Bavarian Field Artillery and the Salzburg Nationalmiliz

In the structure of the Napoleonic Bavarian military there were several levels of reservists. The first level were reservists for the line units. The second level were the Nationalmiliz Mobile Legions, sometimes  called Kries battalions because they were organised by province, or ‘Kreis' and charged with defending the national borders. They were only meant to be called up in emergencies.

After the loss of most of the Bavarian army in Russia in the 1812 Campaign radical changes to the recruitment programme were required. The Nationalmiliz Mobile Legions became the building blocks for the armed forces. Each Kries was to raise a mobile legion of four infantry battalions each of four companies providing an auxiliary defence force of 36 battalions with a total of 21,500 other ranks. While some battalions received exemptions that meant they did not have to serve outside the national borders, between one third and one half of the Bavarian army that took the field in 1813 consisted of Mobile Legions.

Since I have picked the Second Division of the Bavarian Army at the Battle of Hannau, I need four battalions of Mobile Legion. The Salzburg battalion, below, is the first of those battalions. Since this is a militia battalion I deliberately based the figures a little more irregularly than I would normally do.

Also completed is a six-pound gun and crew.

The limber for this set is on the painting table now.