Reinforcements from the south

A marvellous package arrived today from John, aka Mt Barker John—he who has staged excellent games that I have played in: Lössnig in December last year being the most recent.

I was speaking with him last week and he mentioned that he'd received a wonderful mixed bag of figures, via his auntie who lives in a suburb of Perth. She had seen it in an op. shop and immediately thought of him. He mentioned that there were some early French in there and he had thought that I might like them, as he wouldn't use them. "If you are sure, that'd be great, thanks!"

He duly sent them off and today they arrived. There are heaps of them!

Seventy-four infantry in hats, all figures from Hät's '1805 French Line Infantry'. They are painted quite well, but could use a bit of a spruce-up. I think I'll make them look more of the revolutionary period, albeit some of the better dressed of those troops.

There are also 23 hussars, all beautifully painted. The figures are from Zvezda's 'Black Hussars of Frederick the Great', but clearly painted as French hussars of the revolutionary period. Which unit? This sent me off in a spin, checking through my books, consulting the inter-web and finally back to my books.

First I checked the regiments of the Napoleonic period, not the 1st hussars, what about the 9th? No, can't be them, they had yellow lace. Maybe the 12th? Looks to be a match, but, on checking, I found out that they were the hussards de la montagne in the revolutionary period and had brown dolman, pelisse and trousers. They became the 30th dragoons in 1803 before eventually becoming the 12th hussars in 1813 (with scarlet dolman, sky blue rest of the uniform and white lace). Perhaps the fella had painted them as the 12th, incorrectly represented in their later colours? Or, maybe it's another unit of the early revolutionary period?

I looked through my books and could not find a match. Off to the inter-web. Ah, the hussards de la liberté could be they. It seems that the first 'corps' had blue trousers, pelisse, red dolman and white lace. Yeah, they eventually became the 9th hussars. The lace must have changed to yellow then. Got it!

I was not quite happy though and suddenly remembered two of my books that I had forgotten to check. Tranie and Carmigniani's 'Les Guerres de l'Ouest (1793-1815)' and 'La Patrie en Danger 1792-1793: Les Campagnes de la Révolution'. Nothing in the first but then, 'bingo!'. There it was in the pages of plates in 'La Patrie en Danger 1792-1793: Les Campagnes de la Révolution': hussards de l'égalité. That'll do me, so that's what they will be.

Thanks so much again John. For the figures, but also for the fun of the 'chase'!

Addendum: Army of the Kingdom of Sardinia

I have found Stefano Ales' Le Regie Truppe Sarde on-line and it is as good as I expected. It is available to view/read at archive.org, having been posted there at the end of last year.

I do not read nor speak Italian, but can work out bits from similarities to words of latin origin in French and English and, of course, familiarity with the subject matter. A look at the contents (and a bit of translation) reinforces the scope of the coverage of the book and its logical organisation.

It is divided into three sections: I) the structure of the army, uniforms, II) equipment and arms and, lastly, III) the plates. The first section covers the army overall, troops of the line, specialist services, the regulations and requirements of the various arms of service, officers, and, lastly, administration. The second part has chapters dedicated to the uniforms of the infantry, cavalry, artillery, royal household, generals and staff, specialist troops, military police and militia, badges of rank and distinctions of service, flags, standards and banners and, lastly, the army during the exile on Sardinia following the defeat of 1796. 

The third section comprises 91 plates, mainly of Massimo Brandani's fabulous drawings, as well as some photos of arms and equipment. There are also several excellent reproductions of plates from the Anne SK Brown collection that are presented alongside relevant pages of the chapters in parts I and II. Biography, appendices and detailed contents round out the book.

Having finished painting my Sardinian artillery and Nice light infantry, I thought that I'd keep going with other units of the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia that I have prepared, beginning with the cavalry. Starting to paint them, I realised that I did not have information regarding the horse 'furniture' as well as details of the uniforms of trumpeters, aspects missing from Ricchiardi's book, but fortunately Ales & Brandani came to the rescue. I have not, though, been able to find in Ales' tome any mention of the colour that guns and limbers of the artillery were painted. Probably just as well, since I am not gonna change them from the green that I settled on.

This book is clearly the 'best in class' on the subject as well as a fine example of how to do a book on arms and uniforms well—publishers take note. You don't need to take my word for it though; check it out for yourself.

[p.s. Vincent, if you are reading this, I have just seen your comment on the wargaming erratic blog advising me that the book was on archive.org. Thank you. It was amazing timing since I only found it late last week!]

Forty-four months in the Alps & some troops of the Kingdom of Sardinia 1792–96

There are few books about the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. I have tried for ages to find a copy of “Le Regie Truppe Sarde 1773–1814” by Stefano Ales which, from the reviews and extracts that I have seen, seems to be the seminal work on the topic, certainly for a lay audience or ‘history buffs’. Unfortunately, it is out of print—any readers of this blog fortunate to have a copy may like to comment. It is also in Italian, but that’s not a huge impediment as descriptions of uniforms are pretty universal, one can likely translate a few words, or find an Italian-speaker, or even scan pages, use object character recognition and an on-line translator. "Ah well," I thought, "I guess the information that I have been able to glean from various websites (see below) will suffice." Then I saw a recommendation for Ricchiardi’s book, one that I had previously discounted.

The title of the book is misleading, which is why I had previously decided against getting it. I did not think that I wanted a book about the campaigns in the Alps of 1792–96, relying on the descriptions that I have in other works. Additionally tomes from Helion are quite expensive, especially once ‘landed’ here. Having now purchased the book (pdf version) I have found that it is not the case. Ten of the thirteen chapters (or 138 of 175 pages) are about the “…organisation, uniforms, flags and individual armament of the Piedmontese army of the period and, finally, whenever possible, the hard life of ordinary soldiers and officers in the Alps” (p. v, Preface). A more appropriate title for the book would be “Forty-Four Months in the Alps The Piedmontese Army, 1792–1796”.

The book begins with an introduction to the royal family and rather confusing Kingdom of Sardinia, a geographically disparate state. It comprised, in 1792, the Duchy of Savoy, Piedmont, Count of Nice, Duchy of Aosta, Principality of Oneglia, territory of Loano and Kingdom of Sardinia and was ruled from the capital of Turin (Torino) in Piedmont. Ricchiardi does not discuss its formation which occurred in the second decade of the 18th century when Sardinia was added to the ‘holdings’ of the Victor Amadeus II, Duke of Savoy. The Duke had gained the Kingdom of Sicily as part of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, a reward for his part in the War of Spanish Succession. He initially siding with Louis XIV, but changed sides in 1703 in exchange for promises of territorial gains. Then, by the 1718 Treaty of London, the House of Savoy was made to yield Sicily to the Hapsburgs in exchange for the Kingdom of Sardinia. Thus, in 1720, the Duke formally became the King of Sardinia. In 1792 his grandson Victor Amadeus III, who ascended the thrown on the death of his father Charles Emmanuel III in 1726, was King of Sardinia.

This confusing mix of the House of Savoy, Kingdom of Sardinia and dominant territory of Piedmont is why the troops in the war in the Alps 1792–95 are frequently referred to as Piedmontese; particularly since that is from where the majority of them heralded (along with Savoyards and French plus Swiss and German mercenaries). Ricchiardi mainly refers to the Piedmontese army, but calls them ‘Savoyard soldiers’ on occasion and sometimes the troops of the Kingdom of Sardinia. I will use this latter term.

The main chapters of the book cover each corps of the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia: the line infantry, converged light infantry and grenadier regiments, volunteer light troops, engineers, pioneers, artillery, supply, veterans, medical services, cavalry and even a brief chapter about the navy. Ricchiardi covers in much detail the aspects that he outlined in the Preface (quoted above). The text is supported by and cross-references colour plates reproduced from the Anne SK Brown collection as well as original plates by Emanuele Manfredi and drawings of flags by Roberto Vela.

The book does not intend “…to narrate in detail the fights of the War of the Alps” (p. v, Preface) [Again, why the misleading title?] The final three chapters, devoted to the campaigns of 1792–96 are, pleasingly, more detailed than this statement might lead one to think. Ricchiardi writes from the perspective of the Sardinian army giving us more details of the ‘exploits’ of the troops that we have come to know from the preceding ten chapters. For each ‘action’ (including the early, precipitous retreats of the Sardinian forces) we are given specifics of units, their strengths and leaders and a brief description of movements and any combat. Ricchiardi demonstrates the important contributions of terrain and logistics, along with well-conducted mountain and ‘small war’ in the ability of the Sardinian army to resist a more numerous foe, with little direct support from the Hapsburgs, division between the Austrian generals commanding the Sardinian and Austrian contingents and next to no aide from their coalition allies. His telling of the story is insightful and full of sympathy and passion for the Sardinian troops.

Sadly, as it too often the case with books aimed at the ‘history buff’, the maps included in the book—two only—lack detail and one needs to consult alternative maps so as to be able to determine the precise location of troops. Why does this occur so often? Do authors lack the resources and/or will to produce decent, detailed maps? Is there insufficient support from the publishers? Do the realities of publishing deadlines and margins result in such short-cuts? Whatever the reason or reasons, we are left far too often with an incomplete ‘product’, as is the case here.

In his acknowledgements, Enrico Ricchiardi thanks Ian Sumner for assisting with the English. It shows as, despite him performing the admirable feat of writing in his second (or perhaps his third or fourth language), the text is clear, plain English. A few exceptions demonstrate that it was written by a non-native speaker, but these nuances are minor and are pleasing to read as it means that it has remained Ricchiardi’s writing.

Less pleasing is the structure of the book. Overall, the order of the chapters and information to be presented seems logical, in the main, but within chapters and even sub-sections of chapters it is all over the place. A few examples will illustrate. In the first chapter, which I have outlined previously, Ricchiardi intends to background the King, royal family, territory of the Kingdom of Sardinia (particularly around the Alps). This he does, but at several points he goes off on tangents and into details about units, snippets of actions and individuals. The second chapter, entitled “Vittoria Amedeo III’s Army” begins as one might expect, but then goes into details about a few units (information that would be better placed in the chapter describing each of them) along with details and snippets about the War in the Alps, even though that has not yet been introduced or described. We then divert to details of instances when the King or other members of the royal family were going to the front (most of which did not occur), before switching to details about senior officers, including uniform details, then its over to medals of valour. It becomes worse in the next chapter “The Piedmontese Army in Action”, which describes nothing of the sort, but begins with the organisation and strength of the ordnance infantry, details about the promotion of NCOs, musicians, religious services, armourers, inspections, supplies, recruitment, training, finishing with details about the Swiss regiments. Next we have similar information, with fewer details, for the provincial regiments, before switching to an anecdote about the Maurienne regiment and, finally, moving on to details about the Royal Grenadiers. It really is a case of ‘it’s all there, now we just have to get it in the right order’. I was left wishing that Ian Sumner or Robert Griffith, the editor, had worked harder on this aspect.

The early chapters of the book in particular are like a having a discussion with someone who is passionate about a topic, jumping from one thing to the next, never finishing any of them and leaving one slightly bemused and bewildered. In addition, it means that there are pieces of the ‘puzzle’, for example details about the line infantry, that are dotted here and there across chapters, making them difficult to find. Fortunately, chapters four to ten are more sensibly organised, but they still suffer from repetition and information that seems ‘out of order’. This shows by the time we reach chapters eleven to thirteen. While there is plenty of interesting and useful information, as I noted above, there is also quite a degree of repetition. “Yeah, you told me that already in chapter [ x ],” I said to myself on quite a few occasions.

The plates are, in the main, clear and really useful but there are some disappointing aspects. Ricchiardi’s addition of a table of colours for the infantry regiments is most helpful. However, I was disappointed that several of the plates from the Anne SK Brown collection are presented with the faded reddish-brown coat and trousers of the original, aged plates, rather than dark blue of the uniforms. They are described correctly in the relevant section of the text, but a simple comment in the caption about the ‘antique’ colouring in the plate would have been helpful and prevented potential confusion. Overall, I was left thinking that the drawings presented on Bona’s website, his own and reproductions of Massimo Brandani’s excellent illustrations from Ales’ book, would have been more desirable.

The addition of tables of colours of uniform items are extremely helpful.

The inclusion of colour plates with faded colours (without a note or explanation) is disappointing and misleading.

A few errors have slipped in as well. In the chronology, it states that on 27 March 1795, “Napoleon Bonaparte takes over from Massena”. He did, of course, replace General Schérer. In fact, it is as well that the subject of the book is the Sardinian army since on most of the occasions that the command of the French army is mentioned, reference is made to the divisional or other commands and not the overall command, which leads to a few incorrect statements. I have mentioned that, pleasingly, the colour plates are cross-referenced in the text. This is marred on a couple of occasions when the reference is not to the correct plate.

Despite all of the fabulous detail regarding organisation, uniforms, arms, leaders and strength over the campaigns in the Alps and presentation of many interesting anecdotes, there is a small but important detail that was not included; the colour of the artillery pieces and train. I was especially disappointed by this as it was one of the specific reasons that I decided to purchase the book. The only indication is a plate showing grenadiers being instructed in how to arm an 8 pounder gun. In this the gun is painted natural wood with black fittings. Was this the usual colour scheme? It contradicts the light green with black fittings of a scale model of a 4 pdr artillery piece from Museo Storico Nazionale di Artiglieria. There is a photo of the latter in Rogge and Summerfield’s “Saxon and Piedmont Quick Fire Guns” on the Napoleon Series, so I decided to opt for that.

Emanuele Manfredi's beautiful plate of the Sardinian artillery and grenadiers.

Scale model of a 4 pdr artillery piece from Museo Storico Nazionale di Artiglieria from Rogge & Summerfield “Saxon and Piedmont Quick Fire Guns”.

My version of artillery of the Kingdom of Sardinia using Imex American and Hat British artillery of the American War of Independence.

Two bases using the Hat 'American War of Independence British Artillery' that I received as test sprues back in November last year. The good old Airfix cannons represent the Kingdom of Sardinia's 8 pdrs.

Another photo of all of the artillery with 'extras' to be markers for reloading, casualties and the like.

More pleasing for me were the details that Ricchiardi provides for the Cacciatori del Nizzardo, which he refers to with the longer name of Cacciatori Scelti di Nizza. It was fabulous to find several pages dedicated to this unit, including formation, organisation, strength and uniforms. I first went looking for information about them back in 2024 (goodness me!). I asked Jon over at Palouse Wargaming Journal as I had seen that he had painted some troops for the Kingdom of Sardinia. Sure enough he had some and kindly sent me a plate (Massimo Brandani’s from Ales’ book) along with some description of the details. I was still a bit confused though, as Brandani represented the facings as red and I had seen them elsewhere shown in pink. Ricchiardi solved this for me, telling me that they were carmine-red. An excellent plate by Emanuele Manfredi compliments his text beautifully.

Another of Emanuele Manfredi's plates, this time the Cacciatori Scelti di Nizza.

The dismounted figures in Hat's 'American War of Independence British Cavalry' that I also received with the test sprues seemed perfect to me to paint as Cacciatori Scelti di Nizza with their light infantry caps.

I painted them along with some of Hat's Austrian grenadiers of the Seven Year's War and Saxon grenadiers of 1806 that I had modified to represent the Cacciatori Scelti di Nizza.

I learned a lot from reading Ricchiardi’s book and found details that I had not found elsewhere. These include the aspects of the uniforms, such as the ‘wavy lace’ to denote the élite status of the light and grenadier companies, and the commanders of each of the grenadier regiments. The latter is especially useful as they changed frequently over the five years of the war, which can be confusing as the regiments are often referred to by the names of their colonels. Details such as these, along with his descriptions of volunteer and auxiliary troops, numerous anecdotes and useful descriptions of the campaigns make the book a worthwhile purchase to me.

“Forty-four months in the Alps” is a good book but with more editing, improvements to the plates and inclusion of maps it could have been so much better. I strongly suspect that Ales’ “Le Regie Truppe Sarde 1773–1814” is still the seminal work on the topic. Perhaps I’ll find a copy, one day.

Rating

6 Napoleons

Breakdown

First impressions 6/10 (weighting 0.1)

Presentation 5/10 (weighting 0.1)

Content 6/10 (weighting 0.3)

Supporting content—pictures, maps, appendices 6/10 (weighting 0.2)

Sources 8/10 (weighting 0.2)

Value for money 6/10 (weighting 0.1)

Reference

Ricchiardi, E (2025) Forty-Four Months in the Alps The Resistance of the Piedmontese Army Against Revolutionary France, 1792–1796. From Reason to Revolution 1721-1815 #144. Helion & Company, Solihull, England. 179 pp.

[On my pedantic 'obsession' regarding the number of pages, this one comes very close to the 180 listed on Helion's website for this book!]

Websites

Badone, JC (2004) Les Compagnies de Chasseurs des Regiments d’Infanterie. Napoleon, His Army and Enemies https://napolun.com/mirror/napoleonistyka.atspace.com/les_compagnies.htm. Contribution to the Symposium on Light Troops during the Fenestrelle Alps War, June 5 2004.

Bona, F (2001–2017) Le bandiere di Vittorio Amedeo III. http://www.bandieresabaude.it/index1.html. Information from Enrico Ricchiardi, the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Massimo Brandani and others, reproduced with permission.

Bona, F (2016) Armi di Ufficiali Svizzeri al Servizio Sabaudo. http://www.blasonariosubalpino.it/Stemmi ufficiali svizzeri servizio sabaudo Fi Gy.pdf & http://www.blasonariosubalpino.it/Stemmi ufficiali svizzeri servizio sabaudo H J.pdf. Swiss Infantry In Kingdom of Sardinia.

Giorgio (2012) Il Regno di Sardegna di Fine ‘700. la biblioteca militare. https://jaigol.blogspot.com/2012/05/il-regno-di-sardegna-di-fine-700.html & https://jaigol.blogspot.com/2012/05/il-regno-di-sardegna-di-fine-700-2.html. Massimo Brandani’s plates from Ales’ book.

Isnard, L (2006) Organization of the Savoy-Piedmont-Sardinian Armies 1792-1815. Part I: War in the Alps (September 1792- May 1796). The Napoleon Series. https://www.napoleon-series.org/military-info/organization/Piedmont/c_piedmont.html

Napoleon’s 1796 Bloody Nose. https://napoleoninpiedmont.weebly.com/

Christian Rogge and Stephen Summerfield (2011). Section 3: Saxon and Piedmont Quick Fire Guns. Smoothbore Ordnance Journal Issue 6, 53–62. Posted on The Napoleon Series https://www.napoleon-series.org/military-info/OrdnanceJournal/Issue6/SOJ-6-3_Saxon_Quick-fire_Guns.pdf

Simmy (2014) Uniforms of Sardinian Army 1793-1796. http://thebritisharecoming-simmy.blogspot.com/2014/07/uniforms-of-sardinian-army-1793-1796.html He presents his own uniform images along with scans from Ales.

Mystery of the books

Can anyone shed some light on the 'mystery of the books' for me?

Why is it that the number of pages quoted for a book are never, or at least rarely ever correct? It does not matter if I get the info. directly from the publisher's website, from a retailer or some other reseller, the number of pages listed most often does not match those in the book that arrives. Generally there are fewer.

Seven wonderful titles, all memoirs. They are great to read, aren't they?

I recently took delivery of seven marvellous titles that had been discounted. All of them are memoirs; a form that I really like reading. It's fabulous how so many are now available to the 'average punter' and how many more are being made available and often translated into English too.

Anyway, of the seven, only one had the same number of pages as I had recorded (in this case from the publisher). I put the details of any books that I order into my Endnote library (aka database) and then check them once the books arrive. It amazes me how frequently, i.e. nearly always, I need to adjust the number of pages.

Why is this so?!!