5th Division: Major-General Bassecourt - Source Oman (Battalions) 1st Real Marina (Royal Marines), 1st Battalion
1st Real Marina (Royal Marines), 2nd Battalion
Africa Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion
Murcia Infantry Regiment, 2nd Battalion
Murcia Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion
Reyna Infantry Regiment, 1st Battalion
Provincial de Siguenza (Militia)
The second battalion of the 1st Real Marina completes the second battalion in General Bassecourt's 5th Spanish Infantry Division and the regiment as a whole.
Details of the look of the Spanish Marines together with the colours they carried were covered in my first post about the first battalion (see the link above).
The six regiments of Marines were organised around two battalions, with the second battalion being issued with the Sencilla (Regimental Colour in British parlance) showing the Bourbon red cross with black anchors in each corner.
As with the first battalion I have attached my rendition of the Sencilla carried by second battalions and posted here for others to copy and scale appropriately. Once again a big thanks to Tony at Prometheus in Aspic blog for adding in the texturing effects.
Sencilla (Regimental Colour with texturing courtesy of MS Foy) at Prometheus in Aspic blog see link below
If you would like to understand more about the colour choices I have used form my marines, you will find a short video clip on my post about the first battalion covering my preferences.
The role played by Bassecourt's troops during the afternoon attack by French Imperial troops was very much to pin the allied extreme left flank and saw them skirmishing with a strong screen of French light infantry among the lower slopes of the Sierra de Segurilla.
The effect of the Spanish troops severely threatened any serious attempt by Ruffin's and Villatte's infantry to turn the flank of the British occupying the Cerro de Medellin and allowed Wellesley to avoid denuding his centre of British infantry tasked with defeating the principle French attacks by Lapisse and Sebastiani.
The regiment as a whole will make a distinctive contrast in their naval blues to the standard white of the four Boubon line and one militia battalions that composed the rest of Bassecourt's division.
My 1st Real Marina are composed of figures from the AB range supplied by Fighting 15's.
The completion of the 1/1 Real Marina begins the end of the Talavera project as work starts on the final division to complete the orders of battle required to play the afternoon attack. Once these seven battalions are done it just leaves a team of Spanish horse guns and some personality figures to finish the project prior to playing the games.
The Spanish 5th Infantry Division was commanded by Major General Luis Alejandro Bassecourt, and was very much General Cuesta's reserve division with its four battalions of regular infantry and two battalions of marines.
The positions of the armies prior to the afternoon attack
As the French attacks paused after the repulse of the morning assault it soon became obvious to the British commanders atop the Cero de Medellin of French preparations for their next and final attack with divisions moving off the opposite Cerro de Cascajal to the north and south threatening the left and centre of the allied positions.
With this adjustment of enemy forces needing to be countered, Wellesley requested troops from Cuesta to be deployed in the northern valley and in response General Albuquerque's cavalry division and Bassecourt's infantry division moved into the valley to support the British cavalry divisions of Generals Anson and Fane.
Major General Luis Alejandro Bassecourt
5th Division: Major-General Bassecourt - Source Oman (Battalions)
Real Marina (Royal Marines), lst Infantry Regiment (2)
3/Africa Infantry Regiment
Murcia Infantry Regiment (2)
l/Reyna Infantry Regiment
Provincial de Siguenza (Militia)
The Infanteria de Marina (Marine Infantry) had an establishment of 12,000 men divided into six regiments of two battalions each having six companies.
The Marine Infantry wore the same uniform as the line infantry differing only in the colour, blue instead of white.
Officers wore the uniform of the Spanish Royal Navy and when serving as land forces would occasionally wear a gilt gorget not worn when serving aboard ship.
Free Painting Guide - Captain Games see link below
The Royal Decree of 1802 set the flags (Colours) carried to one per battalion with the Coronela (Kings Colour in British parlance) carried by the first battalion and the Sencilla (Regimental Colour in British), adorned with the red Cross of Burgundy and surmounted at each corner with anchors, carried by the second battalion.
Contemporary illustration of a Spanish Marine Officer
Unlike the line infantry, I can find no reference to the grenadier companies being detached into separate battalions and so have modelled my marines with their grenadier company resplendent in their Spanish style bearskins adorned with the red-flap at the back with gold tassel, lining and anchor.
I must also extend my thanks to Tony aka MSFoy who hosts the blog Prometheus in Aspic who in building up his own collection of Spanish Napoleonic troops has developed a very nice range of regimental Spanish colours to adorn his own units and which he unselfishly offers to others.
I adapted Tony's methods to rough up my own version of the Colours and he very kindly applied the texturing.
In the best traditions of Prometheus in Aspic I attach the first of these, the Coronella, for other enthusiasts to copy from here and size according to your preferred scale.
My 1/1 Real Marina are composed of figures from AB supplied by Fighting 15's.
Following on from my previous post about French Horse Artillery, I decided to carry on with the momentum of completing the French and British orders of battle for Talavera by completing the extra limber teams required to convert my three model gun batteries into two model gun batteries that better reflect the footprint of the six to eight guns they represent.
The French artillery arm at Talavera numbered 66 guns in total, 36 with I Corps and 30 with IVth Corps and the guns needed a lot of limbers, ammunition caissons. support and replacement vehicles to service those guns and these models are designed to represent that support on the table.
The great aspect of using Carnage & Glory is that the rules really encourage the players to treat their gun crews with the respect that the historical commanders were forced to; namely repeat firing over several turns will fatigue the gunners and reduce their effectiveness and lethality.
The wise commander in such a large game, planned to be fought over two days, is thus forced to think about keeping some of his batteries in reserve, fresh and ready to replace batteries forced to retire and recover their fatigue.
These models will thus help to indicate those guns limbered or moving to and from the reserve and will really add to the overall look of the game.
Not only that but their completion marks the lasts models required to represent the French army in the afternoon attack scenario.
French Supply Train Drivers
I am very lucky to have family who are only to happy to support my balmy hobby and contribute to the collection with the odd model or two at Xmas and birthdays.
This Xmas was no different and I was gifted with some great models from Blue Moon, Warmodelling and AB representing the rear area troops together with casualty figures that really help add extra drama to any game.
The Blue Moon range of support and supply wagons are a great addition to the 18mm offerings available and fill a gap that has needed filling for some while.
I couldn't resist working on a pack of these models whilst doing the limber teams and soon discovered the need to get my scratch building head on to organise horse teams and drivers for this pair of French supply wagons.
Come on you 18mm range designers, please can we have some nice drivers and other seated troops to adorn models like these.
I much prefer AB horses to any other range and so decided to use some of the left over ones from my foot limber teams to stand in for my supply wagon teams.
The drivers took a little more work to manufacture, with the decision to use a couple of spare Xan French legere. These marching infantry had their muskets removed together with their legs and back packs, then having new putty sculpted legs added to have them seated on the wagons.
I then decided to create some covered loads using bits of cork tile cut up and stuck together, covered in toilet paper lightly soaked in watered down PVA and then painted when dried.
I haven't stuck the loads in and so I can have empty wagons or different loads with barrels and boxes uncovered.
The Supply Train drivers were a vital support to the French in Spain who found it harder and harder to allow their troops to so readily loot the countryside as they tended to do elsewhere in Europe.
The wagons, whilst adding extra eye candy to the Talavera game will also come in handy for some future guerrilla ambush games and those pursuit scenarios where the French are tasked with getting their stores and ill-gotten booty away in a hurry.
The traces and driving reins were created using my trusty three ply fuse wire which allows the look of draped reins and taught traces to be easily modelled.
The original 2CV - French army style - G. Rava
British Royal Artillery Drivers
And finally the British order of battle is now finished with the completion of these two foot limber teams, using the excellent AB range of drivers and limbers.
At the start of the Revolutionary War, British artillery was still being drawn by civilian drivers with all the problems that system caused when expecting guns to be moved under fire.
It was not until September 1794 that the Corps of Captains, Commissaries and Drivers was established replacing civilians with soldiers and attaching teams of drivers to the artillery brigades; this military formation was found unsatisfactory and was replaced in 1801 by the Corps of Gunner Drivers itself replaced in 1806 by Corps of Royal Artillery Drivers.
The new Corps reported directly to the Board of Ordnance that commanded the artillery but was a separate entity to the artillery.
The look of the drivers was very similar to the horse gun crews, with their Tarleton helmets and light cavalry style of dress and sabres.
If you are planning to add traces to your teams and get information about harness colours, which were black leather fittings for British teams, you really need a good reference source and I found Franklin's book on British artillery such a reference.
No video clip with this post as work has taken over in recent weeks and I am off this weekend to enjoy the fun at Crusade 2017 in Penarth, my first show of the new year - post to follow.
So if you have any questions about the models shown, drop me a post on the blog, and I will endeavour to answer them.
So the Next Talavera 208 posts will be back looking at the final formation of troops, namely General Bassecourt's 5th Spanish Infantry Division and starting with the 1st Regiment of Spanish Royal Marines.
References consulted for this post
British Napoleonic Field Artillery - C. E. Franklin
Talavera 1809 Chartrand & Turner - Osprey Campaign
It was the great artillery reformer Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval who designed the standardised artillery equipments that served the French army so well during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.
Lt. General Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery officer and engineer 1715 - 1789
The principle of standardisation is an accepted norm in military circles today, but in the eighteenth century it was a truly revolutionary concept.
It was however the increased mobility that the Gribeauval system granted to French artillery forces that really delighted the gunners with the removal of the lavish ornamentation that previously encrusted gun barrels, he managed to pare down the weight by up to 45% in some examples. Even with a slightly heavier more robustly built carriage the weight saving still amounted to about 20% over older systems.
Horse artillery crew in action c1807 using the prolong rope attached to the limber - Print after Dorel
Alongside these improvements were added a robust design of carriage with iron instead of wooden axles and with added ropes and levers the guns could very often be fired whilst still attached to the limber and horse teams, but without the need to move the gun on and off the limber each time, very useful when conducting a fighting retreat or a rapid movement to close range. Whilst the design of the split trail and rounded base prevented the recoil of the gun embedding the trail into soft ground.
The development of horse artillery equipped with the lightest versions of the Gribeauval four and later six pounder guns together with crews mounted and able to ride alongside the drivers and limber teams enabled artillery to accompany cavalry brigades and complete the combined arms teams that characterised the mobility of Revolutionary and Napoleonic warfare over that of the preceding century. With enemy infantry forced to form square by the approach of enemy cavalry, the horse artillery could move in rapidly to blast the closed up infantry and break up their defence.
French horse artillery gunner and driver
The video clip below really illustrates well the Gribeauval artillery system used by the French horse and foot artillery teams. This demonstration group are dressed as foot artillery gunners but the orders and crew placements together with the mobility provided by the drivers and team give a good idea as to how these artillery groups would have operated and the speed that they could be brought into and out of action.
The cannon were categorised according to the weight of shot they used so originally the pieces consisted of the 4, 8 and 12 pounder brass cannon alongside 6 inch bore howitzers, designed to lob shells at targets behind objects or defences and very useful for setting light to defended buildings.
The foot batteries referred to as "division"in the French army were organised around six guns of the same type and two howitzers, very often using the heavier 8lbr and 12lbr guns and the horse batteries around four guns, usually the 4lbr alongside two howitzers.
It normally took eight specialist artillerymen to serve all calibre's of gun and thirteen to crew a 6" howitzer including two bombardiers to set fuses if shells were being used.
The effective or battle ranges for the different gun models are quoted from Guibert's "Essai Generale de la Tactique - 1803".
Detail of French Horse Artillerymen - Rousselot
In 1801, following complaints from French general officers about the performance of the 4lbr and 8lbr pieces versus enemy 6lbr guns, General Marmont, the Inspector General of Artillery was prompted to write to First Consul Bonaparte.
The principle issues were that the 4lbr gun was a poor weapon when using case shot and the 8lbr gun was too heavy as a medium field piece compared to enemy 6lbrs and that alongside other reforms to the Gribeauval system a 6lbr gun should be produced which would be more effective than the 4lbr and equally mobile and was almost the equal of the 8lbr in fire-power.
Napoleon, an artillery officer himself, always took a close interest in his artillery arm, even to the point of positioning the odd gun or two himself
This report provoked the interest of Napoleon, a gunner by profession himself, to set up a Commission of General Officers on the 29th December 1801 to evaluate the situation and to come forward with proposals.
On the 2nd May 1803 the commission proposed what became known as the Year XI System which among other recommendations proposed the replacement of the 4lbr field gun with a 6lbr long and short barrelled gun.
Of all the reforms under the Year XI System it was arguably the introduction of the 6lbr gun that had the most impact, given that the new system was not universally well received with the principle complaint that much ammunition and resources were already in place for the original Gribeauval pieces.
Year XI would continue to be a 'bone of contention' up to 1810 when Napoleon set up another review that confirmed that the 6lbr gun would be the principle reform to come out of the Year XI System condemning the other recommendations as largely unsuitable.
The rough difficult terrain encountered in the Peninsula persuaded the gunners to use lighter pieces than would normally be the case in the rest of Europe and so the foot batteries would often leave the 12lbr guns in the park preferring the 8lbr and later 6lbr long guns for use in the Spanish interior.
It was the 6lbr that became the principle weapon of the horse artillery, although it was not uncommon to still see the 4lbr in service particularly with allied contingents with, for example, the artillery elements in the German Division being issued 4lbrs as replacements for their own guns on arrival at Bayonne in 1808 before their march into Spain.
Detail of French Drivers - Rousselot
Alongside the Gribeauval reforms the other major influence on the effectiveness of French artillery in general and horse artillery in particular was the professionalising and incorporation of the drivers into a military corps as opposed to the civilian drivers of the previous century.
Civilian drivers were all militarised on 3rd January 1800 as the "Artillery Train", ensuring that horse teams would enter a battle and that ammunition wagons would be kept close at hand to resupply the guns.
Each gun would have its own team together with two reserve caissons of ammunition carrying about one-hundred and seventy rounds per gun.
In addition to the guns and caissons each battery would include one spare gun carriage and team, one mobile forge and one vehicle for tools and spare parts. Thus there might be around twenty vehicles supporting a typical horse battery.
Interestingly there was, until 1809, the year of Talavera, no French drill manual for manoeuvring their gun batteries, and the one there was was an unofficial publication "Projet d'Ordonnance Provisoire pour l'Artillerie, Contenant l'Ecole et les MaManoeuvres d'une Batterie de Campagne"
published by General Officers following the Battle of Wagram that year.
It was not until the more common use of multiple massed batteries as one of the key French tactics that French gunners felt the need to issue a drill manual for individual batteries, but still without official principles for using guns in mass formations.
The French concentrated the bulk of their forty plus pieces at Talavera into a mass battery atop the Cerro de Cascajal designed to support their main attack against the British line on the opposite Cerro de Medellin and in the flatter ground lining the bank of the Portina stream. An Ensign in the 3rd Guards noted the ferocity of the bombardment.
"a tremendous cannonade - shots and shells were falling in every direction - but none of the enemy were to be seen - the men were all lying in their ranks, and except at the very spot were a shot or shell fell, there was not the least motion - I have seen men killed in the ranks by cannon shot - those immediately around the spot would remove the mutilated corpse to the rear, they would then lie down as if nothing had occurred and remain in the ranks, steady as before."
Paradoxically horse artillery, so useful in the very forefront of battle, was also ideal in the reserve role; ready to be committed by the General who spotted a weakness in the enemy line. I suspect that will be the role of these guns in the forthcoming games
My French horse artillery are composed of figures from the AB range supplied by Fighting 15's with a link to them in the side column.
The colour combination I mention in the video clip for painting my French equipments consist of:
Base Coat - 75% Russian Uniform, 25% Black
First Highlight - Russian Uniform
Second Highlight - 75% Russian Uniform, 25% Off White
All colours are Vajello.
If you have enjoyed viewing and reading this post then add to your enjoyment by popping over to the "Talavera 208 Just Giving" page using the link below and make any contribution you care to, towards a great cause, Combat Stress, and enjoy the warm feeling that will come knowing you have added to the good in the world; not to mention the thrill when you see these models in action this year, and a message from me thanking you for your support.
