue over the make of Watson's "service revolver"--me for the Webley British Bull Dog in a .450--but I can only take such debates so-so seriously, and I won't let them stand in the way of a good game and nice-looking castings.

(It might have been a Webley's Number Two in .320, after all.)

Robert,
Ah, okay I wasn't aware of the journal acknowledgement. I always figured it was just good fiction.

Oh, it IS good fiction, nnascati, there having been no real Trumpeter Ryan or Major Dundee. It differs in this respect from The Lord of the Rings, which was meticulously translated from the Red Book of Westmarch, and the Sherlock Holmes stories, which are all based on notes taken at the time by John H. Watson, MD.

My point--and I do have one--is that since the Dundee Expedition is something which might have happened, but did not, we might allow ourselves some liberty in assembling forces to oppose it--specifically, a lancer regiment, which might have been sent to Mexico, but was not.

at least there were Lancers in the Maximiliam's Army, the French Lancers, the Line Cavalry, unlike the British Lancers, never served in such overseas and colonial theaters nor México nor Africa, rather the Light Cavalry
the French cavalrymen were Chasseurs d'Afrique and à cheval, also 5th Hussars and some men from Remount Cavalrymen companies