Tag: piedmont

Categories
metal miniatures miniatures painting Vienna Treaty Wars wargaming

The Painting Pedestal: 22c – 1848 Danish Infantry

So far this year the Painting Pedestal has been a bit wonky with some units not even reaching the pedestal

  • Milan National Guard 1848 – here
  • Battaglione Bersaglieri di Vignola 1860 – here

So belatedly my third offering this year finally makes it to the pedestal.

The First Schleswig Holstein War was fought between the Danes and the Prussian driven German Federation – aka the Holy Roman Empire. The Danes won but the Prussian steamroller was just getting going – in 1864 the 2nd war with Danish defeat, heralded the misery of 80 odd years of German led mayhem across Europe. However it is reported, you can argue it was weakness on the part of France and the United Kingdom to stand up for territorial integrity, that condemned Europe to decades of Prussian agression.

In 1848 the Danish Infantryman was clad in red tunic and blue trousers with a bell style shako plus white belts and straps. The bell style shako had evolved from the Napoleonic era shako, both of which were also to be seen in civilian fashion changes on the journey from tricorne to bowler hat.

Almost as soon as the war started the soldiers ditched their shakoes and donned their fatigue hats – bright blue kepi’s. Add in the new all dark blue uniform with black belts and straps gets you a soldier looking not out of place in the American Civil War that was raging 15 years later.

This Piedmont unit from 1859 gives you a rough idea of the transformation in 1848 danish military uniform. The Danes led the way, not just the Prussians.

The metal figures are from Irregular Miniatures. Being 20mm they are at the small end of 1/72 so they get some extra basing to reduce the height disparity with the many 1/72 and 25mm figures I have.

Irregular Miniatures sell them under their Colonial range.

Here are some more views of the unit.

The units are set up for Piquet rules – 4 bases equals a unit.

The 3 figure basing was an idea I picked up from an article in Lone Warrior – magazine of the Solo Wargames Assocation. The article was a cost cutting exercise for DBA armies where the advent of element basing undermined the need to consider figure scale and to have full ranks. Peter Pigs Conquerors and Kings also advocated 3 figure basing as did their Bloody Barons medieval ruleset.

I am quite taken with this unit so will probably add to this force.

I will probably use Neil Thomas’s book – European C19th Wargames which gives you rough army lists to play his rules and scenarios from the book.

For the basing I used my standard three colour paintwork (burnt sienna + yellow ochre + very pale yellow/white dry brush all over budgie grit/pva. This time I have gone for paler washed out grasses. And I am quite pleased with the result.

The flag was an afterthought. I suddenly realised I had the flagstaff from Irregular with no flag! Now I could probably have bought a Danish flag online. But I had started to make crude flags from dried out screen wipes (basically I bought some wipes and found that they had lost their alcohol content). The end result is a rough paper that takes colour easily. I simply used some permanent ink colouring pens. Marking out was the longest task. So very quick – but I suspect I will change them if I get a chance.

So that is the 1848 Danish Infantry unit ready to march!

Categories
battle anniversaries garibaldi wargaming Mid 19th Century Wargaming Military History Vienna Treaty Wars

173 years ago this month

Photo by Rachel Claire on Pexels.com

173 years ago this month events were gathering pace across Italy after the Vienna 1848 uprising. Earlier in the year protests in Lombardy and the Veneto about tobacco taxes with boycotts had set in train popular unrest.

And then the news of an uprising in Vienna itself fuelled the powder keg of rebellion that had built up since the Vienna Treaty of 1815 had ended the Napoleonic era.

In Milan the people revolted and after 5 days Marshall Radetsky withdrew his forces to the east.

Venice declared itself a republic again with the Austrians capitulating while their Italian soldiers simply deserted – many even declining to join the rebels.

And then Piedmont declared war on the Empire and mobilised its army to march on Milan and Lombardy.

Across the Papal States and Southern Italy into Sicily uprisings installed populist governments. Many only lasted just a few weeks or months.

This week 173 years ago the Austrians were bottled up in the “quadrilateral” (bounded by Verona, Legnano, Mantua and Peschiera). They were about to inflict serial defeats on Piedmont and its Italian allies.

An Armistice followed.

Then a year later the Piedmontese and Austrians did battle again at Novara, resulting in a decisive victory for the Austrians and giving them 10 more years of power in the peninsula.

So in 1849 while the Piedmontese were being defeated to the north, Guiseppe Garibaldi was leading the doomed but heroic defence of Rome under its short lived Republic. By summer 1849 Garibaldi was retreating north into the Romagna, with the remnants of his forces, having fought the French and Neapolitans to a standstill despite being massively outnumbered.

Garibaldi was pursued across the spine of Italy tying up 100,000 troops of 4 nations (the spanish joined austria, france and naples to destroy this most wanted rebel).

Fortunately Garibaldi escaped with amazing help from Italians all across the lands he travelled.

He lived to fight another day – it would be 10 years before his chance would come again.

Categories
garibaldi wargaming Mid 19th Century Wargaming miniatures painting wargaming

The Painting Pedestal: The Kingdom of Sardinia

Italy in the mid 19th century continues to fascinate me with my project to build armies of the Risorgimento, Wars of the Italian Unification (WotIU), or even the decline and fall of the Austro Hungarian Empire. The fact is that “The Empire”, once Holy Roman and western successor to the original Roman Empire, had its hands all over Italy having displaced French and Spanish interests after the fall of Napoleon in 1815.

The Kingdom of Sardinia is confusingly also known as the Kingdom of Piedmont which was just part of its claim.

So you often get written descriptions of Piedmontese fighting or occasionally Sardinians but usually Bersaglieri (who did all the fighting!). My recent Bersagleri efforts can be seen in this post.

https://thewargamingerratic.home.blog/tag/piquet-wargame-rules/

Actually it is not true about the Bersagleri being the only soldiers in Italian armies – its a bit like British Grenadiers being the only useful infantry in a british army. Bersaglieri (sharpshooters) were elite troops armed with rifled muskets and latterly breech loading rifles, who were often in the thick of the fighting, used as shock troops, and using a freedom of action which in turn required much greater discipline.

So in the wargaming world it is not surprising the mainstream manufacturers have gone for Bersaglieri.

Sadly this range by Waterloo 1815 remains incomplete

Waterloo 1815 make their Italian Bersaglieri in 1/72. Strelets actually name their offering Sardinians – technically correct – again their are characteristically Bersaglieri.

Strelets’ only adventure into this war era – although they did a lot of Crimean figures – key ones are now out of production – and yes the Bersagleri really fought there alongside the French, Turks and British.

The poor old line infantry of Sardinia/Piedmont get short shrift. The saving grace is the Amercian Civil War where manufacturers offer an abundance of figures which can be borrowed………..

Shakoes can be a problem, yet even here clothing fashion in military terms meant armies in the mid 19th century tended to be either “french” (kepis/short shakoes) or “germanic” (helmets/caps) or “british” (short shakoes/caps) in styling. And then of course you get emulation. The British love of “bearskin” clad soldiers dates from the demise of Napoleons’ Imperial Guard. Within a few years the French had resurrected their own Bearskin Guardsmen as well. And it seems everyone had a post Napoleonic frenzy in glitzy uniforms for almost 40 years until barrel rifling and breech loaders changed warfare.

Finally you find tucked away a manufacturer who has provided apparently everything you need for the Sardinian kingdom.

Lucky Toys made two sets – garibaldi’s redshirts (very 1859 I think) and Piedmont Infantry and Bersaglieri (again circa 1859 I think). Thats easy to explain – 1859 was the war year which saw the Austrian grip on Italy collapse.

All this adds up to lots of possibilities for mid 19th century armies fighting across Italy.

Here is Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia courtesy of Lucky Toys.

So there will be some posts on my latest additions to the army of the Kingdom of Sardinia. Question is – which decade?