"How many men in a Russian battalion of the 19th century?" Topic

How big were the battalions around the time of the Crimean war? Trying to work out how big my units should be in different scales.

FM

It is a bit long and I'd give you the link if I could remember where I got it from

Tony of TTT

Organization, Tactics, and Weapons of the Russian Army
(From Vostochnaya Voina 1853-1856 godov, by Lieutenant General M. I. Bogdanovich. 2nd edition, St. Petersburg, 1877. Vol. 1, Appendix, pages 8-19.)

The regular Russian army was divided into active forces [deistvuyushchiya voiska] which existed in peacetime and strengthened in numbers at the beginning of wartime, and reserves [rezervnyya voiska] which had only small cadres in peacetime and which were formed upon the onset of a war. With the reserve forces it is necessary to include special replacement [zapasnyya] units which were also formed in wartime.
a) Active forces consisted of corps: the Guards Infantry Corps, Guards Reserve Cavalry Corps, Grenadier Corps, six Infantry Corps numbered 1st through 6th, and the 1st and 2nd Reserve Cavalry Corps. Besides these, there were independent corps: Separate Caucasus Corps, Separate Orenburg Corps, Separate Siberia Corps, training and educational forces, etc.
The Guards and Grenadier Corps were subordinate to a special commander. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Infantry Corps made up the so-called Active Army [deistvuyushchaya armiya] which was under the command of General-Field Marshal Prince Paskevich. The 5th and 6th Infantry Corps were under the Minister of War and termed separate corps. The 1st and 2nd Reserve Cavalry Corps were subordinate to their own Inspector of Reserve Cavalry.
The Guards Corps consisted of three divisions, each of four regiments made up of three battalions, and a rifle battalion and sapper battalion, making 38 battalion in all. It also had a light cavalry division containing 32 squadrons.
Each infantry corps also consisted of three infantry divisions, a light cavalry division, a rifle battalion, and a sapper battalion. With the Guards Infantry Divison were also the battalion of the Guards Equipage [naval battalion] and some other units.
The Guards Reserve Cavalry Corps, not counting cossacks, was made up of one cuirassier division, two light cavalry divisions, and the Life-Guards Horse-Pioneer Double-Squadron [Divizion]. The 1st Reserve Cavalry Corps consisted of two cuirassier divisions and a reserve lancer division, while the 2nd Reserve Cavalry Corps was made up of two dragoon divisions.
This organization into corps and divisions existed in wartime as well as in peace, but during wartime these corps and divisions were put together into armies according to specific HIGHEST orders, dependent on the course of military events. Such was the case in the Eastern War when the Guards Reserve Corps was formed from reserve units of the Guards, and the Baltic Corps was formed from the 2nd Infantry Division and two reserve brigades of the 1st Corps.
Each infantry division had two brigades, and each brigade – two regiments. In the Guards and Grenadier divisions the first brigades were made up of two grenadier regiments and the second – of one grenadier regiment and one carabineer regiment. In the six infantry corps the first brigades were made up of infantry regiments while the second brigades had jäger regiments (1).
Infantry regiments in the six infantry corps had four battalions each. Each battalion consisted of four companies: one grenadier or carabineer, and three jäger (fusilier in the Grenadier Corps) or musketeer. A company numbered 250 men. Rifle battalions also consisted of four companies, but each company was of 180 men (2).
Each cavalry division consisted of two brigades – one lancer and one hussar. A brigade was made up of two regiments. Guards light cavalry divisions were made up of various regiments.
Each cavalry regiment was made up as follows: in the Guards Corps – of six squadrons, each squadron of 150 men; in the 1st and 2nd Cuirassier Divisions – six 170-man squadrons; in the Reserve Lancer Division and seven light cavalry divisions – eight 170-man squadrons; and in army dragoon regiments – 10 squadrons each of 170 men. The Life-Guards Horse-Pioneer Double-squadron and the 1st Horse-Pioneer Double-squadron each consisted of two 250-man squadrons.
The guards artillery consisted of three foot guard artillery brigades and the Life-Guards Horse Artillery. Each foot guards artillery brigade had two heavy [batareinaya] batteries and one light battery, but in 1854 fourth batteries were formed consisting of eight lightened 12-pounder guns (3). The Life-Guards Horse Artillery consisted of one heavy and four light batteries. The artillery divisions of the Grenadier Corps and each of the six infantry corps had three foot artillery brigades, one horse-artillery brigade, and one park brigade (of three mobile and one flying park).
In each grenadier artillery brigade there were four batteries: two heavy and two light, but in 1854 fifth light batteries were added (4). Each of the field foot brigades also had four batteries, with the 1st Brigade of each of the divisions having two heavy and two light batteries, while the other two brigades each had one heavy and three light.
In each artillery division the batteries had sequential numbers in the following manner:
1st Brigade: Heavy No. 1 and No. 2 Batteries. & Light No. 1 and No. 2 Batteries.
2nd Brigade: Heavy No. 3 Battery. & Light No. 3, No. 4, and No. 5 Batteries.
3rd Brigade: Heavy No. 4 Battery. & Light No. 6, No. 7, and No. 8 Batteries (5).
Horse-artillery brigades consisted of two light batteries.
Horse-artillery divisions with reserve cavalry corps were not divided into brigades and each was made up of two heavy and four light batteries.
All field foot batteries had 12 guns, but guards and grenadier foot batteries and all horse batteries had 8 guns: in heavy foot batteries – six 12-pounder cannons and six 18-pounder unicorns [½ pud. edinorogi]; in light foot batteries – eight 6-pounder cannons and four 9-pounder unicorns; in heavy horse-artillery batteries – eight 18-pounder unicorns; in light horse-artillery batteries – four 6-pounder cannons and four 9-pounder unicorns.
There were 350 men in each park company of mobile and flying parks.
Sapper battalions had four companies, each of 250 men.
In addition to the Life-Guards Sapper Battalion, Grenadier Sapper Battalion, and the six sapper battalions belonging to the six infantry corps, there were also the 1st and 2nd Reserve Sapper Battalions, each made up of four companies – one sapper and three pontoon. Each of the pontoon companies had a pontoon park. When units were brought to wartime strength, pontoon companies with their parks were assigned as needed to the infantry corps with the corresponding number.
Each of the six pontoon parks was made up of 32 canvas pontoons and 15 Birageau (wooden) pontoons. Additionally, there were other pontoon parks with: 1) the two horse-pioneer double-squadrons, each of 16 leather pontoon boats with their decking and trestle box, and 2) the Guards Equipage, of 60 Birageau pontoons.
Train [Furshtatskiya] brigades were divided into battalions according to the number of divisions in the corps, but did not have a separate organization. Rather, they were comprised of the non-combatant companies of infantry and cavalry regiments and the non-combatant sections of sapper and rifle battalions and of artillery batteries. These companies and sections stayed with their units and only nominally formed a battalion for each division and a brigade for each corps.

@Gildas
Thank you very much!

FM

Hi FM

Sorry for the rather basic cut & paste job but that is the format it came in to me. The document it came from is still the most comprehensive one I have found so far though others do go into more detail for some individual units.

The figures give are the 'official' strengths and most infantry units soon fell below those once in any theatre of operations. Organisational structures stopped having much meaning during the siege but some attempt was made to stick to them in the field armies outside Sevastopol and in other theatres of the war.