The Lounge > Historical Discussion

The Bavarian Army during the Napoleonic Wars

(1/3) > >>

Ted:

Christian Wilhelm von Faber du Faur - Copyright Bayerische Armeemuseum, Ingolstadt. Do NOT spread anywhere else!

Introduction
I've noticed that most stuff that can be found easily on the internet regarding the Bavarian Army during the Napoleonic Wars is either incorrect, missing important facts or too simple to be considered as source. After all, the information available on the internet is pitiful! Therefore I've decided to start writing up information here. Eventually I'm going to try and set up a website that includes as much information about this topic as possible.

Let me point out that I'm not going to post EVERY source I have here. I'm going to link booksources and important pages of historical societies and facilities in Bavaria as well as in the whole world, but I'm not even going to try to give every source here as I simply have too many. Some of my knowledge comes from talking to historicians at the Bavarian Army Museum as well as from personal research in archives etc. 

If you have any questions feel free to ask them here and I'm going to try and answer them as good as I can.

Structure of the Bavarian Armed Forces

The Structure of the Bavarian army changed over the course of war. I'm going to post Rosters from 1805, 1809, 1812 and 1814 to show the vast changes that were made. However, have some patience as it is going to take me some time to finish the lists.


Lineinfantry

By 1811, Bavarian Lineinfantry Regiments were organised in two two bataillons and one reserve bataillon each. Each fieldbataillon had six companies (4 Fusiliercompanies, 1 Grenadiercompany, 1 Schützencompany), while the reserve bataillon had only 4 Fusiliercompanies.  One Regiment therefore had a target strength of 2435 Men.

Ranks and NumbersOberst (Commandant)    
Oberstlieutenant    
Major    
Adjutant    
Junker    

Regiments-Quartiermeister    
Bataillons-Quartiermeister    
Regiments-/Bataillonsauditor    
Regimentschirurg    
Bataillonschirurg    
Chirurgischer Praktikant    
Musikmeister und Hautboisten    
Regimentstambour    
Bataillonstambour    
Profos    
Büchsenmacher    

Capitän 1. Klasse    
Capitän 2. Klasse    
Oberlieutenant    
Unterlieutenant    

Feldwebel    
Furier    
Sergent    
Corporal    

Hornist    
Tambour    
Gefreiter    
Gemeiner


All in all:1
1
2
3
3

1
-
1
1
3
3
13
1
-
1
1

6
10
16
16

16
16
32
64

4
28
144
2048

_____________
2435
Note that 16 Gefreite were sappeurs.
[close]
In 1812, Bavaria had 13 Regiments of regular lineinfantry. The numbers in front of the Regiment's name are the numbers showing it on the uniformplate.


5a    Reg. No. 1 König
5b    Reg. No. 2 Kronprinz
5c    Reg. No. 3 Prinz Carl
5d    Reg. No. 4 Sachsen-Hildburghausen
5e    Reg. No. 5 Preysing
5f    Reg. No. 6 Herzog Wilhelm
5g    Reg. No. 7 Löwenstein-Wertheim
5h    Reg. No. 8 Herzog Pius
5i     Reg. No. 9 Isenburg
5j     Reg. No. 10 Junker
5k    Reg. No. 11 Kinkel
5l     Reg. No. 13




Uniforms

Lineinfantry

Spoiler[close]

The Mighty McLovin:
interesting. So like http://www.napoleonguide.com/ but for Bavaria?

Wolff:
Very nice work, ted. Thank you!
So the main thing to differ Füsiliere, Grenadiere and Schützen of one regiment is the plume at the Raupenhelm? No plume for füsiliere, red ones for the greandiere and green for schützen? Did the Schützenkompanies had some diffrent weaponary like a few men with rifles or were they equipted like the other companies?

Ted:

--- Quote from: Wolff on October 06, 2016, 02:57:55 am ---Very nice work, ted. Thank you!
So the main thing to differ Füsiliere, Grenadiere and Schützen of one regiment is the plume at the Raupenhelm? No plume for füsiliere, red ones for the greandiere and green for schützen? Did the Schützenkompanies had some diffrent weaponary like a few men with rifles or were they equipted like the other companies?

--- End quote ---

Exactly. About the rifles: Yes, soem Bavarian Schützen used rifles. However, I do not know if they had been officially issued to all companies - I'm going to look that up :)


--- Quote from: The Mighty McLovin on October 05, 2016, 09:19:50 pm ---interesting. So like http://www.napoleonguide.com/ but for Bavaria?

--- End quote ---

You better decide that yourself :P :D I've started working on the website:  http://napoleonicbavaria.jimdo.com/

Duuring:
Nice site Ted, looks very promising. You might wanna consider translating it into German at some stage, as not all Germans speak very good English or expect a site like this to be in German. Another tip I have is that you should add your sources, especially if they are secondary - It improves the creditability of the site, and authors deserve to be credited for the work they do.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page