One of the elements that brings so many of us to historical miniature wargaming is the combination of color and romance--not just great deeds and brave men, but regiments like no other, distinguished by more than a number on a flag. And of course, especially for the Germans among us, one of the things that recruits the silver legions is a mania for completeness. We've all seen the symptoms: if a brigade of Westphalians is nice, VIII Corps of 1812 must be better, and better still would be the entire Westphalian Army. A wargamer starts off painting some surplus French in a uniform, and ends up scrounging desperately for the light battalion of the Civic Guard of Kassel. It's a disease, alas, not treatable under most medical plans, though 50-100 castings a month can relieve the symptoms. But for the romantic completist, I'd like to recommend the armies of exile.
From the start of uniformed regular armies, there have always been a few stubborn souls who just didn't know when they were beaten, and continued to soldier on. Sometimes, this produces a few colorful regiments. Sometimes, it results in a vest pocket army, with its own flags and uniforms, but small enough to be built entirely without breaking the wargaming budget. Since these forces were generally a mix of fanatics, deserters and recruited POWs, the major powers they served may have been content to see them take a little more than their share of the fighting, and I'd always rather command troops with a real battle history than a regiment which existed in the period and could have taken part in an engagement. Let me hit the highlights:
In the days of pike and shot we have in the 16th Century Catholic regiments from the British Isles in the service of the King of Spain, but we are too early for uniforms, and I have found nothing of their flags. In the 17th Century, though, a cadre of English royalists go into exile in the service of Charles 11, and fight on the European mainland from 1649-1660, mostly in red uniforms, and under the cross of St. George. They're a complete army of the period, and small enough (perhaps 2-5,000) to build complete. There are at least four regiments of foot and one of horse, plus small squadron size lifeguards, and fought in alliance with France against Cromwellian England, then with Spain against England and France. Advantages: fairly well documented, useable with either France or Spain, and actually took part in the Dunnes. Disadvantages: took a terrible thumping there.
For the War of the Grand Alliance, we once more have the army of an exiled Stuart monarch. Apart from the Irish Brigades in the service of France, there is an exiled Jacobite Army of 13 regiments of foot and two of horse, uniformed first in grayish white, then in British scarlet, fighting primarily in Flanders. Advantages: adds a touch of color to the grayish hordes of the Sun King. Disadvantage: a fairly obscure wargame period. They're disbanded before the War of Spanish Succession. Opposite them are the Huguenot regiments in the service of William III. Uniform details are scanty, but they seem to have retained their grayish French coats. Does anyone have anything on their flags? Most of the Huguenot regiments disband after the War of the Grand Alliance. Advantage: so far, I can't tell them from French in French service. Disadvantage: ditto.
For those with more outre tastes, after Blenheim the Elector of Bavaria took his Army into exile in France, and so a much reduced but balanced force is available for the Marlburian gamer. Advantages: Flags, mostly. Those Bavarian blue and white lozenges stand out among the white crosses of the French, as do the lobster pot" helmets. Disadvantages: yet another of the pale gray horde, and so far I can't find which precise regiments existed in exile, which lures one toward the entire Bavarian Army of the period.
In the Seven Years War, it was Saxony's turn to be overrun, and a miniature Saxon army- two brigades or so of infantry, a regiment or two of horse, and at least regimental guns--shows up with the French Army for Minden. Advantages: the gold and black striped Saxon flags, and the red-coated Leibgrenadier Garde. Disadvantages: otherwise, they look a bit too much like their French allies, and they're a bit weak in the supporting arms. Still, no one's perfect.
The wars of the French Revolution feature two opposing bodies of homeless soldiers. The Allied armies have contingents of French Royalists, while the French armies have bodies of exiled Poles. Emigre regiments come in a lot of flavors. Some are raised or seriously sponsored by major powers, and are distinguishable only by facings and flags. The Army of Conde at one time will wear Russian uniforms, for instance, but the flags will have the French vertical and horizontal white cross superimposed on a Russian pattern. Other forces are more distinctive, wearing 1789 pattern French uniforms in black, for instance, or Rumsford helmets. So nearly as I can estimate, emigre field strength was in the 5,000-8,000 range, a doable army in most scales and ratios. Advantages and disadvantages vary. The Prince's Army has the most distinct uniforms, but an indifferent combat reputation. The Conde Army in Switzerland seems to have had a better reputation, but outside of flags looks far too much like Russians.
The exiled Poles in the service of Republic and Empire are mostly very like French except for the prevalence of czapskas, which is distinction enough, and commonly organized into Legions" of a few regiments of horse and foot, sometimes with artillery. In the wars of the French Revolution, we have the First and Second Polish Legions, under the Consulate, the Italian and Danube Legions, and under the Empire, the Legion du Nord and the Vistula Legion. All the fugitive Poles would probably be an inconvenient and unbalanced force, but a single legion--or the complete post-Leipzig exiles--is a handy and distinctive army.
Following Bavaria and Saxony, the Napoleonic Wars were Hanover's turn to be overrun, and the result was the King's German Legion--eight battalions of line, two of light infantry, two regiments of heavy horse, three of light, and five batteries of artillery, horse and foot, complete with engineers. Advantage: the KGL is arguably the most complete and best documented Exile army of the horse and musket period, complete with its own Men at Arms volume. Disadvantage: it looks so much like British. Only the blue backpacks or (in 25/ 30mm) the inscription on the standards gives the game away.
But there is an alternative--indeed several. In 1809 the Duke of Brunswick attempted to retake his ancestral lands, and had to fight his way across Germany with about 2,000 men. If the KGL is an army for General de Brigade, Brunswick commanded an army for Chef de Battalion. A must for the tactical Napoleonic player. Don't miss the accompanying Hesse-Kassel force, Advantage: Brunswick provides a force of horse, foot and guns in a distinctive uniform. Disadvantage: perhaps a little small at under 2,000 men, even as exile forces go. The purist might wish the Brunswickers hadn't reorganized and changed uniforms four times from 1806-1815.
It's iffy as an exile force, but don't neglect the Loyal Lusitanian Legion, raised before and after the liberation of Portugal--three battalions, a battery and a small cavalry regiment. Suitable for Peninsular engagements. Advantage: a handy size, distinctively uniformed, If you think of them as British auxiliaries, they could be widely used. Disadvantage: do you really want an army commanded by Sir Robert Wilson? I also don't believe they had flags.
Going to the opposite end of Europe, we have the Russo-German Legion, raised in 1812 and 1813 of German deserters from Napoleon's Army--seven battalions, a Jaeger company, three batteries and two regiments of horse. Advantage: since the regiments were successively in Russian, English and Prussian pay, they have, to say the least, very wide playability. Disadvantages: none that I can see, unless one burns out on dark green coats and coal-scuttle shakos.
For a while in 1813-14, the RGL marched with the Hanseatic Legion, composed of Northwest Germans who unwisely proclaimed their hatred of Napoleon before he was quite finished. They fled to the Allies, and made up a force about half the size of the RGL. Advantage: a nice handy force, not seen everywhere. Disadvantage: those ubiquitous Russian uniforms.
For those tired of green uniforms there is the Austro-German Legion--four battalions of foot, two regiments of hussars, no guns that I can find--seemingly raised from Westphalian deserters, and taken on the Austrian strength. Advantages: for the infantry, very distinctive uniforms of medium blue with Tyrolean Jaeger hats. The cavalry retain their old Westphalian uniforms as the 1st & 2nd Westphalian Hussars: light blue and dark green. Disadvantages: except for the hussars, I'm not sure these people ever fired a shot in anger. By the time they were raised, the Napoleonic Wars were drawing to a close.
After 1815, the relatively brief wars of the 19th Century are not conducive to this sort of army, but let me mention a few possibilities: One might perhaps count Kentuckians or Marylanders in Confederate service, or the Confederate cavalry brigade which offered its services to the Emperor Maximillian.
The Papal Zouaves--admitedly only a single battalion--survived the Pope's loss of Rome by serving the French Republic.
As a what-if? prospect, there appears to have been an effort to recruit a Hanoverian Legion in French service in 1870, postponed permanently by Gravelotte-St Privat and Sedan. Anyone seen anything on proposed uniforms?
And with that, this survey stops. When nations once more are overrun in the World Wars, the whole scale of warfare has changed. The Polish legions of 1800 are replaced by armies numbering in the, hundreds of thousands, and the Huguenot regiments of 1688 are superseded by millions of anti-Soviet Russians. With small castings the uniforms are indistinguishable from those of their sponsors, and with the larger castings the smallest band of exiles is still too large to be a completed miniature army.
The necessity of war might continue, but the romance is gone. It proves what I've said before: when they rifled the muskets and cased the colors, they took all the fun out of warfare. That said, the next time you need to raise a new army to try out a new period or new rules, consider one of the exile forces. The uniforms are patched and faded, and a little behind the times, and the colors may have a few holes in them, but when you paint, base and grass them and hold a review, you might just hear trumpets in the distance.
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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