Bavarian Line Grenadier 1809
Uniform Study
by Adrian George
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This private of the 5. Line Regiment (von Preysing) is a member of the regiment’s elite Grenadier Company. Bavarian Grenadiers were only distinguished, by a red plume to the right of the Raupenhelm, and a brass grenade plate attached to the cartridge pouch flap. Allied to France from 1805 Bavaria remained loyal to Napoleon, providing him with a force of some 25-30,000 well disciplined troops.
At the start of the campaign of 1809, the 5. Regiment was attached to von Siebein’s 2nd Brigade, of von Deroy’s 3rd Division. This division, part of the VII Bavarian Corps, was the first to make contact with the advancing Austrians on 16th April. Tasked with the defence of the river crossings in and around Landshut, von Deroy found himself heavily outnumbered, and after a brief fire fight retired.
On the 20th April The 3rd Division took part in the Battle of Abensberg, where Napoleon won the initiative back from the now over stretched and separated Austrians, forcing them to retire on Landshut and Eckmuhl.
In 1812 Bavarian troops formed the VI Corps of the Grande Armee. A force of 32,000 men crossed the Nieman in July in support of the Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, by the close of this disastrous campaign in December, less than 100 returned. Bavaria raised a new army in the months that followed, but finally abandoned Napoleon for the Coalition cause, shortly before the Battle of Leipzig in 1813..
Legion Franche Etrangere 1792-1795
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Distinctive in his tall leather crested helmet, known as the ‘Raupenhelm’, despite it’s large cumbersome size, the Raupenhelm was quite popular, and subsequently was adopted by a number of other German state’s.