Perry Plastics in Campaign Dress Overcoats

A couple of hurried pictures of a just completed Perry unit. I wanted to paint a unit in campaign dress with great coats. I used Elite figures for the command unit and the mounted colonel. I think the mix is ok.

A Question of Scale

I have been recently working on adding some buildings to my terrain. After discussion on TMP, I decided that I would go with 15 mm buildings with my 28 mm army. I recently bought and painted a couple of building from Timecast (numbers 1&3 from the left) and yesterday received some building from JR Miniatures (numbers 2,4&5). I am happy with the figure to building look of this size building with my figures (see Perry Plastics Campaign Unit post), but 2 of the JR miniature building seem quite out of scale (unpainted). What do you think?

Battle of Göhrde OB

Initial Deployments

General area east of Hamburg.

The Battle of Göhrde was fought on 16th September, 1813. Here is Von Wallmoden's personal account of the battle as described in Cobbett's Political Register. Another account of the Battle can be found in this History of the King's German Legion. Here is one for those who can read German.

There is a lack of clarity in respect to the OB for the light brigade of Lyon's division. Two sources (here and here) list the Hanoverian Light Battalion Lueneburg as being present while the above sources and Osprey MA 192 Prussian Reserve, Militia & Irregular Troops 1806-15 do not list them as being present. The first source does not list the Anhalters as present. There is an interesting email chain on the Napoleonic Series, a lot of primary resources sited, I will let you make your decision.

French Order of Battle

CC General de Division Pécheux

5oth Division

1st Brigade Mielzynski
2/3rd Ligne 600
3/3rd Ligne 600
4/3rd Ligne 600
6/3rd Ligne 600
2nd Brigade Blanc
2/105 Ligne 600

Cavalry Lebleu
28th Chaussers 100

Artillery
FA 6 guns

Allied Order of Battle

CC Feldmarschallleutnant Ludwig von Wallmoden

Avantgard Tettenborn (Prussian)
Brigade Ratt
Battalion of Reiche Feldjaegers
Lutzow's FreiKorps
Kielmansegge Feldjaegers (Hanoverian)
Tyrolean Jaegers
Cavalry Brigade

Russian Don Cossacks (Komisarov)

Russian Don Cossacks (Sulin)
Russian Don Cossacks (Denisov)
Lutzow's Hussars (5 squads)

Artillery

Hanseatic FA (Spoorman) 4x6pd

Division Arenschildt (Russian German Legion)
1st Brigade Natzmer
1st RGL Line Inf (V Schaper)
2nd RGL Line Inf (V Fircks)
5th RGL Line Inf (V Dobschutz)

2st Brigade Von Wardenburg
3rd RGL Line Inf (V Tiedemann)
4nd RGL Line Inf (V Horn)
6nd RGL line Inf (V Natzmer)

Cavalry

RGL 1st Hussars (V der Goltz)

Division Lyon (Hanoverian-British)
1st Brigade Martin
Light Bremen-Verden
2/73rd Highland
Light Anhalt Dessau

Light Lueneburg (see above)
2st Brigade Halkett
Hanoverian Line Lauenburg (Benoit)
Hanoverian Line von Bennigsen
Hanoverian Line von Langrehr
1/2 Batt KGL (Holtzerman)

Artillery

Hanoverian FA 6 guns (Wiering)

Division Dornberg (cavalry)
KGL 3rd Hussars (Kuper) (5 squads)
Bremen-Verden Hussars (1 squad)

Luneberg Estorf Hussars (2 squads)

Artillery

KGL HA 2 troops (Bruckman) 12x6pd
RGL HA 12x6pd (Monhaupt)
British Rockets 16 stands (Strangways)

The Hanoverian Battalion von Benningsen attacking the French 3rd Battalion de Ligne.

A New Distraction: Wallmoden's Korps

About 6 months ago when perusing the the TMP web site, I came across a reference to Wallmoden's Korps. I was immediately intrigued as described was a mixed corps of multiple central and eastern european countries. Included were battalions and regiments from Russia, Prussia, Hanover, the Hanseatic League, the principality of Anhalt-Dessau, as well as Highlanders and the KGL, but what was most amazing there was even a British rocket troop. Who could resist painting up these figures. By then I was getting bored of painting British, French and Portuguese for my peninsular war units. Also exciting was the fact that I could finally order some of those Calpe figures, I have heard so much about. I also love researching new units and uniforms. 

So who was this Wallmoden, time to start using google. From Wikipedia came some basic biographic details. Ludwig von Wallmoden was the son of Johann Ludwig Reichsgraf von Wallmoden-Gimborn (1736-1811), an illegitimate son of George II, King of England.
He was apparently born in Austria and served in multiple different armies through the Napoleonic era, including Hanover, Prussia and Austria. In 1813 he transfered to the Russian army and became the head of the Russian-German Legion. Soon as the War of the Sixth Coalition was developing he was given his own corps as a part of the Allied Army of the North. During the Battle of the Göhrde, he and his corps held out against not only General Davout's force but also the French division under Pécheux, later penetrating into Schleswig and forcing the Danes to make peace. He survived the Napoleonic wars, served with the Austrian army in Italy and finally retired in 1848. He died in Vienna in 1862.

I really do not have  a good sense yet of how Wallmoden's Korps fit into the allied armies of 1813 and the major battles of this critical year in the Napoleonic Era. It does, however, look like an exciting army to paint so I made my plans. I could find enough information about the troop composition at Battle of Göhrde, so I decided to start there.

The New Plastics Done Wrong!!

Perry French 1815 Infantry Figures

These figures I decided to paint as a line regiment from Anhalt-Dessau, as they were uniformed in 1813 as part of Wallmoden's Corps. They are based for Le Feu Sacre, so it is a small unit of 12. I had to take some liberties here, as they would have worn the pre 1812 french uniform, which of course had a different shako and coat. I mostly used heads with covered shakos to in an attempt to ameliorate the inaccuracies of the figure. It was nice to paint pink and green uniforms. My references are from the NY Digital Library and the Histofig sites.

These figures were easy to assemble. It was also easy to get many figures in a march pose from a single box. The figures though are a little harder to paint and I was less happy with the end result then with the Victrix figures.

Both flags are from the Flag Dude.

Victrix British Waterloo Infantry Figures

I thought these figures would be nice as Hanoverian Line Infantry. I found these figures difficult to assemble and their poses were not that useful in constructing massed infantry units in comparison to the Perry French. I had difficulty getting 12 figures in this pose from 1 box.

They are of course painted as the Line Battalion von Benningsen. It was fun painting their shakos white. I like how these came out better then the Perry's, they are easier to paint as their sculpting is a little sharper. My painting skills are improving, but I still have a long way to go.

My reference was from The Napoleon Series. I also used the relevant Osprey book. I know, I know the flag is wrong, this is the one for the Hoya regiment 1815, and these figures are painted for Wallmoden's corps in 1813.