The newest addition to my French forces in Spain is infantry of the 3rd Westphalian Regiment. I had originally started painting these up as part of Morlot's Division at Tudela, and then read in Oman that the Westphalians (not sure which!) were left behind on garrison duty in northern Spain. And I'm now suspicious that these may have been the light battalion that I believe preceded the others to the Peninsula.
But as these figures were already well underway I continued, certain to get use out of them yet as the Westphalians were part of St. Cyr's 7th Corps in Catalonia until they were withdrawn in 1811.
The Westphalian regiments were raised in Jerome Bonaparte's newly founded Kingdom of Westphalia, a French client state created from the easternmost part of present day Westphalia, and contributed the 2nd, 3rd and 4th along with the 1st Light to the war in Spain, fighting as the German Division under General Morio. (Westphalian Chevaux-Légeres also fought in Spain, with Victor's 1st Corps, and were present at Talvera.)
These painted figures represent the 3rd Regiment of the Westphalian contingent, mainly because I had available my French HaT figures for this unit and had reference (below) that showed the third in the French cut jacket for 1808-09.
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Interestingly this reference shows the 3rd Regiment 1808-09 in the French cut jacket, which suited my purposes as these were the figures I had available
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This reference supplied me with the colours for the drummer (Figure 3). |
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3rd Westphalian Regiment |
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Another view... |
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Commander and drummer are from the HaT Line Infantry set (1808), while the flag bearer (with some alterations on the pants) is from the HaT Light Infantry Command set. |
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After reading much debate as to whether the Westphalians would have had eagles or not, I opted for the conclusion that standards would have had a spear point. |
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The Westphalian regiments were built on the French model and reference shows the voltigeurs with the green and yellow-tipped plume and green shako cord. |
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Here is a close up of some of the fusiliers. I have grown fond of these chunky HaT French figures with their well-defined and easy to paint detail - but that's a bizarre nose on the figure on the left! |