Completion of the Prussian 39th Regiment

Over a month ago I posted images of the First Battalion, Lower Rhine Fusilier Regiment, No 39. Since then I have worked in the Second and Third Battalions. They have been sitting on the painting table for two weeks waiting for their basing to be completed, a task that is now completed.

The completion of these two not only finishes the regiment, but also the whole of 27th Brigade, 14th Division, VII Corps.  At the start of the 1870 campaign the brigade was led by Major General Bruno Hugo Karl Friedrich von François. Of Huguenot descent von François would be better known as the father of Hermman and Curt von François, the former a corps commander on the Eastern Front in 1914, and the latter an explorer in Africa who founded Windehoek, but in 1870, at the age of 54, the father had built up a solid combat record in the Prussian Army.  A major in the Danish campaign of 1864, two years later he was  made colonel of the 58th Regiment, in Stienmetz’s V Corps, and led it brilliantly at Nachod and Skalitz. Awarded the Pour le Mérite for his actions in 1866 he made major general prior to the 1870 campaign and was given command of the 27th Infantry Brigade. In his first action in that war at Spicheren on 6 August 1870 while personally leading the assault on the Rotherberg he was struck by five mitrailleuse bullets and killed. For the rest of the campaign the brigade was led by Colonel Pannewitz of the 74th Regiment. 

Here then are all six battalions of 27th Brigade.