If you plan on attending Origins this July, check out Kevin Zucker's seminar in the "War College" on the campaign of 1814.

From: Andy Ashton
Second Chance Games, UK

I have enjoyed playing Napoleon at Bay for many years, as also the other games in the series. I am currently researching the French OB for 1814 and although I can make good estimates on most of the formations in the campaign I have drawn a blank on the composition of the following units:

Arrighi Reserve Division
Souham 3rd National Guard Division
Janssens Division

Bill Gray replies:

For the Divisions Souharn and Janssens, little more is known than what Kevin had in the Study Folder that was part of the Napoleon at Bay 1st ed. Both formations were ad hoc and very temporary.

Division Souham

This was NOT a National Guard Division. Rather, the unit consisted of 7 battalions of Ligne, Marine Artillerie and Garde National Sedentaire troops, as well as 160 cavalry and 8 guns, for a total of 1600 men' On 20 Mar it was assigned with Allix to guard the passages across the Seine and Yonne.

Division Janssens

Under Ney as of 17 March, consisted of 2900 men drawn from the garrisons of French fortresses in and near the Ardennes.

Source: Janson, Der Feldzug 1814 in Frankreich, part of the series

Geschichte der Befreiungskrieg, 1813-1815.

1st Paris Reserve Division

General de Division Arrighi, Duc de Padua officers/enlisted men present (12 March 1814)

Brigade Lucotte and Brigade X
3d bn/65th Ligne 9/89
34th bn/66th Ligne 12/222
32d bn/70th Ligne 16/221
32d, 4th, 6th bns/85th Ligne 30/168
33d & 4th bns/43d Ligne 32/348
32d & 4th bns/50th Ligne 30/319
34th bn/7th Ligne 21/165
33d bn/88th Ligne 20/262

3Attached Cavalry Brigade (elements of I Cavalry Corps)

1st Provisional Regt 39/263
32d Provisional Regt 20/120
33d Provisional Regt 56/594
34th Provisional Regt 52/639

Source: French Archives (Chateau de Vincennes) Cartons C21555 - 556

3From: "David Krepow"
3

A friend was searching the Web for my last name. He did not find my site, but he did find a reference to my last name in a writeup that you had done for a game called Six Days to Glory ("Don't allow Karpow and Krepow to remain near the French Line of Communication.") Did you design or help design this game or was this paper just a review? If you were a designer, could you tell what inspired you to use this name and is there some historical significance to it? The reason I'm asking such silly questions is that my family and I assumed that our name was very rare and that it was created on Ellis Island as some kind of a cruel joke. Several years ago my sister and I tried to start a geneological search but gave up after reaching some dead ends because of this assumption.

If you just made the name up, well, you were not the first and I thank you for your time. But, If there is some information you can give me, I'd appreciate it. Again, thank you for your time.

Mr. Zucker replies:

Krepow was an error in our game too! It was supposed to be Kretow, but the graphic artist who typed the names picked up the ending from the previous name in the list, an easy mistake since it was already so similar. However, this does not mean that the Krepow/Kretow mentioned in the game is unrelated to you. In fact, it is likely that the same error was committed on both occasions, by the typesetter on our game and by the registrar at Ellis Island.

Karpow and Kretow (often spelled Karpov and Kretov) are the commanders of two cossack brigades in the game. Our games are researched, but historical information about the cossacks is never easy to obtain because these irregular forces kept few records. To make our historicity a bit more tenuous, we know that Kretow was in France as a part of Karpow's "division" in early January, but we are not sure if he commanded the brigade which rode alongside Karpov's during the "Six Days Campaign" of February 9th14th.

Since he was a brigade commander under Karpow, we assume he continued in his place in the absence of further evidence. His brigade was from "Courland," modern Lithuania. The whole division, which comprised brigades under Karpow in person and Kretow, comprised 8 regiments, each of two squadrons, and the names of these were: Karpow, Sementschenko, Lukowkin, Kutainikow IV, Grekow, the volunteers of St. Petersburg (not real cossacks one supposes), the 4th Regiment of the Ukraine and the 2nd Rgt. of Kalmucks (also not cossacks). General Kretow must have commanded four of these regiments, and Karpov (directly) the other four.

I can tell you that the two Cossack Brigades of Karpow and Kretow were attached to General Wassilchicow's Cavalry Corps, which in turn was attached to the Russian Corps of Osten-Sacken in Marshal Blilcher's Army of Silesia. The two brigades fought a scuffle with French cavalry at Villenauxe, 14 miles south of Sezanne, on the 8th of February, 1814. At that point we lose track of them; cossacks were scouts and tended to scout far afield when battle was near. "A good scout makes a bad soldier," runs a saying of the American Indians.

From: R Kirchner

I recently purchased Six Days of Glory in order to convert it into a miniatures campaign. It lends itself well to this. I am having trouble with your Order of Battle concerning the Prussian cavalry formation of General Roeder. I have done a lot of research on this campaign and I don't see this formation anywhere. I believe Kleist's Korps contained the Prussian heavy cavalry. Can you help me with your OB sources? Everything else seems to correspond to my sources.

Mr. Zucker replies:

I am glad the game OB mostly corresponds with your research. Most accounts of the campaign have incorrect OBs. You have to piece this one together, so you must have done a lot of work already.

My sources say that Roeder's Cavalry Division was part of Kleist's Prussian 11 Corps, which was just entering France. Part of the Corps was still en route (the infantry brigades of Zieten and Pr. August). One problem in studying the Prussians is that their brigades had a titular commander and an executive officer; sometimes sources list one, sometimes the other.

A. Pigeard gives a regimental OB for Roeder's cavalry in January 1814, and shows three brigades: Wrangel, Hacke, and Mutius, with 28 squadrons. Roeder had only 8 squadrons (Hacke) and one battery as he entered the theater of operations; during the 6 Days he had 16 squadrons (I suppose a second brigade, probably Wrangel, caught up).

From: R Kirchner

I dug up some more OBs from Nafziger. The OB for Vauchamps, 14 February; lists Kleists Corps with 3 infantry Brigades (Pirch 1, Ziethen, Pr August) and 2 cavalry brigades:

Hacke-4 sq Silesian Cuirassiers, 4 sq Silesian Uhlans [Light].

Roeder-4 sq East Prussian Cuirassiers, 4 sq Brandenberg Cuirassier.

The OB dated 24 Feb. lists von Zeithen commanding all the cavalry in a reserve formation consisting of

Blucher-8 sq (4 of Neumark Dragoons, 4 of I st Silesian Hussars)

Wrangle-8 sq (4 of Grand Duke Constantine CUiL, 4 of Brandenberg cuir.)

Haak-8 sq (4 of Silesian cuirassiers, 4 Silesian Uhlans)

Prince Biron-8 sq (4 of 2nd Silesian Hussars, 4 Silesian National Hussars)

All in all it is confusing, but I see in no way Roeder commanding any sort of light cavalry formation during the 6 Days campaign. It seems to be the heavy cavalry as I suspected. Perhaps a new game piece is needed to reflect this. Or am I being too petty? Keep up the good work.

Mr. Zucker replies:

As I suggested above, the OB for this period is never presented adequately in any of the readily available sources. If you want the "good stuff" you have to go to Janson': Geschichte der Befreiungskriege, 1813-1815 This is available at the New York Public Li brary, where else I don't know. Nafziger is great, but you have to be careful; Pr. Augus was not at Vauxchamps, for example.

There were a bunch of battles, losses, an( reinforcements between 9 February and 22 February. Here is the ftill OB for Roeder's Cavalry Division presented in A. Pigeard.

Division Roeder

Bde Wrangel
East Prussian Cuir 4 sqds.
Brandenburg Cuir 4 sqds.

Bde Hacke

Silesian Cuir 4 sqds.
2nd Silesian Hus 2 sqds.
Silesian Militia 2 sqds.

Bde Mutius

8th Silesian Militia 4 sqds.
1st West Pruss Militia 4 sqds.
7th Electoral march 4 sqds.

According to Petre, Blucher had no cavalry with him until the 12th of February, when he got 800 horsemen. On the 13th he go Hacke's 2000 cavalry (pages 68-69) Whether Roeder or Hacke commanded I am not certain. It is possible that the 8 squadrons shown above for Hacke totalled 2000 men. Who the other 800 men were we don' know (they might even be the avantgarde the 2000-man brigade). Of that brigade the Hussars and Militia are light cavalry.

If we're going to print a new game piece. think we should really find out who those troops were. If I recall correctly, we used inherent military probability (ie, we guessed) basing that decision, however, on the sound principle that the above-mentioned Hussars and Militia light cavalry would travel lighter and therefore arrive ahead of the heavy cuirassiers. According to this argument, Roeder and/or Hacke collected all the light cavalry into an ad hoc Avant Garde and rode hell for leather at Blucher's summons (remember Blucher was face to face with the enemy and had no cavalry). In that extremity, they would not keep to the pretty organization table. Why he had no cavalry; where they were, on what mission, is something you could find out in Janson.

NOTE: For more information regarding the above discussed OB, please refer to the following link : www.mygale.org/03/grognard/Ordre-Bat/index.html