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