1794 Battle of Boxtel

A book, published at the beginning of this year about an obscure battle, or maybe better a large skirmish, in the 1794 campaign in the Netherlands.
Nothing spectacular happened at this battle but it only happened to be the first battle in which the future Duke of Wellington performed. But it was only a small role.

I like the book because it is about an obscure battle in this period and there are not many books in English about this period.
It is also written with enthousiasme for the events and the FR period, it gives a good description of the battle with various OOB's of the campaign and gives clues how to wargame the battle ( for Black Powder and Volly and Bayonet).
Also mr Wills has given all the references and an extensive bibliography of works and websites he  consulted so if you disagree with all that is written, you can look it up where it came from.

A lot of photos of 15mm French and British troops (Minifigs) are also incorporated. I just wondered how good it would be if 25mm figures would have been in the photos but alas there aren't that many 25mm British FR figures around.
Recommended.

Histoire & Collections books

When talking about the uniforms of the light cavalry of the French revolutionary army you need to look at the H&C books about the Hussars and Chasseurs a cheval. The first one is the first of a series of three books on the hussar arm of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic armies. The book about the chasseurs is the first one of a new serie and just out.
Both are great in my opninion and give good short description of the light cavalry but the best part are the pictures of the uniforms of these dashing cavalrymen.



Also a new book, but only partly about French Revolutionary troops, is the H&C book about the various Guides and Guards. When you want to paint ADC's to various marshals or generals from 1792 onwards, this little book should be on the wishlist
.

Last but not least, an older book but if you are into flags of the French armies from 1791 to 1815, this is the book. It gives plates of a lot of flags of the foot regiments of the FR and Napoleonic armies. Have not yet totalled all the flags in it and don't know (yet) if they are complete,  but the wealth of information in it, is great.

Sorry and new book

It has been a half year when I posted for the last time, sorry for that, but work and other commitments were very time consuming.
So before the end of 2011, I wanted to let you know that a new book about the Dutch army before and in the early part of the French revolutionary period has been published.

It is not only published in Dutch but also in English and German although the price, afaik, is much higher then. I already saw it advertised in the catalogues of Caliver and Berliner Zinnfiguren so it can be bought abroad.
I can only speak about the Dutch edition but think that the other language books will be the same.

The book is a production of the Netherlands institute of Military History (NIMH) and the Dutch Army Museum and put together by J.van Hoof of the NIMH.
Imho the book is beautifull produced, hardbacked, almost 320 pages, large format and very good prints; it would grace any coffee table.

That's its appearance but what is inside:
Well, in fact for the most part, it's a reproduction of the famous "Jassenboekje" (coats-booklet) in which were detailed drawings of almost all the uniforms (infantry, cavalry, artillery and other services plus some rented troops) worn by the United Provinces' army in the 1750 to 1795 period plus the uniforms of the Batavian Republic up to 1800.
These drawings of which there are 92 for the period up to 1795 and 24 of the later period look like:

Some pages, where the regiment kept the same uniform or was disbanded or raised, there can be only one uniform per page. On some pages there are only drawings without colour and one regiment is totally missing, probably because the "Jassenboekje" was not ready.

Added to these "Jassenboekje" drawings are 52 water-dolour paintings by Duncan Macalester Loup dated around 1772 who look like:

These are also about infantry, cavalry and other services.
Besides the drawings and paintings,  the book starts with some information about the Dutch army (but eg no OOB's) , the history of the drawings and it's makers (in total some 20 pages) and ends with a list of collections and books which were consulted.

My conclusion about the book: it is wonderfull produced and the information is very much sought after by those who are interested in the Ducth army of this period. Recommended  and a big applause to the NIMH and Mr van Hoof for this production.

For the organisation of the Dutch army in this period go to www.aldegarde.nl -> historical information where I am busy to complete the information.

25mm (13) Eureka, Brigade games

One way or the other, I haven't had time to renew my blog with the fantastic addition of the 1799 Russian range to the Eureka revolutionary range. As already mentioned before, the Russians are great range and can be used, together with the cossacks, to fight against the French in Italy/Switzerland and in the Netherlands in 1799. Now we only have to wait for the Russian artillery and one or more generals.

Brigade games ( http://www.brigadegames.com/ ) has added the chasseurs, dromedary troops (mounted and dismounted), dragoons and cavalry guides to their site. For any one playing Bonapartes Egyptian campaign, look at these figures. Of course some of these figures can always be drafted in your Eureopean armies (although I would leave out the dromedary corps).
As I understand it, you can tell Brigade games if you want Eureopean or Egyptian clad figures; a good service. Underneath the dismounted dromedary command.

On the Alde Garde website www.aldegarde.nl I still have to add the information about flags for the 1792/1795 period but it is pain to get pictures of these.

Added the information about the change from the United Provinces into Batavian republic and started with the bibliograpy.

In the next month I hope to finish the 1792-1795 period although when more and new information become available, it will be added. 



Salute, Trent, Perry

Being yesterday at Salute I noticed some new packs for this period from Trent. Although I wrote down the specifics I discovered that I lost the notes so out of my head additions were a pack of polish troops for the Cisalpine republic (sadly no command yet afaik) and some 4 or 5 packs for the Caribean theatre (blacks and British).
Look at the website of northstar miniatures te see when the Trent figures are available  http://www.northstarfigures.com/

While on subject I bought a pack of the plastic Perry hussars to use as hussars for this period, one way or the other they never appeared in this blog. So to set this straight:

25mm (12) Eureka figures

Eureka chevaux leger

Eureka of Austalia ( www.eurekamin.com.au) did it again; the first complete Austrian cavalry unit for the French revolutionary wars are available.
3 different poses (at rest, charging and at ease) for the troopers (each with 4 variants), 4 different command figures and a wounded men makes a very good addition to the Eureka range.

The light cavalry is depicted in the peakless kasket so peculiar for these light cavalry troopers and used up to 1800.

25mm (11) Brigade Games

Brigade Games ( http://www.brigadegames.com/ ) has added new 1799 British figures to their range. Seperate heads are available which is a nice idea. They are in the later pattern uniform with front closed coat so afaik they are not useable for the earlier 1792-1795 period or for the 1799 landings in the Netherlands but I always welcome a new addition to this period.

Planned additons to this range by Brigade Games are French Cavalry of which pictures can be seen in their forum. Some pictures of thes figures are under represented.

 In my opinion these look great. So go to the Brigade Games forum.

Cossack 1799 information by Eureka

Eureka miniatures has some information published on their website regarding the 1799 Cossacks. This of course because they just had the first outings of their Russian 1799 range in the form of the cossacks. See: http://www.eurekamin.com.au/ideas/EurekaGuides_1799Cossacks.pdf 

Although the figures are for the 1799 Italian/Swiss Campaign of Kutusov, these can of course be used for the Anglo-Russian landings in the Netherland against the Batavian Republic which also took place in 1799.

Only a small group of cossacks took part in the landings. According to Geert van Uythovens' great book "Voorwaarts Bataven"(or "forward Batavian" for those no-Dutch speaking readers) the cossack contingent consisted on september 18th 1799 of:

- one squadron of Lifeguard cossacks (45 men)

- one squadron of Ural cossack (62men)

- one squadron of Don Cossacks  (25men)