My Bavarian forces are based on the troops which made up Lefebvre's French VII Corps in 1809, and the three battalions produced so far are part of Bernhard Erasmus von Deroy's 3rd Division.
The 14th regiment was relatively new in 1809, and had no official title, since it owed its existence to the terms of Bavaria's contribution to the Confederation of the Rhine rather than the patronage of a particular Inhaber. The history of the organisation of the Bavarian army is rather complicated, as I am learning. Even the brief snapshot around 1809 has a few quirks.
Line regiments with higher numbers than 10 become a bit tricky. Regt No. 11 "Kinkel" was ceded to the newly-created Grand Duchy of Berg in 1806, though a new regiment with the same name and number was created the following year - these chaps spent 1809 chasing around the Tyrol, fighting Andreas Hofer's rebels.
Regiment No. 12 "Lowenstein-Wertheim" was disbanded after it mutinied in 1806, and the number was kept vacant until 1814. The problem was that the regiment, which formed the garrison of Bamberg, consisted of men from the Würzburg area, and since Würzburg also became a new state in 1806 the troops did not wish to remain in the Bavarian army.
Regiments 13 and 14 were created in 1806, without regimental titles (which, I remind myself, was the reason I embarked on this explanation). In 1811, the new (replacement) 11th Regt was disbanded, the 13th became the 11th, the 14th became the 13th (to preserve seniority - and there continued to be no No.12); subsequently, in 1814, more new regiments were raised and things swapped around again, but we won't worry about that here.
You'd tempt a chap to some Bavarians.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully done Sir. I just love the Bavarian flags. They almost give me a headache if i stare to long at them.
ReplyDeleteThe Bavarian call to arms is yielding great response!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if they can fight but they sure are pretty!
ReplyDeleteThose are exceptionally attractive, Foy. Well done.
ReplyDeleteWM
Thank you all, gentlemen. There's all sorts of work in this particular pipeline - next up might be another battalion of 9th Line, 2 bns of the 5th, and/or some light infantry. We'll have to see. The DKs are not easy to paint, since the piping on the facings is partly guesswork, given the ancient (low relief) castings - the 5th regt might be q good shout, since there is no piping!
ReplyDeleteAn email conversation with Giovanni got onto the subject of facing colours. I recently re-watched the 2002 Austrian(?) movie "Die Freiheit des Adlers" which is heavily dramatised account of Andreas Hofer and the Tirol Rebellion. My German is nowhere near good enough to follow all the detail of the dialogue, but I can get by, and knowing the history helps a lot. Anyway, the point is that, right at the start of the insurrection, there are plenty of Bavarian troops around - all line infantry, and all in convincing looking uniforms, but all with RED facings. Hmmm. There is General Kinkel, a lot of it is accurate, but the regiment which was there at the start should be Kinkel's own 11th line, and they should have green facings.
I was interested, so revisited the pictures from the Bergisel Panorama - all the Bavarians have red facings. Now there were 4 Battles at Bergisel, and by the end of the period the entire Bavarian army was involved in the Tyrol. I think the confusion is caused by the inevitable timeslip - around 1813 or so all the regiments changed to red - so if Hofer's rebellion had been a few years later, red would be correct. However, as it is...
Yes, I realise this is tomfoolery, but if the remake of Gettysburg got slammed for having the wrong beltbuckles for the year, I can surely be stupid about costume accuracy!
Can they fight - well, yes, in 1809 they did pretty well - they were fighting at home, of course. Accounts of Landshut (Parts I and II) show them well, and also Abensberg. My own Bavarians, of course, will be guaranteed rubbish dice etc.
I would not mind trying my hand at painting some of these DK Bavarians.
DeleteJon - because of the strange Blogger behaviour I've only just seen this comment - is this an offer? If so I'd be delighted to discuss!
DeleteThey are rather lovely, and the flags are just the best thing; so pretty, you may not want to risk them in the front line! Does Bavaria have rather an unlucky historial reputation? Pretty much on the 'wrong' side in the 30 Years War, poor choice again in the Spanish Succession, and then throwing in its lot with Napoleon, which presumably didn't end well. Romantic but wrong? Super figures, though!
ReplyDeleteI think Napoleon was a great excuse for Bavaria to become something more than a poor appendage of Austria - he did make their head man a king, after all! I've been reading a rather glowing account of their performances in 1809 at Landshut, Abensberg, Schierling, Eckmühl etc and they seem to have done pretty well, though they were fighting on their own home patch. They were less involved in Aspern and Wagram and the bits that everybody reads about - I think they may have been doing less well in the Tyrol by then.
DeleteI have tried on one of these daft helmets, by the way - about a foot high - in wet weather, I reckon if you nodded your head suddenly you'd fall over. They make me think of the movie Alien, for some reason. Only thing that was good about these helmets was that they were different from the previous Rumford regulations, which everyone hated.
I just know you'll want to see me in a Bavarian helmet - it's at
http://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/danube-trip-well-were-here-1.html
I enjoyed your Bavarian travel report very much. In fact, I referred to it before my recent trip to Bavaria and the Austrian Tirol this month.
DeleteVery fine looking Bavarians. They need some Badener allies... :-)
ReplyDelete