The EE&L Staff will be happy to answer questions and share comments and answers or answers on uniforms, tactics or other subjects. All such material should be sent to the Editor: Jean A Lochet (Mr.), 4 Kelly St. Metuchen, NJ 08840.
QUESTION 11-1:
The Order of Battle (OB hereafter) for the Battle of Talavera furnished by George Nafziger contains a lot of information. However, the OB for the French and Spanish lacks the brigade organization and commanders' names.
Oman tells us that the number of battalions in each French infantry regiment was three for all the regular formations, and two or one for all the rest.
I have consulted the OB from Oman, Fortescue, Thiers, etc. and came up with the following educated guesswork. Could you help complete the missing information?
Sebastiani's Division:
-
Key's Brigade: 28th & 52nd
Line
Liger-Belair's Brigade?: 58th & 75th Line
Leval's Division:
-
Von Porbeck's Brigade: 4th
Baden
Reg. (2 battalions) 2nd Nassau
Reg.
(2 battalions)
Chasse's Brigade: 2nd Dutch Reg. (2 battalions)
Granjean's Brigade: Hesse Darmstadt Gross und Erbprinz Reg. (2 battalions),
Frankfort battalion
Merlin's Division:
-
Strolz' Brigade: 10th
& 26th
Chasseurs
? Brigade: Polish Lancers, Westphalian Chevaux-Legers (may have been commanded by Ormancey according to Oman)
Ruffin's Division:
-
Barrois' Brigade: 96th
Line
LaBruyere's Brigade: 9th Light & 24th Line
Lapisse's Division:
-
Laplannes' Brigade: 16th Light
& 45th
Line
Solignac's Brigade: 8th & 54th Line
Villatte's Division:
-
Cassagne's Brigade: 27th Light
& 63rd
Line (545 men)
Puthod's Brigade: 94th & 95th Line
Latour-Maubourg's Division:
-
No good
information.
Milhaud's Division:
-
No good
information.
PARTIAL ANSWER TO QUESTION 11-1
We briefly consulted the data we have on the Battle of Talavera and we were also surprised to find nothing on the brigade organization and their commanders' names.
The only point we can confirm is that in July 1809, most of the French infantry regiments still consisted of three line battalions which were fielded in Spain, in the army of Germany, etc However, we should not conclude that all French regiments fielded at Talavera consisted of three field battalions. Some field battalions may have been detached for a number of reasons such as garrison or escort duty. The same applies to the cavalry. In addition, some of the non-French regiments which formed part of the Valence and Leval Divisions had only one or two field battalions present at Talavera.
Help from the readership would be appreciated.
Question 2: British Baker Rifle Sword Bayonet
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