The latest addition to our growing Napoleonic range is this fine boxed set of the Vistula Legion – perhaps the most famous of the many foreign units in French service under Napoleon.
The Vistula Legion was sent to Spain in June 1808, where it fought in numerous actions, their most celebrated of which was at Albuera in 1810, when the lancer regiment rode down a British infantry brigade, destroying three out of the four British battalions in only four minutes of slaughter. By 1812, the Vistula Legion had been accepted into the Imperial Guard (a great honor and reward), forming a brigade within the Young Guard Division for the invasion of Russia. In September 1813, they fought the Russians in a bloody engagement at Neustadt (near Dresden). Participating in several small engagements and skirmishes, they were virtually destroyed at Leipzig that October. The Legion was reformed in early 1814, and at Soissons, on 2 March, it fought valiantly against the blockading Russian forces, earning 23 Legions d'Honneur.
Unusually, none of the Legion's infantry regiments carried banners until late in 1813, when the remnants of the withdrawal from Moscow were reorganized into the Vistula Regiment.
You can read more about the Vistula Legion and their uniforms in this great article by Vincent W. Rospond.
Box contains 36 plastic-and-metal Polish line infantry figures (six grenadiers, six voltigeurs, 20 fusiliers, and a command group of two officers, one drummer and a sapper).