The Resolutionary Spirit

By August, I felt it was time for an even more focussed painting resolution. One that would up the chances of putting a complete ‘something’ on the wargames table. I hadn’t wavered from my initial aim to focus my 1809 project around the battle for the village of Essling (see Post 02). However, I thought that it was best to complete just one French and one Austrian corps before moving on to anything else. The usual advice for collecting Napoleonic armies is to get absolutely loads of line infantry painted without being sidetracked by all the pretty stuff. Perhaps unadvisedly, I was going to concentrate on two corps that were not heaving with multitudes of line infantry. The two opposing corps on the eastern edge of the battle of Aspern-Essling which I had chosen to begin with were made up of a rich assortment of Napoleonic types. This would mean painting some of the more glamorous regiments which I had been holding off painting before I had – like a good wargamer – got masses of line infantry finished.
French Not a corps as such but the units assembled to hold the French right flank on the first day of the battle under the command of Marshal Lannes. Boudet (4th Division) 3e Légère (Fririon) 56e Ligne (Valory) 93e Ligne Piré 8e Hussars 16e Chasseurs à Cheval Bruyère 13e Chasseurs à Cheval 24e Chasseurs à Cheval Raynaud 4e Cuirassier 6e Cuirassier Some of the guns from Lannes’ corps
Austrian The Austrian 5th Column of IV Korps under the command of FML Hohenlohe and the overall command of the aforementioned (see Post 38, page 6) FML Rosenberg. Advance Guard Division Carneville Freikorps infantry Carneville Freikorps cavalry 13 Walachisch-Illyrier Grenzer 3 Erzherzog Ferdinand Hussars Rosenberg Chevauxlegers Division FML Hohenloe IR44 Bellegarde (Italian) IR46 Chasteler (German) IR2 FZM Hiller (Hungarian) IR33 Graf Sztaray (Hungarian) Guns Brigade Artillery 6lb Horse Artillery 6lb Reserve Artillery 6lb GM Lederer 4 Kronprinz  Ferdinand Cuirassier 8 Hohenzollern-Hechingen Cuirassier
Figures 3 2 12 16 4 36 36 54 54 3 1 1 9 12
Figures 36 36 36 12 12 12 8 12 12
POST 41
41