A prime defect of tabletop wargaming lies in the way wargamers build-up armies at considerable cost in cash, time and labor, then have to search around for ideas and inspirations to set-up a realistic battle. Often, accurately researched armies are wasted in colorless and unrealistic miniature affrays, inevitably with the passing of time this causes loss of interest and even departure from the hobby.
Individual Skirmish wargamers have discovered the benefits of the background narrative, but little use is made of this valuable device in the broader fields of general wargaming. This is despite literature designed to introduce it, such as my own books BATTLE NOTES FOR WARGAMERS; WARGAMING ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL PERIODS and WARGAMING THE PIKE AND SHOT PERIOD-all alas now out of print.
Perhaps this style of presentation contains the seeds of its own destruction, because a large proportion of wargamers are teenagers studying hard so that their boring acquaintance with textbooks causes them to reject anything related to history, even in a recreational sense. So, if one accepts that a colorful and informative background narrative aids enjoyable and realistic wargaming, that narrative must be couched in an easy-to-read style so that it is a good 'read' in its own right.
The best background narratives are written in a personalized semi-fictional style, like an informative short story revolving around historical or fictional characters playing roles before a colorful backcloth. Such narratives are not Individual Skirmishes, but involve and embrace a much wider vista, setting-up situations involving battalions, regiments, brigades, divisions, even armies maneuvering on tabletop terrains, as they fight-out the story.
The narrative can include helpful details of uniforms, arms and equipment, and their capabilities, tactics and style of fighting, topographical and historical information. With such information the wargamer can ensure his armies are accurately uniformed and equipped, and formulate rules that allow the battle to be fought in an authentic 'period' manner.
As an example, it is hoped that this narrative-story "KILL A FRENCHMAN FOR YOURSELF" fulfills all those aims, being based on the real-life experiences of that famed Rifleman of Peninsular War days-Rifleman Costello, and historical details of a little-known battle for which it has not even been possible to discover a map! If you try it and like it, then have a go at refighting the Combat on the Coa on 24 July 1810, when Ney's 24,000 men surprised Craufurd's 2,900 light infantry and riflemen. The author was thrilled to the bone this year when actually walking that immortal ground and personally finding the long-disused sunken road!
KILL A FRENCHMAN FOR YOURSELF!
During the winter of 1810/11, finding he could make no impression on the heavily defended Lines of Torres Vedras, Massena withdrew some 30 miles to a carefully chosen position in the area of Santarem, quickly followed by British forces sent to keep an eye on him. The Light Division occupied an area near the Rio Mayor for some four or five months of comparative inactivity until, on the night of 5th March 1811, the French evacuated Santarem and the 95th Rifles were ordered to fall in and pursue the retreating enemy, preventing them crossing the River Mondego to the comparative safety of Spain.
In the forefront of the pursuit, Rilfeman Costello's Company were taken-up by the cavalry, with each dragoon mounting a rifleman behind him on his horse. Most unpopular, this method of transportation was frequently employed during the Peninsular War, but there were few men who would not have preferred to march twice the distance to being carried pillion-fashion-when set down, the galling of legs and seat made walking painful and the rifleman's mess tins were invariably shaken off by the jolting of the horse and lost. The route of the retreating army presented a scene of desolation as the French had burned and destroyed buildings besides murdering and violating the Portuguese peasants. The survivors were desperately seeking vengeance on the small parties of abandoned sick and wounded French soldiers. Costello and his comrades felt a certain sympathy for these men but were far too busy to aid them. In the eagerness of pursuit they encountered considerable opposition when overtaking the French rearguard at Pombal as Costello's company, well forward, came under a smart fire from houses. Dashing into buildings opposite, the riflemen commenced a brisk return of fire from the windows and, under its cover Lieutenant Hopwood and Sergeant Fleming led an attack on one house where 30 to 40 Frenchmen immediately surrendered, to be smartly bundled neck and crop down the staircase by the Sergeant, but not before Lieutenant Hopwood had been severely wounded in the thigh.
On one occasion the French, noting how few in numbers were their pursuers, turned to outflank several riflemen and take them prisoners; Costello only escaped when a German trooper of the single Hussar troop supporting them dragged him up behind and clattered away amid a volley of shots. He seemed to be personally plagued by cavalry-on another occasion, hotly engaging French infantry, a troop of Hussars approached. In the heat of the moment everyone took them for the German Hussars who were supporting them, until suddenly the horsemen whipped in between the riflemen and the 52nd! Shouting out warnings to their comrades, the unprepared riflemen were trampled down and sabred on all sides.
Several Hussars cut at Costello with their swords as they passed before one leaned down and grasped his collar, placing his sabre point at Costello's breast. Then the hussar's horse was brought to the ground by a volley from the 52nd and fell heavily dragging down both rider and rilfeman. Costello freed himself and gave the cavalryman a severe blow on the head with the butt of his rifle. Then, the horsemen were past and the 95th resumed their fire-fight with the French infantry, keeping a sharper look-out cavalry.
After days of pursuit and skirmishing, the 95th crested a well wooded hill and looked down on the small town of Redinha, situated in a hollow between hills covered with pine trees where a stone bridge crossed the River Soure. Here, on a fine open plain backed by a steep hill leading down to the river, Ney's rearguard made a stand. Extended across the front of the advancing British battalions, the Light Division saw French columns slowly retiring while units turned and formed to face their pursuers.
It was a bright morning and the sunshine shone on the colored uniforms and pipeclayed belts, glittered on the men's weapons. The 95th moved down hill and were soon skirmishing and endeavoring to outflank and drive in the greatcoated, black-shakoed French Light troops who faced them. It was the 32nd Leger of Ferey's brigade of Loison's Division of the 6th Corps that were holding the approaching "grasshoppers"; while the rest of the brigade-the 66th and 82nd Ligne-were forming up to their rear.
Caporal Andre Chervil had tangled with the 95th before, well remembering the advance between the Great and Lesser ravines at Busaco in October of the previous year when they had come up against the 1/95th and the 3rd Cacadores-1,400 picked men armed with Baker rifles that had caused them 120 casualties.
Desperately trying to retain order as they slowly fell back, Caporal Chervil suddenly saw three green-jacketed riflemen emerge from the pine trees to his front-Rifleman Costello and two comrades had moved forward more enthusiastically than intelligently to suddenly find themselves within a few yards of the 32nd Leger, who threw up their muskets and fired a volley at them. Costello and Tom Spencer, like good riflemen, took instant advantage of the cover of the fir trees, but Will Hayter did not move fast enough and fell heavily to the ground. The experience of that morning caused Edward Costello to maintain for the rest of his days that the cleverest method of teaching a recruit to stand at attention was to place him behind a tree and fire balls at him! Never had he stood so fiercely upright as he did behind that fir tree while the balls were rapping into it like the hammering of nails, while others whistled past within fractions of an inch of his nose and buttocks for which the tree afforded little protection!
The British riflemen began to drive back and outflank the 32nd Leger who, in spite of their title, were brigaded with Line regiments and used in a conventional infantry role.
The French fought doggedly knowing that their own safety and their sole chance of escape riflemen pressed hard and although Costello and his comrades were temporarily held up to their front, other riflemen worked round their flanks and soon the French were flying through the streets of Redinha in complete rout. The bridge over the river was choked with fugitives impeding each other's progress; the dusty road was strewn with dead and wounded and on all sides small knots of men fought grimly. It was here that poor Andre Chervil's death gave rise to the saying which became so common in the 95th-"Kill a Frenchman for yourself". During their approach to the bridge two Riflemen named Palmer and Tracey, both known for their daring, brought the French corporal down and ran up to claim their right of conquest by relieving him of any valuables that he might possess. In the midst of the fighting that surrounded them, both men began to quarrel as to division of the spoil until Palmer, an excellent shot who believed that he had brought down the Frenchman, told Tracey to "Go and kill a Frenchman for yourself!"
From then on the 95th enjoyed boasting that every rifleman in the regiment could and ought to kill a Frenchman in action. The incident bestowed upon Rifleman Palmer the nickname of "The Man-killer", a title he held until an occurrence at the siege of Badajoz gave him a new name. When relieving picquet in the trenches the men of the 95th were accustomed to show their contempt of danger by running across the face of the enemy's fire instead of going quietly through the trenches of parallels in front of the walls of the town. On one occasion Rifleman Palmer was performing this feat when a cannon shot fired by the French struck the ground and bounced upwards to hit him in the back so that he fell, apparently killed on the spot. To everyone's surprise, after a few moments Palmer jumped up unhurt, the ball having glanced off his knapsack! In commemoration of this event, he was afterwards known as "The Bomb-Proof Man".
The 95th took a number of prisoners at Redinha and released some of Costello's own company who had been taken the day before. They encamped on a range of heights with the French laying below in a beautiful valley; the outlying sentries of both armies being not more than 200 yards apart.
THE MEN
During the early days of the 19th century General Craufurd's Light Division were the most famous fighting force in Europe and the 95th, the Light regiment of the Light Division, fired the first and last shots of almost every battle, siege and skirmish fought by Wellington's army in Spain and Portugal. Dressed in dark green jacket and trousers, green-tufted black shakoes; braid, buttons and accoutrements all in black and bugle-horn badge of tarnished white metal, the three battalions of the 95th Rifle saw more fighting in the Peninsular than any other regiment, at least one battalion being present at every major battle of the war, save Albuera.
In contrast to the Line Infantryman standing shoulder-to-shoulder to fire machine-like volleys, riflemen were trained to shoot to kill and never wasted a shot. Their Baker rifles were shorter and lighter than the Brown Bess of the Line battalions and a weapon capable of far greater precision, range and accuracy up to 300, and, in the hands of a good shot, even 500 yards. The prescribed method of loading allowed a rate of fire of about two rounds per minute which was considerably slower than the smooth-bore musket although, for rapid fire in emergency, the weapon could be loaded as a smoothbore and the rilfemen carried a pouch of musket-pattern made-up cartridges.
Their role and tactics of operating and fighting in isolation to signals on bugle-horns meant that riflemen had to be alert, intelligent and adventurous marksmen trained to act individually, being encouraged by a system of drill and discipline which not only taught the skills required for skirmishing and light infantry work but also encouraged individual initiatives and speed of movement. Learning to move quickly taught riflemen to think briskly and their quick march of 140 paces to the minute (retained to this day) allowed maximum speed with minimum fatigue in a free and natural rhythm that was in marked contrast to the constrained and rigid movements of the normal infantry march.
The 32nd Leger was one of the French light regiments that originally had an independent function but by the time of the Peninsular War were mostly used in a conventional infantry role. In 1811, Leger regiments had four Chasseur companies, one Voltigeur and one Carabinier company (equivalent to Line Grenadiers). They wore blue tunics with red collar and cuff-slashes; blue lapels, cuffs and turnbacks, piped white; and a blue waistcoat (sometimes white in summer. Their blue trousers were tucked into black-cloth gaiters piped at the top with either white or green. At this time the 32nd Leger were wearing the 1806 shako decorated with a cockade and a white metal plate showing the Imperial eagle, a bugle-horn and the regimental number. Carabiniers generally wore bearskins and red epaulettes; Chasseurs green with a red crescent; depended upon being able to hold their post until the bridge across the river was clear of fugitives. But the Voltigeurs yellow with green or red fringes. Although officially withdrawn from Voltigeur companies in 1807, the sabre was still carried.
The Light Dragoons who "lifted" the riflemen in pillion-fashion, made up the bulk of the British Light Cavalry in the Peninsular. They wore a single short braided blue jacket and, although white breeches and hessian boots were the regulation dress, overalls were common on campaign. Their helmet was the jacked leather headgear sometimes called the "Tarleton" with a white feather plume rising from the left side and the regimental badge on the right side of the black leather skull.
The Hussars of the King's German Legion, perhaps the best Allied cavalry in the Peninsular, were particularly noted for their close co-operation with the British Light Division and showed great skill in outpost work. At this time the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Light Dragoons of the King's German Legion wore uniforms similar to those of the British Light Dragoons, with the old "Tarleton" helmet; all three regiments wore dark blue dolmans and pelisses, the 1st wore blue overalls and had scarlet facings and gold lace; the 2nd wore gray overalls with white facings and gold lace and the 3rd also wore gray overalls with yellow facings and silver lace. Each regiment was composed of 10 troops, 2 in each of five numbered squadrons; their armament and equipment was of the conventional Light Cavalry style.
WARGAMING THE ACTION
The most interesting wargames are those with a narrative that sets the scene while providing a cause and objective for the action-table-top battles should not always be between battalions massed opposite each other and moving forward from baselines in full view of both wargamers. War is not all large battles; there are innumerable skirmishes and actions involving a battalion or even a company, with a squadron of cavalry and perhaps a single gun. Not only does this make interesting wargaming, but it is practical in the early stage of assembling his forces, before the wargamer has purchased and painted-up sufficient for separate regiments to be graced by the title of "army".
Here we have a retreating French army protected by a rearguard commanded by that prince of such situations-Marshal Ney himself. Hot on their heels comes the 95th Rifles-one of the most colorful and incomparable formations that ever graced the ranks of the British army-under General "Black Bob" Craufurd an equally talented commander. Conjuring with such names makes the pulse quicken before a single figure is set-up on the wargames table!
Terrain is simple but colorful-the British baseline represents the crest of the hill from which the skirmish line of the 95th looked down on the French columns retreating towards the bridge at Redinha whilst their rearguard turns to hold off the enemy. The countryside should be undulating, dotted with fairly heavy patches of woodland; a stone wall here and there provides a focal point for defensive stands. On or near the French baseline will be the river and bridge, with a scattering of houses on both sides of the river.
The troops include the 95th Rifles (broken up into a number of companies working independently of each other); the 52nd and 43rd Infantry battalions of Craufurd's Light Division, and perhaps one of the Portugese Cacadore battalions. Add to this a squadron or two of British Light Dragoons or Hussars of the King's German Legion and one or two R.H.A. guns. Opposing them will be the French 32nd Leger backed by the 66th and 82nd Ligne, of Ferey's Brigade; in support a couple of squadrons of French Hussars or Dragoons with horse-guns, or perhaps field artillery unlimbered on a convenient height covering the bridge.
The object of the battle is for the light troops to pin the French rearguard whilst the 43rd and 52nd Line Infantry regiments attempt to outflank them. The French are trying to hold the British off from the bridge for a given number of game-moves (representing the length of time it will take the retreating columns to cross). There is no need for these columns to be shown on the wargames table-their presence can be taken for granted.
To adequately reflect the capabilities of the respective units, the 95th Rifles must be given a longer range and greater accuracy with their Baker rifles, but a slower rate of fire than the Brown Bess muskets of the 43rd and 52nd or the Charleville muskets of the French. The British cavalry, the bane of Wellington's life, were prone to carry on as though on the hunting field, simulated by a "local" rule of forcing "uncontrolled charges" and/or remaining in contact with the enemy for at least two game-moves after a melee has concluded.
Otherwise the action can satisfactorily be fought under any practical Napoleonic rules.
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