Dispatches
Letters to the Editor
from First Empire Readers
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Nassau Helmet plumes... Dear Sir, I would like to ask a question of the readers, regarding the uniform of the Nassau first bttalion in 1806: Was the plume on their helmets worn on the left or the right hand side? Knötel plates show it on the left, but Osprey No.43 put it on the right hand side. Who is right and who is wrong? Also what about a series on Italian uniforms? I must thank you for a truly excellent magazine. Yours Sincerely, Editor. Given a choice between a Knötel and an Osprey, I would go for the Knötel every time. In general plumes when not worn to the fore were worn on the left hand side, after all wouldn't a drooping plume run the risk of ignition when your musket fires? If you know better or can confirm this please write in... Service de Santé Uniforms Dear Dave, In the last issue of First Empire, Steve Tamplin asks for information on the uniforms of Officers of the Service de Santé circa 1812-1815. Unfortunately, Steve does not make clear in which branch he is interested. Very briefly the Service de Santé was divided into three branches. The officiers de santé are found in the first which consisted of the 3 different medical disciplines, doctors, surgeons and pharmacists. The 'Bardin' Réglement de 1812 confirmed the colour of the coat as that established by the earlier Réglement de l'An XII (1803), namely cornflower-blue, with black, crimson and green distinctives on collars, cuffs and lapels for doctors, surgeons and pharmacists respectively, although later it contradicts this in that it states that the coat was without lapels. Breeches were also cornflower blue. Headwear was a black chapeau. The various grades of officier de santé ranged from Inspecteur General and Officier de Santé en Chef, through Inspecteur Principal, Officiers de Santé 1re Classe, 2e Classe and 3e Classe. Unfortunately, the Réglement de 1812 is equally nebulous in the context of how each grade was indicated except to say that it was by means of embroidered Acanthus leaves or by embroidered button holes. Under the Réglement de l'An XII, this was as follows. Inspecteur General and Officier en Chef: A double row of gold braid on collar, cuffs and pockets. Button holes decorated with gold embroidered Acanthus leaves as follows. 2 either side of the collar, 9 on each lapel, 2 on each cuff and 3 on each pocket. Inspecteur Principal: As above but only a single row of gold braid.
In practice, however, officiers de santé attached to regiments frequently wore the dress of the corps to which they were attached, often the surtout of the regiment in question together with the insignia of their discipline and grade. This was particularly prevalent in the cavalry although there are also exam-ples of it in the infantry. The second part consisted of the Administration des Hospitaux. This organisation was responsible for management of military hospitals and the provision of field hospitals and ambulances. I doubt that this is the area of Steve's interest though. The officials of this administrative organisation, nevertheless, wore a uniform of national-blue with gold distinctions of grade. The third part consisted of the infirmiers, or medical orderlies, of which there were two kinds. Those attached to military hospitals who wore a simple grey fatigue type uniform with distinc-tives according to their specialisation, and those attached to the field army. The latter, 'Les Infirmiers Marrons', were established by the decree of 13th April 1809 which called for the formation of 10 companies of Infirmiers each 125 strong. The uniform is well known, essentially a chestnut-brown habit with red distinctives piped white. Initially given a black chapeau with red over brown plume or pompon with company number, this was replaced by a shako with yellow metalwork and red tuft upon reorganisation on 19th January 1813, when an infantry style uniform including habit-veste was adopted. Breeches were chest-nut-brown in winter and white in summer. Grey pantaloons were prescribed wear on service. They did not have officers in the accepted sense and each company was commanded by a centenier, who equated to a sous-lieutenant, with a sous-centenier as second-in-command. Distinctions were as follows. Centenier: Gold piping to collar, cuffs and pockets. Gold epaulette on the left shoulder.
The best reference I know of is Docteur Millet's L'Uniforme des Officiers du Service de Sante 1757 -1814, privately published, Saint-Agnant, France, 1982. Another valuable source is H. Malibran's Guide a l'Usage des Artistes et des Costumiers Contenant la Description des Uniformes de l'Armée Française de 1780 ŕ 1848, 2 volumes, Paris 1904 (facsimile edition by Le Voltigeur, 10 rue Gay-Lussac, 75005 Paris, undated but approximately 1975, I think), contains a chapter on the subject. This work is, incidentally, arguably the most important and detailed reference document on French uniforms ever published, apart from the clothing regulations themselves. Volume 1 is text, Volume 2 contains, what are to all intent and purposes, tailors' sketches. A series of articles on the subject by Alain Gerard and Rigo also appeared in the French magazine 'Uniformes' in 1978, numbers 41 and 42, and Dr. F. G. Hourtoulle's series of plates includes Planche No 48, 'Les Ambulances et La Chirugie aux Armées' which has a useful 4 pages of accompanying of text. Unfortunately none of the above are in print currently but most of what Steve needs may be found in the recently reprinted series of cards by Commandant Bucquoy. 'Etat-major et service de santé' is the volume in question. Yours Sincerely, Mounted? Dear Sir, Please does anyone know if all the officers in the Napoleonic Wars were mounted or were some officers on foot with the rank and file. Editor. I think that this question actually relates to which officers within a battalion were actually mounted and which were not. Anybody care to take this on perhaps by a national breakdown. Reply with Column Corrections: Letter to Editor (FE18) Praise from the N.A. Dear David, As a member of the N.A. I recently received a copy of First Empire for the first time. I was very impressed with the quality of the whole magazine. The colour cover was magnificent, and gave a very professional look to the magazine. The contents were varied and highly informative. I particularly liked the mix of articles. I enjoyed the wargame reports, especially the account of The Battle at Kulmbach Mill. I look forward to reading future issues. Ottoman Turks...Anyone help? Dear Sir, Firstly I must congratulate you on an excellent magazine, of which I am now a subscriber. Secondly, I wonder if any of your readers can be of help to me. I have just started researching into a Napoleonic Ottoman Empire Army and I am finding information difficult to acquire. I am particulary interested in unit organisation and strengths, military uniforms and district dress for the irregular forces. Any information will be greatly appreciated. Time is Relative.... Dear Sir, Just a couple of other thoughts on time in this period. All other countries used the Gregorian calender with two exceptions. One was Russia which used the Julian system up until 1917 and was thus twelve days behind everyone else. The other was the muslim calender, of course used in the Ottoman Empire. The year was not by A.D., but the year of the Hegira (A.H.), from the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in A D 622. On top of which there are only 354 days in the Muslim year! Thus to calculate a muslim year for a date, deduct 622 from the Gregorian year, multiply the result by 11, then divide by 354, and add the result to the result of the first deduction (Get it?!). Thus AD.1815, which is 1230 AH can be calculated thus, 1815- 622=1193*11÷354=37,1193+37=1230 A Calculator is recommended for this....... As another thought, did you know time wasn't standard, certainly not in Britain in this period? Greenwich Meantime as standard time did not come in as British time until the 1840s and the railway boom and the need for accurate timetabling. Before then you needed to alter your watch to the local time, often a difference of a couple of minutes even between counties or districts! Now what effect could this have on a Campaign? Anyway I hope this answers David's question and people find this useful. Keep up the good work. French Commanders Study Group Dear Dave, Having long been interested in the lives of French officers holding the rank of General de Brigade and above, and being currently in the process of establishing a "French Commanders Study Group" within the Research Section of the N.A., I would be delighted to correspond with Stuart Hold on this vast subject. I regard Georges Six's formidable "Dictionnaire Biographique des Genereaux et Amiraux Francais de la Revolution et de l'Empire" as the foremost work on this subject and would contain most of the data that Mr Hold seeks. My own studies look at, not just the military careers of these men, but also their personalities, family backgrounds, whether they were ardent Bonapartists, Republicans or Bourbons, and many other aspects. I have individual files on several hundreds of these officers and always interested to collect, dispense, or discuss through correspondence, any additional information. Quite apart from helping our Australian friend, I'm hoping I might just be able to recruit a few more members to the French Commanders Study Group. The aim of this group is to undertake an in depth study into the lives of any Officer with the rank of General de brigade and above, who served with the French during the period 1792-1815. The most comprehensive work of any language in this field has to be that, mentioned above, by Georges Six. Where Six has chronicled the military careers of these men, the study group will look to investigate the backgrounds of these soldiers, their abilities, personalities, political standings, their family histories and other aspects, in addition attempting to clear any areas at present disputed or unresolved. In an attempt to whet a few appetites and encourage wider partic-ipation I illustrate below a few instances where I would be pleased to receive some assistance. I have long been interested in General Lefebre-Desnouettes. We all know that this officer suffered the indignity of being captured by Paget's Hussars at Benevente on 29th December 1808. The general was then brought to this country and paroled at Cheltenham where he lived with two other French generals in a house which is now Boots the Chemist in the Town Centre. Can anyone identify the two other generals for me ? After Lejeune's return to France historians state that Lefebre - Desnouettes wife was given a passport and allowed to England to be with him. The lady in question remained with him and was accepted into local society. Some three years later, the General broke his parole and returned to France in time to accompany the Emperor on the 1812 Russian campaign. According to some sources the Emperor did not give Lefebre-Desnouettes permission to marry Madame Marie-Stephanie Rolier until after Waterloo. They were married in 1816 and their only daughter Charlotte-Lavinie was born later the same year. My second question is, who was the lady who travelled to England? Was it the same Madame Rolier or was the General married twice? Incidentally the Emperor gave the General a signet ring which Lefebre allegedly used as a bribe to secure his freedom. The ring is now in the Cheltenham Town Museum and well worth seeing. It is not on open display and can only be viewed by appointment. Another subject of my interest is General Francois Nivard Charles Joseph d'Henin. Captured at Santo Domingo in 1803, this officer was also brought to England. He lived at Chesterfield and in May 1806 married a Scottish girl Eleanor Dixon. Repatriated in 1811, he too went on the Russian campaign, and actually commanded one of the columns in Ney's rearguard during the retreat. Some British sources say that d'Henin fought at Waterloo and lost a leg there. First of all Six who mentions most wounds suffered, says nothing about d'Henin's leg, neither does he confirm he was at Waterloo. The closest he comes is on 23rd may 1815 when he was Commandant of the department of Cher et Loire which would have placed him to the south west of Paris and in the opposite direction to Waterloo four weeks before the battle. I have also checked numerous Orders of Battle and find no mention of d'Henin at all. While I await a reply from Vincennes, can anyone shed any light on this. Incidentally, d'Henin did have a brother, Philippe Joseph Con-stantin, but whether he was a military man, I have not yet established. If anyone can help, I would be grateful. If you can assist with any of these questions, or would like to become involved in the study group please contact me : Terry Senior at 4 Parc-An-Pons, Green Lane, Marazion, Cornwall TR17 0HQ Yours sincerely, Chaplains at War... Dear Dave, First of all may I say how much I enjoyed reading the latest edition of First Empire. As a fairly recent enthusiast of this particular period of military history I found the articles easy enough to get into, neither too technical or specialist for the novice while containing aspects that I could come back to later as my knowledge increases. It also helped to give me the name of some contacts who have been very helpful. Now I wonder if more of your readers can help me with information about any of the chaplains or ministers of religion who were associated or involved in Wellington's army. Orders of Battle for 1814... Dear Dave, I wonder if anyone has information on detailed orders of battle for the 1814 Campaign (regiments and strengths present) i.e., where they might be found. As I have discovered that even Nafziger's lists have scant information available regarding 1814. I would also like to say that its good to see more battle scenarios reappearing in First Empire. The only niggle I have is, would it be possible to put ground scales on the maps given. As, for example, I'd love to fight Tolentino but cannot accurately as I have no idea of rules/yardage etc., which obviously affects deployment, movement, arrivals, basically everything. Hoping that you can rectify this, even provide scale info for previous maps e.g. Tolentino, Raszyn, Gefrees etc. Editor. I think that we can manage the last, if the relevant authors can look at the maps reproduced in the mag and let me know the relevant scales, I publish them as soon as possible. With regard to the orders of battle I can recommend a French book, I don't believe that there is an English edition, called Napoléon 1814: L' Campaigne de France by Tranie & Carmigniani, published by Pygmalion Gerard Watelet 1989 Paris. The orders of battle are quite detailed considering the total disorganisation of the French Military records office during that campaign! Austrian Correction, Book prices and Research... Dear Dave, Further to my letter in FE 16, I made an error in the conversion of Austrian cannister ball weights. The contemporary measure, a Wiener Loeth is approximately equivalent to 17.5 g or 0.62 oz, so the correct sizes should read: 3 Loeth = 52.5 g = 1.85 oz (not 30g)
By way of comparison, the main Austrian musket in service during the period was the 5/4 Loeth 1798 pattern, which fired a ball weighing 1.22 Loeth or 21.5g (Sources: Dolleczek/Semek as before). Apologies for any confusion caused! That leads me to Kevin MacDonald's comments about the various magazines. What I wonder does the average enthusiast wish to read about? Longer articles getting into complex subjects take a lot of research and time to write and those who write them do so partly to encourage others to do likewise. If you don't like what I write, you are welcome to say why you disagree, (proves you have read the initial item), but put pen to paper before criticising contributors for expressing their views. No-one knows it all and most enthusiasts are quite happy to help others develop topics. The biggest brake on writing is a fear of being shot at or having insufficient knowledge - so research something, ask for help and find out what you can do! Above all, quote your sources and don't rely on some recent English language work on the Continental forces. Incidentally, let's have more book reviews to help all of us spend our money wisely. On the subject of books, we in the UK are subject in these days of free markets to a nasty little price-fixing arrangement called the 'Net Book Agreement' (prime beneficiary WH Smith/Waterstones). UK readers will recall the annual plea for no VAT on books because they are of literary value and putting the price up will discourage learning - go into your local bookshop and decide how many have any real educational value. The NBA provides for the revenue from a hardback to be divided approximately: Author: 10%, Publisher: 42%, Selling Agent: 15%, Retailer: 33%. So, why are books so expensive and why are so few actually well researched? It is claimed that the NBA allows publishers to subsidise less popular books, so try taking a less popular Napoleonic subject to most of them! Do you seriously believe Jeffrey Archer cross-subsidises Napoleonic books or Smiths would cut their slice back? I have suggested a paperback reprint to Spellmount, which they are looking into, and David is quite right to suggest this format should be widely deployed - to extend our knowledge! Living in the real 'Middlemarch', I have seen numerous Eliot paperbacks retailing at £ 1 and I am sure competitively priced books would sell well, if enthusiasts support them. It is also a format for translations of foreign language classics, which are currently closed to those unable to read the original. It's up to you - write to the publishers with your suggestions, as they get most of their feedback from the retailers! Regards, PS: Your comment about Mike Embree's Austrian booklet proves the point about quoting sources to further the discussion, (he didn't read Krieg 1809 either). Editor. A noble sentiment, but surely the likes of WH Smith's are the only reason that you can get paperbacks for £ 1.00, also your example is a bad one. i.e. Popular author, popluar subject, 'Middlemarch' country etc. You are right however that if the NBA actually worked in the way that it was intended 'fringe' publications would indeed be cheaper and more popular. However, with a near monopoly in force in the U.K. ...! Economy of scale is surely the answer. If "Smith's" take 50,000 copies of a 'popular' book then you can afford to put it out in paperback for a quid. Show then a book on Napoleonic uniforms/history and you will have wasted a trip to London! In fact I think you will find that the price fixing arangement has little influence on the general cost of books in our field. What, would and does, affect the price of specialist books/magazines is the attitude of "If we don't make £ (think of figure) per sale then we won't stock it!" and in the case of "Smith's" its also a case of "If we don't take it nobody else (in mainstream distribution) will either!" Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire #17 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com |
