Zalamea la Real 15 April 1810

Last week Brian North and I  played out a new scenario by Brian, the Battle of Zalamaea.  The following is extracted from Brian’s excellent background on the battle:

Zalamea is the second of the long series of duels between Ballesteros and elements of 5th Corps taking place in Extremadura and Huelva in 1810 and 1811, on the borders of Andalucia. As with the whole of this campaign, accounts are very sparse – and contradictory. Most modern sources (e.g. Esdaile and De Valle) follow Arteche and Lapène who say that Ballesteros tried to prevent the French crossing the Rio Tinto, while Priego, the modern official history, follows Toreno in saying Ballesteros was himself caught while in the process of crossing the river – a precursor of the disaster at Alba de Tormes to befall the Army of the Left the following year. Esdaile follows Lapène in saying that the Spanish attempted to stave off the French from the shelter of a ridge studded with rocky outcrops and difficult to access, which was to right of the town, presumably behind the river. This suggests the crossing of the Rio Tinto near Nerva – even today the only bridge in the vicinity – where there is a rocky ridge on the bank defended by the Spanish. Both Esdaile and De Valle, further state that Ballesteros consolidated his position, but whether that means entrenchments is unclear. There is no information about the course of the battle, or even when it started. De Valle, who gives most detail, says that Moriter raced ahead of the main body of the 5th Corps with 10th Hussars and ‘three regiments of infantry.’ He cites the Granada Gazette’s that the 34th Line, a battalion of 100th Line under Captain Lasalle and the 10th Hussars all distinguished themselves in the action. The only point clear is that Ballesteros was defeated and retreated.

We played this using the Over the Hills ruleset with my 1/72nd scale toy soldiers on a 6’ X 9’ table.

The scenario map - shaded areas are steep rocky terrain, slow-going and inaccessible to cavalry. The Spanish begin below the river while the French enter via Nerva.

1. The Battlefield

The Spanish begin in a strong position on high ground (left of picture) opposite the bridge crossing the Rio Tinto with a small force of irregulars in skirmish order on the French side of the bridge. The river is relatively shallow and fordable at numerous points but the French need to discover those fords on their arrival.

2. Spanish on the high ground

View from Nerva with the majority of the Spanish on the far bank.

3. Spanish irregulars on the French side of Rio Tinto

4. Cavalry in support

5. Ballesteros in two lines

Ballesteros arrays his two brigades (one under his immediate control and the other under the control of his lieutenant, Menacho). Menacho has his skirmishers (Covadonga) arrayed in front. The entire hill is very steep and rough, making movement slow and difficult and impassable to cavalry. In the end this hampered the attack more than the defence.

6. Ballesteros directs the defence

Ballesteros surrounded by his ADC’s and priests. A big challenge for the Spanish was for Ballesteros to successfully command the entire battle while at the same time command his own massive brigade.

7. Spanish right, second line

8. Spanish left second line

The entire second line begins in entrenchments, making it a powerful position for the Spanish to fall back upon. 

9. Overview

10. French debouch from Nerva

Mortier’s arrival is staggered and at the whim of the dice.  Fairly rapidly, however, the 10th Hussars arrive followed by the three battalions of the 34th Line, under the command of Rémond.

11. Hussars seek ford

The Hussars fan out to the south in search of a ford, with the 34th close behind.

12. Spanish dragoons charge the French host - sort of

The Hussars rapidly find two fords but with the 34th with only one battalion across Ballesteros sends his two small dragoon units (Lusitania and Sagunto) to slow down the crossing. Sagunto scatters the hussars away from the river, but then balks at charging the massed French columns. The Hussars quickly form up and countercharge the Spanish, now trapped on the French side of the river.

13. Cavalry clash on the banks of the Rio Tinto

The conclusion was foregone as Sagunto is crushed by the French countercharge.

14. Ballesteros redeploys his lines

Seeing the French approaching from the south, Ballesteros starts the long and slow process of redeploying to that side of the high ground (right). He sends his skirmish troops down to the foot of the hill (but within a safe distance to evade into the rocky terrain) while two of his batteries limber up and crawl across the hillside. Fortunately the long French approach has bought him a lot of time to redeploy.

15. Dembowski's brigade and the 3/100th arrive

With a delayed arrival, Dembowski finally arrives with the three battalions of the 88th Line, supported by the 3/100th. Mortier sends these to attack the Spanish front, hopefully pinning Ballesteros’ front line (under Menacho) while Rémond develops his attack on the Spanish right.

16. French columns pour across the fords

The rest of Rémond's command, the three battalions of the 40th Line, follow the 34th as they cross the Rio Tinto. However Rémond’s attack has been slowed somewhat by the sacrifice of Sagunto.

17. Lusitania retreat to threaten Dembowski

The remaining Spanish dragoons are ordered back to the bridge to impede Dembowski’s crossing. This they are able to successfully do in the narrow bit of bank between the bridge and the high ground, as Dembowski is forced to close up his columns to ward off the Spanish horse, making them nice juicy targets for Menacho’s  half battery of artillery.

18.View from the Spanish lines of Dembowski’s attack

19. Dembowski urges his columns forward

20. Hussars drive off the Spanish skirmish line as they cover Rémond's advance

The Spanish skirmishers evade back to the high ground while a half battery fires ineffectually at the dispersed French cavalry. However, with the Spanish now safely on the rocky ridge and the Lusitania Dragoons out of reach the Hussar’s role in this battle comes to a conclusion.

21. 2/88th advance against Navarra

Dembowski finally gets one of his battalions in action, but they are badly savaged by Navarra’s volleys and cannon fire.

22. Menacho begins to withdraw

Seeing Dembowski's attack bogged down, Menacho begins to withdraw to the entrenched positions vacated by some of Ballesteros' brigade, which have also started to withdraw.

23. Rémond's attack goes in

Meanwhile a first attack on the Spanish right by two battalions in column is crushed with the 2/34th routed and the 3/34th destroyed by devastating fire by the Spanish artillery and a stout defence by the entrenched Spanish. Ballesteros pulls the battered Princesa out of the line and brings in Oviedo.

24. Overview

In this overview, on the left you can see the Spanish lines thinning as they begin to pull their troops back in preparation for withdrawal (the scenario calls for the Spanish to hold until Turn 10 and then withdraw). The battery on this flank cannot be withdrawn because of the terrain. On the right bottom Ballesteros desperately tries to hold off the repeated French attacks in column, cycling in fresh troops in the lulls between attacks as he keeps the French from blocking his line of retreat.

25. 3/34th presses home a second attack

Oviedo is in turn pulled out of the line and Princesa, now rallied, steps back in to meet a second attack by the 3/40th. However the Spanish are very hard to budge!

This second attack is also driven off, this time with Rémond, leading from the front, falling in combat.

The Spanish line holds but Ballesteros, in the trenches with Princesa, takes a French musket ball and is laid low as well, with both sides now losing key commanders.

26. Menacho's battery firing canister

The battle comes to a rapid conclusion with two very large bangs. Menacho’s battery, abandoned as his battalion withdraws to the entrenched lines, drives off an attack by Dembowski with a devastating round of canister that shatters the ranks of the 2/88th.

27. French receive the same treatment on Spanish right

At the same time the 3/88th, marching to the support of Rémond’s attack on the Spanish right, marches directly in front of a Spanish battery and takes a similar pounding, thus breaking Dembowski’s brigade.

28. Battle end

With Dembowski’s brigade broken and Rémond’s wavering, the Spanish manage to hold their position, with the loss of only one unit, the Santiago Dragoons, albeit with the tragic loss of their commander as well. (Ballesteros will likely survive his wounds to fight again as Brian has more of these encounters in his to-do box.)

The French suffered the loss of two battalions broken, one routed and the loss of their most promising brigadier. However we decided the nut was too hard to crack, mostly because the terrain crippled any French attack that went in, so there will be a minor rewrite and then we will try this again.

Brunswick Oels

I have wanted to add this unique unit to my Peninsular British forces for a while now, and finally had the time to tackle it. Their all black uniform makes them very distinctive, and the shako plume created an interesting challenge as well.

A bit of history

The Black Brunswickers, as they were known on account of their black uniform (ostensibly worn to indicate mourning for the lost duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, seized by Napoleon and incorporated into the new Kingdom of Westphalia) had a colourful and interesting history throughout the Napoleonic wars.

The regiment, originally 2300 strong including two regiments of infantry, one Jäeger battalion and a mixed cavalry contingent of hussars and uhlans, was raised by Duke Charles William Ferdinand’s heir, Frederick William, rather than submit to the French seizure of his duchy. They supported their Austrian allies against the French but after the defeat at Wagram, rather than accept the armistice, William led his troops into Germany, seized the city of Brunswick, and then, in the face of the approaching Westphalian forces, conducted a remarkable fighting retreat across Germany before being rescued by the Royal Navy and brought to England.

On arriving in England they were incorporated into the British army, travelling to the Peninsula and reaching Portugal in the early part of 1811. At this time the infantry were renamed the Brunswick Oels Jäegers, leading to some confusion as to whether the entire unit were light infantry, but in reality nine companies continued to operate as line infantry attached to the 7th Division while the Jäeger companies were distributed to the 4th (one company) and 5th (two companies) as skirmishers.

Their war record in the Peninsula was not stellar, viewed as inferior troops by this time as they were cut off from their recruiting grounds and tended to make up the shortfall with recruits not wanted by the King’s German Legions. As a result it became a motley collection of prisoners of war, Poles, Swiss, Danes, Dutch and Croats. Having said this, they gave a good account of themselves and served in most of the major battles after 1811, including Fuentes de Oñoro, Salamanca, Vitoria, the Pyrennes, Nivelle, the Nive and Orthez.

They returned to Brunswick in 1813 when William was able to regain his title, and were present at Quatre Bras in 1815 where the Duke was fatally injured by a musket ball.

My build

The only Brunswickers in plastic are a rather uninspired set by HaT and a set all at attention (although nicely sculpted) by Strelets, so I opted to convert some Emhar British from my unpainted cupboard instead. It was a relatively simple conversion, swapping the heads for the French style shako and sculpting some plumes, as the kit was mostly British in the Peninsular War and both uniforms had lace on the front. These guys are the line infantry that fought with the 7th rather than the detached Jäegers, which wore a dark green jacket and were rifle-armed. They carry no flag as this was the case in the Peninsula for this regiment.

French Napoleonic Mountain Gun

I was inspired to try and build a French mountain gun, disassembled and carried on mules, as I have some Pyrennes games that may call for one of these batteries. Visual reference was slim on the net, but I did find a couple of later era mountain guns on mules that gave me a starting point at least.

A bit of history

The Grande Armée mountain artillery units were not permanently organized, but rather were handled by regular foot artillery. There were two basic types of mountain guns employed, a French system on a "chevrette" carriage (not quite clear on this, but I think a carriage without wheels) and a Piedmontese wheeled carriage. Both were broken down and carried on mules, as was the portable forge, ammunition and other items required of the battery. The Piedmontese wheeled gun, although not built by the French, proved to be the more popular because the piece was higher and less likely to overset when fired.  Eighteen mules were needed to carry a two gun 3-pounder section.

Mountain artillery was employed with good results in Italy, the Tyrol and in Spain after unsuccessfully trying to move regular artillery over the Alps during the Marengo campaign.

For more information:

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2018/07/09/french-artillery-napoleonic-wars-i/

The Build

Normally I am done a project before I think about posting, never mind recording, a WIP. I decided to make the unit modular so the mule models can be used separately as well, and possibly allowing other nationalites to be inserted as the figures. I confess, the gun itself, especially the carriage, is a bit of an invention based on a Gribeauval carriage, as I could find no good reference for mountain artillery that was broken down and carried such as these guns were, other than that posted above.

First step was to gather up these bits from my parts box. I used some old Airfix French Napoleonic artillery horses as they are a bit smaller and sturdy-looking, good for conversion to mules. Here I have already elongated the horses' ears and thickened their muzzles with putty.

This picture is just me glueing the bits onto the mules and attaching them to their washer bases. I used balsa wood for the boxes and have sculpted a rough carrying pad for the backs.

Next step was sculpting the belts, harness and ropes holding everything in place. I have three mules, one for the cannon, one for the carriage and one for the wheels. Ammunition would be on other mules but these will do for my model so it doesn't take up too much real estate on the gaming table. The blue tacky stuff is just to keep the horses supported while I do my sculpting.

Here they are with the basing applied.

Primed and ready to go.

Now the handlers. I converted some later war Hat French artillery to earlier war, as the poses worked. I probably could have kept them as later war (this is for 1813) but then they wouldn't really look matched to all of my French in the pre-Baudin uniform. I found the shakos small on this set so puttied them up larger with shako covers. Other conversions were the lengthening of the tails, attaching muskets, and modelling the open front jacket to show the vest. My sculpting is always pretty rough - these are gaming models and my skill limited!

I enjoyed the problem solving around this part. I glued a thin flexible magnet strip to the base and placed the figures where they would go.

Then I applied my basing material (a plastering compound) on the base up to the edges of the stands...

And finally I removed the figures while the compound was still wet and allowed the base to dry. I firmed up the edges of the holes with white glue, and now I am ready to paint. Because the figures are on metal washers with a magnet base, I can pop them on and off as needed.

And a few photos of the finished piece

Here is the unit attached to its magnetic base. I had hoped the assembly would be a bit more seamless, but it works!

 

The wheels, bucket and tools were scrounged from various sets, with a bit of sculpting for the straps and harness.

Other sculpting on the Airfix horses to make them more mule-like was the elongated ears and a thickening of the muzzle. On the Hat late war artillery figures I sculpted longer coat tails, a vest where it shows, and added the shako cover and new pompom, building up the shako a bit as the Hat shakos looked a bit small.

Most of the harness here was sculpted, other than that originally on the horse for pulling a limber. And I cut down and shaved the cannon to make it a bit smaller, although still probably it is large for a 3-pdr.! Poor mule...

Again, the gun carriage was cut down in size considerably, to be more the dimensions of the one in my reference. The cover is just pure invention, an extra piece I had kicking around.