Marshals and Generals

 FRENCH GENERAL

Portrait by Charles-Philippe Larviere, 1843

Jean-Baptiste Drouet, 

Comte d'Erlon

 Born: 29 July 1765 - Reims, 

Marne, France

Died: 25 January1844 - Paris, France

 Rank: General

 

D'Erlon was born in Reims on 29 July 1765. His father and grandfather were carpenters, and he trained to be a locksmith.

D'Erlon entered the army as a private in 1782 and was discharged after 5 years’ of service. He re-entered the army again in 1792 where he served as a corporal in the pre-revolutionary army, serving with the chasseurs from Reims and joined the Army of the North. In 1793 Drouet was with the Army of the Moselle when he finally elected to captain the following year. In 1794, in Reims, d'Erlon married Marie-Anne de Rousseau (died 1828), daughter of a banker, whom he got to know through Marie-Jeanne (Rousseau) the wife of his brother Jean-François Drouet. They had 3 children together.

From 1794 to 1796 he was aide-de-camp to General Lefebvre. In 1799 he was promoted to brigadier general, and fought under André Masséna in Switzerland.

He continued his service in many of the battles in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, including the Battle of Hohenlinden (3rd December 1800, in which he was wounded), the Hanover region (earning him promotion to major general in 1803). As a general of division, he took part in Napoleon's campaigns at the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 and Jena in 1806. 

On Napoleon’s return from exile he made him a peer of France, and gave him command of the 1st Corps, which formed part of the Army of the North. 

On 16 June during the first major engagements of  Waterloo campaign of 1815, due to conflicting orders his Corps spent most of the day on the Old Roman Road marching and counter-marching between the battles of Quatre Bras and Ligny  without taking part in either battles. Had Drouet d'Erlon's corps been present at either battle it might have changed the outcome of the following days and possibly the war.

Two days later at the Battle of Waterloo, his corps saw plenty of action in the battle, where he distinguished himself and his men taking the farm, La Haye Sainte.

It was his Corps in column formation which attacked the Allied centre right from La Haye Sainte to Papelotte at 13:30 and was stopped by Picton's Peninsular War veterans, and then attacked in the flanks by the British heavy cavalry. He retreated with the rest of the French army and fought in the closing operations around Paris. After the surrender of Napoleon, he was proscribed by the Bourbons, d'Erlon entered exile in Munich, before he finally settled down in Bayreuth in Germany, where he opened a café and inn. Back in France he was condemned to death by a trial in absentia. Finally in 1825 he was pardoned by Charles X and he returned to France but was retired. After Louis Philippe came to power in 1830, Drouet d'Erlon resumed his military career. In 1831 he became a Peer of France and in 1843 he was made a Marshal of France.

From 1837 he resumed his command of the 12th Division in Nantes, a position he held until 1843 when he moved to Paris to retire and was granted the title Marshal of France on 9 April 1843. He died on 25 January of the following year in Paris.

His monument in Reims, France

It's That Time again

 

Yup, another year older. I would like to thank my family for this years birthday presents, which I must admit I have wanted for some time now.

It’s a “Static grass flocking applicator kit”. It comes with the applicator, brush and some dark green static grass fiber bag. I also received some “Summer Grass” from Scenics.

With these goodies, I am hoping in the future months, as winter is coming, to do some terrain pieces. What about my dragoons I hear you say, they are coming along nicely and I hope to have the first batch done soon, if life will let me. 

More Grey's

Still very much WIP but here we go with my second batch of horses for the Royal Scots Greys (2^nd Dragoons) The one with the blue bottle top is for the trumpeter and I'm still going with the mixed greys. Total horses painted now 16 out of 23. I know that they will never win any painting competitions, but as it’s only me who is going to see them, it doesn’t really matter. I like them anyway. Back to painting, but my next post of these will be of the troopers, all 6 of them.

Back in the Saddle

 

Finally after a period of 4 years, here are my first batch of horses for the Royal Scots Greys (2^nd Dragoons) I usually paint all the horses first and then the troopers when I paint my cavalry units, why? I don’t know, but I thought I would change that and paint them in batches of six, but here’s nine of them. The Horses are from the old Esci set and although there are some errors with horses/troopers, they will still fit in nicely with the rest of the heavy cavalry that I plan to paint up. These are the first completed batch since 5^th August 2020. I don’t know why, but I did not feel the urge to paint since then although I have picked up the brush now and then. I decided not to paint all the horses the same colour as most wargamers do, so I have mixed them up a little. Really pleased how these have now come out. Still let’s hope that I can continue in finishing these off as they have been hanging around for far too long.

Broadside Games Show 2024

For my second wargame show of the year, yesterday it was another trip down the A2 to Gillingham, Kent for the Broadside Games Show run by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club.  

When I reached the Medway Park Sports Centre which only takes me about half an hour to get there, the car park was full as there was yet another college Sport’s day on plus a funrun day in the park next to the sports centre. I managed to find a parking spot which took me nearly 15 minutes to find one, and it was free to park. The venue was right at the back of the sports centre and it was easy to find your way there. I paid my £4 entry fee, which I must say is a really good deal, and entered the hall. This was around 11.40am and it seemed really busy.

The first thing for me was to look around the trade stands and there was plenty to offer buyers. After I could nto find any 20mm plastic soldiers on sale at Salute I found a stand that sold mostly plastic figures, called 1-72 Model Figures, so out came my short shopping list, but there were none of the Hat 1/72nd figures that I wanted. Oh well. After a quick walk around the trade stands, I visited the Posties Rejects with their Battle of “Croix-de-Bouquets, 1792”. A unknown battle between the revolutionary black slaves and the French. A interesting battle and the game was planed by Ray Rousell in which he made all of the terrain and painted all of the figures. Here are a couple of pictures of that game.

The Village

I found a little room with hot/cold drinks machines and a few tables to sit. So I had my lunch inside this year as it did not look all that good outside. Once finished I went back into the hall and started to look around at the tables layout. There were a hand full of demonstration games and a nice area where people were selling their second-hand goods. There were 18 wargaming tables on show, some really small and a couple of large games this year.  I went back to the Posties to see how the battle was going. It was nice to see and to talk to Ray, Big Lee and the rest of the group. They even had cake there made by Sparky. I had a time at the show even though I did not buy anything. Returned home about 3.30pm. If you have not been there, may be you should try it out next year. Here are some pictures of the other games.

"DORNIER DOWN"
The Shepway Wargamers

"PEGASUS BRIDGE"
The Retired Wargamers Reloaded Group

"A CROWN OF THORNS"
Deal Wargames Association

What a Great Shame

Just saw this today on Facebook and it’s very sad for everyone that usually goes, that SELWG 2024 has been cancelled. It seems that the show has struggled to attract traders for the last few years now, and to increase attendee numbers. But they are saying that they might be running a smaller event in the future (next year earliest), so hopefully this isn’t the end of the SELWG Shows. I must admit that I have only been to the Lee Valley Centre once and that was last year. Not as good or big as when they had it at Crystal Palace. Lets hope that they will move it back to south of the river next year.

SALUTE 51

Saturday (13 April) . I went to my first wargaming show of the year, to help Warlords celebrate 51 years of wargaming shows. Left my house at about 9.50 am on a lovely Spring day. Started the journey first by bus and then onto the Queen Elizabeth line. I arrived at Excel London in just under 30 minutes, door to door, which was great and no long queue to get into the hall.

It was nice to see how busy the show was although there were a few empty tables laying around. It did not have a shopping list this time, started off visiting the trade stands first which I always do and there seemed to be a lot more than last years show.

It once again became clear that the main supply of figures were again in 28mm and no 20mm figures at all, this might be because of the continuing war in the Ukraine, where most of the 20mm figures are made. But in reality it might be that they are not needed in wargaming any more?  The traders had a very good selection of everything you need to wargame from wargaming mats, rules dice (which there were plenty of)  terrain pieces, figures, paint and brushes.

Going around the wargaming tables, there was a lot of very good layouts and I must say that there were loads of demonstration and participation games going on which were always seem to be busy. Another thing that stood out was that there were many paint and take away activities which is always great for the hobby. The main games were Sci-fi or fantasy and not many historical games at all. Most of the games were at a high standard. At 2 o’clock I met up with the Bloggers meet and it was nice to see the faces again and to catch up with their new projects. I left the show at about 3pm and must say that I did enjoy the show and hope that next year will be even better. Here are a few pictures of the show.

South East Scotland wargame Club - 1815 100 Days Campaign

As above

 

Two Fat Lardies - Stalingrad 1944

 

Who would not want this on their table
15th Century-Italian Gradara Castle

 

Retired Warganes Reloaded - WWII Pegasus Bridge

Rubican Models - Vietnam

Marshals and Generals

 

     BRITISH GENERAL 

     Sir John Lambert 

     Born: 28 April 1772 - Hampshire, England 

     Died: 14 September 1847 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, England. 

     Rank: General

Lambert was the son of naval officer, Captain Robert Lambert and mother Catherine Byndloss. Before his 19^th birthday, Lambert entered the British Army on 27 January 1791, as an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards. He was promoted to lieutenant and captain on 9 October 1793. He served at the sieges of  Valenciennes and Dunkirk, and was in the Battle of Lincelles in 1793. He was adjutant of the third battalion in the campaign of 1794, served with it during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and in the expedition to Holland in 1799.

Lambert was promoted captain and lieutenant-colonel on 14 May 1801. He served in Portugal and Spain in 1808, and was present at Corunna, where he commanded the light companies of the guards in the Walcheren expedition of 1809. He became colonel in the army on 25 July 1810, and embarked for Cadiz in command of the third battalion on 30 May 1811. In January 1812, he was sent to Carthagena with two battalions. He remained there for three months, and in October he joined Wellington's army at Salamanca.

On 4 June 1813 he was promoted major-general, and was appointed to a brigade of the sixth division. He commanded at the battles of Nivelle, Nive, Orthez and Toulouse and was mentioned in despatches. He was awarded the Army Gold Cross and was made KCB on 2 January 1815.

Having been sent to America, he joined the army under Sir Edward Pakenham, at the Battle of New Orleans on 6 January 1815, with the 7th and 43rd regiments. In the unsuccessful attack on the American entrenchments, made two days afterwards, he commanded the reserve. Pakenham being killed, and General Gibbs mortally wounded, the chief command devolved on Lambert. He decided not to renew the attack, withdrew the troops which had been sent across the Mississippi, and retreating on the 18th, re-embarked his force on the 27th. He proceeded to Mobile Bay, where Fort Bowyer was taken on 12 February, and next day news arrived that a peace treaty had been signed. 

Lambert returned to Europe in time to command the 10^th brigade of British infantry at the Battle of Waterloo. The brigade joined the army from Ghent only on the morning of 18 June, and was at first posted in reserve at Mont St Jean. After 3 o’clock. it was moved up to the front line to support the 5^th (Picton's) John Lambert's 10th Brigade in the 6th Division. At about 6:30 PM, the French captured the key strongpoint of La Haye Sainte farm. After this success, they brought up several cannon and took the Anglo-Allied lines under fire at extremely close range. At this period, the 698-strong battalion was deployed in square at the point where the Ohain road crossed the Charleroi to Brussels highway. At a range of 300 yards, the French artillery caused the unit enormous casualties within a short time. At day's end, the 1st Battalion had lost 105 killed and 373 wounded, a total of 478 casualties, without breaking. The unit was described as "lying dead in a square" the 1/27^th (Inniskillings), suffered almost 500 out of a total of 747 killed and wounded, amongst the highest casualties of British regiments during the battle. In this number were sixteen out of the nineteen officers and twenty-three of the thrity-four Colour Sergeants and Sergeants, all killed or wounded. When, during the battle, only one officer remained standing. 

Lambert was mentioned in Wellington's dispatch, and received the thanks of parliament, the order of Order of St Valdimir, 3rd class and also the Military Order of Max Joseph (commander). He commanded the 8^th infantry brigade in the army of occupation in France. 

In October 1816, he married Jane Morant, a daughter of John Morant of Brockenhurst Park, New Forest, England in which they had four children, John, Harriet Frances, Robert and Mary Jane.

He was promoted lieutenant-general on 27 May 1825, and general on 23 November 1841. He was given the colonelcy of the 10th regiment on 18 January 1824, and the Grand Cross of the Bath (G. C. B) on 19 July 1838. 

Lambert was also an English amateur cricketer who made 12 known appearances in first-class cricket matches from 1794 to 1810. He was mainly associated with MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) 

Lambert died at Weston House, Thames Ditten, Surrey on 14 September 1847, aged 75. He is buried in the Holy Trinity Churchyard in Claygate Surrey.

Happy New Year from the General

 

I would like to wish my followers and all wargamers around the world a very Happy New Year.

Well yet another year has been and gone in a flash so I hope that I can finally sit down and start to paint once again, as I have said before, that some of my figures just need finishing off. I hope once again to go to some wargaming shows over the year and really hope that we will start to see some production of new figures coming out.