Régiment Deux Ponts - Duexième Partie

This, the First Battalion of Régiment Deux Ponts, is the final unit I am making for this French AWI collection.

As tempting as it is to do the Régiment de Bourbonnais and the infantry of the Volontaires-étrangers de Lauzun (the only units of the French Forces in America under Rochambeau that I don’t have), I am resisting since I my original intention was to do four battalions and have already expanded that to six. On top of that this is after all really intended as a support force for the rather large American collections held by others in the group. But never say never…

Of course there has to be a parade!  

Two Units and a Game…at Last!

I realised yesterday that I haven’t posted since the 18th when we returned from our sojourn in the Deep South. It is not that I haven’t been doing any hobby work or have been layed low by the plague, rather real life has intruded into preferred life and absorbed too much of my time. The net result is that units that have been painted for a few days have lingered far too long in the basing department. That said, here are two newly completed units.

The first is the First Battalion Régiment de Saintonge for the French AWI army to go with the Second Battalion presented back in February.

This finishes Régiment de Saintonge. The last unit in my intended French force is on the painting table now.

The second unit is the Second Battalion 53rd Regiment for the Prussian army for 1870.

There are only eight battalions still to go in this force (including the jäger battalion just ordered).

And finally last Friday we actually managed a face-to-face game! A Borderer’s game in which three raiding parties attempted to raid cattle from a family farm with the farm owner, supported by a small force with the local warden tried to fend them off. I managed to completely wipe out the defending farmer and his supporters while my two fellow raiders gathered up two thirds of the cattle. I am sure that Keith will write up a more complete report of the event.

Up in truth we spent more time talking (having seen each other so rarely since January) than gaming, but a  game, a good natter and a shared meal was just the ticket after a difficult week in the coal mines.

Régiment de Soissonnais - Duexième Partie

This is the second battalion that I have painted of the Soissonnais regiment (that Lawrence has pointed out could be difficult to pronounce after a tipple or two - although my argument is it might make it easier) for the French AWI collection.

While it is the second battalion painted, bearing the drapeau blanc it represents the First Battalion of the regiment.

In keeping with my error with the previous effort, I have painted the turnbacks solid crimson where they should be white.

Mounted Officers for Three Armies

This post sees the completion of three sets of mounted officers.

First out of the blocks are three mounted colonels for the French Army in North America during the War of Independence. These are intended for use as brigadiers. I have done them in the uniform of the three regiments that will be included in this collection: (left to right) Royal Deux-Ponts, Saintonge, and Soissonnais.

Second are four Argentine generals for the Great Paraguayan War. I hadn’t intended to do any more Argentine  troops, but when I started to work out orders of battles for games I found I was short of four commanders - the Argentines had a very short command structure in which the divisions counted two brigades each of two battalions, so my eight battalions needed six infantry commanders and the cavalry brigade needed a commander too. The officer with charging with the raised sword is actually a figure from the Brazilian officers set, but by giving him some red trousers, a red kepi and a bit of gold trim he makes a perfectly good Argentine cavalry officer.

Third are two more Brazilian officers to provide them with the extra couple needed to complete their order of battle.

The only loose ends on the Paraguayan War now are two Brazilian gun sets (on their way from Nottingham right now) and some fortress guns (that nine weeks after ordering them have finally left Australia) for the Paraguayan gun crew that are calmly awaiting their arrival on the painting tray.

Régiment de Royal Deux-Ponts

This is the third of what will be six battalions in this French AWI collection.

Formed in 1757 by Duke Christian IV of Pfalz-Zweibrucken as a result of the Duke’s indebtedness to Louis XV of France Régiment de Royal Deux-Ponts remained in French service throughout its 240 year existence despite its home territory, the "two bridges" area (Deux-Ponts/Zweibruken), ping-ponging between the French and Germany over the years.

It’s first action was in the Seven Years War where it fought under Soubise at Rossbach, then later at Sandershausen, Lutterberg, Frankfurt, Minden, Corbach and Vellinghausen. After the war it was first posted to Thionville, then to it’s home region of Zwiebrücken.

The Regiment was chosen by Rochambeau to take to America in the American Revolution because of the hard fighting reputation in established in the Seven Years War. That reputation was greatly enhanced by its service at Yorktown where facing the Hessians they were involved in the storming of Redoubt 9 the loss of which led to the British surrender, losing 46 killed and 68 wounded. For their part in the victory Washington presented them with one of the captured guns and the regiment presented captured British colours to the King.

In 1790, after the Revolution it lost its royal designation and became the 99e régiment d’infanterie de Ligne and ceased recruiting Germans. It was heavily involved in the Revolutionary War and fought at Marengo, Wagram and Borodino.

Under the Second Empire it served in Algeria, Italy in 1859, Mexico, and in the Franco-Prussian War, notably at Froeschwiller and Sedan. 

It later fought with distinction in the Great War, particularly in the Second Battle of Champagne and at Verdun. It went on to fight in the Second World War and was employed after the war in Algeria and then Bosnia. In 1997, after 240 years in service, the regiment was disbanded as a part of the downsizing of l’armée de terre.

In Rochambeau‘s army in America, it wore the distinctive blue costs of the German regiments and carried the wonderfully ornate standards below: the Colonel’s colour (drapeau blanc) on the left (with the motto “outnumbered but not overpowered”) and the drapeau d’ordonnance on the right.

Completed before this unit, but left dawdling in the basing department is the 1st Battalion, 15th Regiment for the Franco-Prussian army.

Régiment de Saintonge

This week sees the addition of  Régiment de Saintonge to the French AWI army. 

It was formed on 4 September 1684 from the ancient regiment of Navarre, its recruitment was from the province of Saintonge, north of Bordeaux. In 1775 the regiment was expanded from one to two battalions by incorporating the Régiment de Cambrésis. 

Between 1763 and 1768 the regiment served in the West Indies and French Guiana. Two years later Rochambeau selected it to participate in the French expeditionary force to America. Under the command of Col. Adam-Philippe, Count de Custine de Sarreck, Saintonge regiment distinguished itself at the siege of Yorktown, where it was brigaded with the Régiment Soissonaise (featured in my last AWI French post).

The regiment’s major, the Marquis de Fleury, had earlier taken a leave of absence to join the American forces as a volunteer, fighting at Brandywine and Germantown, further distinguishing himself at Stony Point when he was first into the British fort and secured the colours, for which he was given a medal by the U.S. Congress.

After Yorktown command of the regiment fell to Rochambeau’s son. Departing the United States from Boston in December 1782 for service in the French Antilles. It returned to France the following year. After the Revolution the regiment was redesignated the 82e Régiment de Ligne. 

The regimental colours were spectacularly colourful.

Régiment de Soissonnais

When I was in school in the early 1970s, in what is probably called Year 6 today, I can remember a school-wide test set by the principal. The test started with the instruction to read through the paper first then complete the test. Like probably 80% of the school I failed. It wasn’t the fact that the test was hard, quite the opposite in fact because these were the easiest questions you could think of and I probably answered every singe one correctly. The kicker was that the last line of the paper told everyone that now they had read through the paper, put your name at the top of the page and go no further. The objective was, of course, to teach us to read instructions thoroughly. I wish I had applied that idea before I started this unit.

Commanded by the Comte de Saint Maisme, brother-in-law to the Marquis de Lafayette, the Régiment de Soissonnais was one of four that Rochambeau brought with him to America. This force was to act as reinforcement to Washington's Continental forces during operations around New York City. The combined force was  quickly diverted to the southern theatre to bottle up Cornwallis at Yorktown. Additional French troops under the Marquis de Saint-Simon joined them there.

So how does this tie in with the opening paragraph? Well if I had read the reference information correctly (take that to read if I had read three paragraphs further on) I would have realised that the turnbacks for these 1779 uniform (that theses figures represent) should be white and not crimson. While this would normally been a relatively easy thing to fix, I had already fixed twelve figures to their bases by the time I noticed the error and could not get a brush in between the based figures to re-do them. So I will have to live with it.

The battalion showing off their incorrect turnbacks

The French flags on the whole are wonderfully geometric and simple to recreate on the PC. This one took a whole five minutes.

A New Project

I have embarked on a new project, although some might consider it an extension of my AWI projects from last year.

This project is to collect a small French force to support the American forces we have in vast numbers and also to fight the British in the Caribbean. The idea was to raise a force of three battalions, one squadron of cavalry and battalion gun, plus some command figures. You may have noted that I used the word “was” near the start of the last sentence, and that is because even though I haven’t even put a brush near the first infantry unit yet, I have decided to expand the force to six battalions. This is largely because I have thought of an interesting game that would require a minimum of six battalions.

This first batch contains the command, a gun and the cavalry.

The command set comes Witt seven foot figures and one mounted  figures and I have broken  set into three groups:

• Generals Rochambeau, Chastellux and the Duc de Lauzun

• The Marquis de St Simon, an engineer officer and a topographical engineer

• A commissaries ordinnateur passing a message to a mounted ADC.

And the whole glittering group together.

Next is the battalion gun, with a crew in fatigues firing a Swedish 3lb gun. This has to be the simplest uniform I have painted in years.

The last item in this batch is the hussar squadron from Lauzon’s Legion.

As I was completing these I was reminded of a post from a few years ago when I admitted my hussar addiction and it made me wonder just how many units of hussars do I have? Well quite a few actaully. There are these (6 figures), for the Napoleonic era four French regiments (45), one British (6), one each Russian and Prussian (24), Crimean War two British (12) and two Russian (18), Austrian-Prussian War two Austrian (36), Prussian (12) and WWI German (6).

Finally with Omicron creeping it’s way into our communities and the horror of further restrictions (no lockdown or provincial borders closed this time…hopefully) and expected disruptions to supply chains it was important to stock up on a few important items.