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"Polish battalions of converged voltigeurs, 1812" Topic


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Velite04 Jan 2025 6:04 a.m. PST

In his "Napoleon's Invasion of Russia," writing about the battle of Smolensk, Nafziger reports that two Polish battalions of converged voltigeurs had been directed against the suburb of Malakov.
In Lalowski's "Polish Eyewitnesses to Napoleon's 1812 Campaign" Juliusz Falkowski, a Polish officer, relates about the battle of Shevardino, where a Polish command formed with 14 converged voltigeurs companies led by Major Rybinski was sent forward to seize the heights. I also found that those converged voltigeurs companies were previously led by Major Biernawski, then replaced by Rybinski.
I'm looking for any further information about these Polish converged voltigeurs units during the Russian campaign.
Thank you in advance for anything else you'll be able to provide.

JimDuncanUK04 Jan 2025 6:44 a.m. PST

Bet they died.

Velite04 Jan 2025 6:56 a.m. PST

An easy win.

Prince of Essling04 Jan 2025 7:14 a.m. PST

Unfortunately Nafziger doesn't foot note his source for the converged batatlions at Smolensk – which would have been very helpful to try and answer this.

I suspect it may be a case of him using some "loose language" as the Poles south of Shevardino were merely detached from their parent battalions – they were not formed into any formal converged battalions.

Also any OoBs I have seen for Poniatowski's V Corps in 1812 do not show any separate converged battalions – just the normal line regiments with the number of battalions etc.

Will glance through my various material and see if there is a real answer on this, but interestingly the account in "Poles and Saxons of the Napoleonic Wars" by Nafziger & Wesolowski makes no mention of any converged battalions, just detached companies for Smolensk!

Oliver Schmidt04 Jan 2025 7:51 a.m. PST

Oginski speaks of "deux bataillons de voltigeurs du huitième régiment d'infanterie":

link

Maybe he used "voltigeur" in the sense of "soldat en tirailleur" ?

Velite05 Jan 2025 8:17 a.m. PST

Thanks a lot. These two battalions reported by Oginski at Smolensk seem indeed the same as Nafziger's narration. It seems most likely that those two battalions are just line infantry from 8th regiment "en tirailleur".

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