2em régiment de tirailleurs algériens - Part 2

Work on the 2nd Tirailleurs Algériens Regiment continues and presented here is the Second Battalion, for use with the Franco-Prussian Crimean Wars armies.

To expand on my description of this units history in a previous post, in 1870 the regiment fought its most significant action at Froeschwiller on 6 August where it formed half of Lefèvre’s Brigade, Raoult’s Division, 1st Corps. On the night of 5 August the regiment, like most of the 1st Corps, camped on the heights above Woerth where it weathered a heavy rain storm. At 0640 they were rudely awakened by artillery fire from a German battery supporting a reconnaissance against Woerth and, along with the whole division, were called to arms.

Raoult's Division held the centre of the French line, with to Ducrot's Division to the left, Lartigue’s to the right and reserves to the rear, covering the five fingered ridge front of Froeschwiller as far south as the village of Elsasshausen. Colonel Suzzoni's 2nd Tirailleurs Algériens Regiment was on the left of the Division line in the Froeschwiller Wood with the  2/2nd Tirailleurs on the extreme left facing the  Saw Mill on the Soulzbach stream. The battalion's left flank was unprotected, but the right was secured by Captain Wohlfrom's Mitrailleuse battery, the 9/12th. To Wohlfrom's right the 1/2nd Tirailleurs broke back at a right angle to the foot of the spur. The 3/2nd Tirailleurs extended the line up the slope of the spur through the vineyards to the crest where two battalions of Colonel Rogier's 48th Regiment, the other half of the brigade extended the line across the crest of the spur as far as the Froeschwiller-Woerth Road. The regiment was in an exposed position that  jutted forward in a salient.

Colonel Suzzoni

Clearly Suzzoni had expected a severe fight on this day because at 0700, he had ordered that each man be issued with another two packets of ammunition - an additional 24 rounds per man. The action came quickly to the Tirailleurs. At around 0930 Bavarian infantry entered the Langensoultzbach Forest and reached the southern edge, which lay some 100 yards to the left rear of 2/2nd Tirailleurs, shortly afterward. The arrival of the Bavarians on the southern edge of the Langensoultzbach Forest came as a surprise to the French infantry within the Froeschwiller Wood. The northern edge of the wood was unoccupied except for a few pickets. The 2/2nd Tirailleurs Algériens, with their left flank threatened by the arrival of the Bavarians, turned several companies to face the threat. Soon after German artillery fire from beyond Langensoultzbach soon began to fall amongst them and the battalion commander, Commandant Jodosoius, was killed. Raoult responded quickly to the threat and parts of the 8th and 13th Chasseur Battalions, 48th, 36th and 78th Regiments were rushed to bolster Suzzoni’s line.

A not entirely accurate map of the Battle of Froeshwiller, but the insert shows the position of the Regiment in the fighting

At around 10:30 the Bavarians pushed out of the forest in an attempt to cross the ravine between the two woods. They were instantly struck by a hail of Chassepôt bullets and the advance was abruptly halted. The Bavarians stumbled back to the relative safety of the trees, but found that their outdated Podwils rifles were no match for the Chassepôt and when many of the Bavarian companies could not be rallied the battalions were withdrawn to the eastern bank of the Soultzbach stream.

While the withdrawal of the Bavarian eased pressure, the Tirailleurs soon felt renewed pressure from the Prussian infantry of V Corps that advanced from the south and east. With the assistance of other units of Raoult’s division the Tirailleurs held their own with losses mounting. At around 1400 the Bavarians came forward again with the Bavarian II Corps entering the Langensoultzbach Forest and the Bavarian I Corps making directly for the Froeschwiller Wood. Again the Chassepôt in the hands of the Tirailleurs showed its dominance sweeping the open ground pinning the Bavarians down in the water meadows between the Sauerbach and Soultzbach streams. The Bavarian recovered and  pressed forward again. Suzzoni had his men hold their fire until they came within point bank range then opened a devastating fire that halted the South Germans in their tracks. Seizing the moment, Suzzoni ordered the Tirailleurs forward in a bayonet charge along with elements of the other battalions in the wood, with with two battalions of the 1st Zouaves from Ducrot’s division in support and the Bavarians were driven back beyond the Soultzbach stream. The Tirailleurs followed closely and established themselves in the woods beyond, but when Ducrot ordered the Zouaves back to bolster the collapsing French right flank, the position was untenable and the Tirailleurs fell back to their position in the Froeschwiller Wood.

Colonel Suzzoni (on the white horse in the middle distance) falls wounded in the Tirailleurs’ charge

The Bavarian troops rallied and pressed forward, but the Tirailleurs were not ready to give up the fight. Suzzoni was dead and command passed to the lieutenant colonel, but no sooner had he taken command than he went down. Two of the battalion commanders had been killed, the regiment was under command of Commandant Mathieu of the first battalion and all three battalions were under command of captains. The Tirailleurs hurriedly constructed a breastwork of their packs and branches and held off repeated attacks of the Bavarians, but ammunition was running low. When two battalions of the Prussian 59th Regiment stormed forward they hit with such force that they overran the position capturing many Tirailleurs and driving the rest off to the west.

It had been a desperate five hour fight for the Tirailleurs and they suffered terribly losing 76 officers and 1,359 men from the 86 officers and 2,200 that reported for action that morning.

The monument to the Tirailleurs Algériens

It is interesting to note how these North African soldiers, serving on French soil for the first time, were viewed by both friend and foe. The Pastor of Froeschwiller’s observation was one of fear for the enemy. “Oh woe! fair-haired maidenhood of Germany!” he exclaimed, “where these fellow burst in, howling and lamentations will attend them”. After the fighting ended  a captain of the Bavarian staff observed a gruesome sight in the form of a Bavarian soldier who appeared “crazed, red faced...as if on a hunt”. The captain soon found that the man was indeed on the hunt for any Schwarzen or “blacks” - Tirailleurs Algériens - who many Germans falsely suspected of atrocities: gouging out the eyes of the prisoners, cutting off the noses and ears of German casualties or shooting the wounded. This man took his retribution for these supposed crimes by putting the muzzle to the head of every wounded Algerian he found and blowing their brains out. Maybe his actions were a reflection of an attitude voiced later by Bismarck: “There should have been no question of making prisoners of those blacks. If I had my way every soldier who made a black man a prisoner would be placed under arrest. They are beasts of prey, and ought to be shot down.” Such a genuinely false slur on the reputation of these magnificent soldiers.

 

Russian Dragoons

The first of the planned three Russian dragoon regiments has ridden out of the uniform store onto the parade ground, before going in to barracks.

This has been created as the Kharkov regiment with orange facings and brass buttons.

The other two regiments I will do will be the Kiev regiment (my way of thumbing my nose at Mr P) and the Tver regiment. 

 

There was a temptation to do all the regiments in a burst, but I have decided to intersperse them with amongst the four of five projects currently in play.

The New Hampshire Regiments

This week sees the completion of the three New Hampshire infantry regiments for the American Revolution that I mentioned in my last post.

Organised in May and June 1775 the 1st formed at Medford, Massachusetts, from Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties, the 2nd formed at Exeter drawn from Strafford and Rockingham counties and the 3rd formed at Fitzwilliam with men from Cheshire, Hillsborough, and Cumberland Counties. Each regiment consisted of ten companies and all three regiments were immediately adopted into the Continental Army and assigned to the Main Army. 

All three regiments were brigaded together they fought in the Siege of Boston, the Defense of Canada, Lake Champlain, Trenton-Princeton, Saratoga and Philadelphia-Monmouth. Reduced to eight companies in 1777 they were raised to nine companies a few months later and were engaged against the Iroquois in 1779. They were assigned to the Highlands Department and then to the Northern Department 1781.

The 3rd was disbanded January 1781, while the 1st and 2nd were reorganised and consolidated in March 1783 to form the New Hampshire Battalion. The Battalion was disbanded in January 1784.

The uniform in the 1778-79 period (and probably latter for some men) was a green coat and waistcoat with green or straw pants, and it fits in well with my intention to do a number of units away from the blue coats that is so common in the collections of others in our group.

Standards for the regiments were difficult to determine. The only known standard was the buff flag carried by the 2nd Regiment and I paired it with a Stars and Stripes. Another flag attributed to the 2nd Regiment, but no evidence seems to exist that it was carried by it, was the blue version of the buff flag and decided that since the 1st and 2nd Regiments were so closely associated I have given to the 1st and I have paired it with a Bunker hill flag. The flags of the 3rd Regiment are pure conjecture and the yellow flag was taken from a blog that I would credit if I could recall its name and it too was paired with a Liberty Tree flag.

 Below, three shots of the 1st Regiment.

Below, three shots of the 2nd Regiment.

Below, four shots of the 3rd Regiment.

New Arrivals

Not much to show on the gaming front. That is not to say that nothing is happening, it is just that nothing is finished. Three battalions of New Hampshire infantry for the AWI are nearing completion, but not yet based. They should appear a little later this week.

But on Wednesday this bundle of goodies arrived from the Perrys - my first purchase since May.

It contained five infantry command frames for the AWI American infantry, along with their associated mounted officers, artillery sets and limbers and four FPW gun sets. Also included are three boxes of Napoleonic Allied plastic cavalry, plus 8 frames of horses and three sets of Allied cavalry command frames that will allow me to build three regiments of Russian and three of Prussian dragoons. 

The boxes of cavalry stayed on the shelf for a day and a half before before the temptation became too great and I had to assemble the first batch. Such a lovely set these are, permitting the creation of four cavalry types from the one box: Prussian dragoons and volunteer Jägers, and Russian dragoons and mounted Jägers. There are so many legs, bodies arms and heads on the sprue that if you buy enough spare horse frames and a command frame you can build two regiments from the one box and still have lots of bits over to join the multitude of spare heads, hats, arms, weapons and other accoutrements already in little boxes for future potential projects.

Of course I didn’t really need to assemble these. I already had two full battalions of AWI Americans plus two of Turcos - that is thirteen days painting - assembled and in the queue. Now normally I would not have as many figures pre-assembled, because assembly can be a tedious process and my rule of thumb has always been ‘just assemble what you need to paint next day’, which for me means six foot or three mounted figures - a manageable quantity. But in this post-COVID work environment I am working from home two days a week now to try to save some commute time and gas (one team of three in my area at work has been working so efficiently remotely that they have been into the office no more than five days in the last two and a half years), and last week there was a particular series of online meetings to solve an IT issue. This involved three one-hour sessions of making a change, wait fifteen minutes for the server to update then test, then repeat…so after the first couple of fifteen minute waits we had exhausted the conversational subjects like the weather, the war in Ukraine, sport and the upcoming royal funeral and there were long periods of silence which became the perfect time to assemble plastic figures - with the mute on of course. But I digress.

Anyway on Friday afternoon I’m in the middle of assembling the Russian dragoons and the phone rings…the landline. What you say, you still have a landline? Yes we do, in part because there are still some people we know who prefer to use it - the mother-in-law for one (and I have used this as a point of discussion as to why we should get rid of it) and in part because her indoors doesn’t like cell phones (although this is a senseless argument now that we have had three COVID shots and have the 5G chip firmly implanted in our systems). But again I digress.

So the phone rings just as I have started to glue the head on a horse and I have applied a little too much glue and it is taking forever to set…you know what it is like to hold it in place as still as you can until the glue takes and that 30 seconds seems like an eternity. So I put the figure down and answer the phone which is in the other room and isn’t hands free. I should have known better that a call at 4:00 in the afternoon was not going to be anyone I know. It is of course a scam caller. 

“I am from Windows,” says the liar on the other end. Now despite the annoying interruption I am in a good mood because it is the start of a long weekend, so I string him along for a full ten minutes pretending to be a computer dummy, but being very cooperative. Then I ask my favourite question, “is your mother proud of you?”

“Why do you ask?”

“I am just interested how any mother could possibly be proud that their son is a lying, cheating, scumbag thief like you.”

Call ends and I am happy to have robbed him of ten minutes of his life that he will never get back.

I returned to my figure assembly and I now have one 12 figure unit of Russian and the same of Prussian dragoons assembled and in the queue.

2em régiment de tirailleurs algériens

A few months ago a local retailer had a 30%  discount on their Perry Miniatures plastics stock. This was too much for my inner magpie to resist and the single box of ACW Zouaves that they had in stock were quickly snapped up. Then I though, “but I already have four regiments of zouaves, do I really need more?” And the answer was no, but they might work for French Zouaves for the any of the wars of the Second Empire. 

I have used these for the Zouaves in the Crimea and plan to use them for the Franco-Prusssian War. I don’t really need  a second unit of Zouaves, but what about some tirailleurs algériens in their summer uniform of blue jackets and white trousers? Why not indeed, and the tirailleurs served in the Crimea too.  

Tirailleurs algérien porte fanion

There is a lot wrong with using the figures for the FPW - they are armed with Minié rifles and not the Chassepôt, they should have a sword bayonet instead of the standard socket bayonet and the drum carried is completely wrong. But since they have an ability to serve in three possible conflicts in the Second Empire, I have decided to overlook these faults.

By buying another six command frames I could make the single box of 42 figures into three battalions of 18 figures each. I also figured that I could solve the sword bayonet issue by taking the leftover facine knives from the Prussian infantry sets and trimming them careful with a scalpel. A few spare eagles from some French cavalry cavalry sets were also put to good use with the standard bearers.

I chose to create the 2nd Regiment that was formed in 1842 with its garrison at Oran. Raised from the indigenous population with European officers the 2nd had a deep and varied history. Throughout the 1840s and early 1850s it participated in the conquest of Algeria earning battle honours at the Siege of Laghouat in 1852. More honours were awarded for action at Sevastopol in the Crimean War and at Solferino. A part of the regiment went to Mexico where they fought in the Battle of San Lorenzo in 1863. 

The regiment came to France in 1870 with a ferocious reputation and fought at Froeschwiller on 6 August, defending the eastern corner of the Bois de Froeschwiller. For seven and a half hours they resisted the attacks of the Bavarian I and II Corps, were blasted by the massed German batteries finally were smashed by the assault of the Prussian 59th Regiment. Of the 84 officers and 2,220 men that had been available for action that morning, 76 officers and 1,359 were casualties. They fought at and surrendered after Sedan. Some of the depot companies were formed into regiments de marche and fought in the Republican armies in the Loire campaigns.

Tirailleurs algérien at Froeschwiller (although this is the charge of the 3rd regiment)

After the Franco-Prussian War the regiment was involved in the conquest of Madagascar and again in Algeria at the Battle of Ksar el Azoudj in 1903. It was heavily engaged in the Great War in many of major actions, including Charleroi, the Marne, the Argonne, the Meuse, Champagne, Verdun, Moreuil and Ternier. 

In the Second World War they were initially incorporated into the Vichy forces in North Africa, but joined the Allies in 1943. After the War they were involved again in Madagascar, Indo-China and in Algeria. With the granting of Algerian independence the regiment was disbanded.

I am pleased with the way these chaps came up. I particularly like the way the blue came out (especially on the officer and standard bearer). There are two more battalions assembled and waiting in the painting queue.

Prussian Infantry on Parade

Just over a year ago I started this Franco-Prussian War project with the intention of building up the Prussian VII Army Corps, battalion for battalion, and a cavalry division, regiment for regiment. 

This week sees the completion of the infantry component of that force: 24 line battalions and one jäger battalion, sixteen stands of skirmishers plus some 30 casualty figures. In all that is 654 figures…all Perry plastics.

So without further ado, here are the latest additions:

The Fusilier Battalion, 77th Regiment…

…all three battalions of the 73rd (Hanoverian Fusilier) Regiment…

…another nine skirmish stands…

…a few battle casualties…

…and a parade of the full corps in all its glory.

The Thirteenth Infantry Division, with the 25th Brigade (13th and 73th Regiments) in the first two rows the 26th Brigade (15th and 55th Regiments) to the rear, all formed in double column of companies at close intervals. The 7th Jäger battalion, on the right, is attached to this division, while the divisional cavalry, the 8th Hussars, are on the left.

The Fourteenth Infantry Division, with the 27th Brigade (39th and 74th Regiments) in the first two rows  the 28th brigade (53rd and 77th Regiments) in the rear. The 15th Hussars, the divisional cavalry are on the right.

Finally the full corps, with Thirteenth Division in the left, Fourteenth to the right with the Jägers and skirmish divisions deployed forward.

Next up is the first of the French infantry.