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Portuguese Cavalry Regiment #2

The 2nd regiment carried the designation “Moura”. 

The jacket had white collars and cuffs, with red piping and turnbacks. 

Trumpeters had yellow lace on the seams of their jackets, and it seems the trumpet cords were in mixed colors corresponding to the collar and piping colors, so red and white for the 2nd. 
The red crest for the trumpeter is shown in the book “Napoleon’s War in Spain”, by Lachouque, Tranie, and Carmigiani. I have not seen it elsewhere, so it may be an error, although it would be in keeping with the German fashion of the the time for trumpeters. Still, it was too tasty a bit of bling for me to resist!
The figures are Foundry early British Light Dragoons, so not entirely correct for the Portuguese Cavalry in all details, but close enough! 

Portuguese Cavalry Regiment #10

The first of three new regiments of horsemen added to my Napoleonic Portuguese army!

While sometimes referred to as “Dragoons”, in most documents the Portuguese mounted arm were simply referred to as regiments of Cavalry. 

This is the 10th or “Santarem” regiment, with light blue collars and cuffs piped in white. 

As with the infantry, the color of the piping on the front of the jacket and of the collars and cuffs, as well as the turnbacks, reflected the organizational Division to which the regiment belonged – red for the Southern, white for the Central, and yellow for the Northern Division.

Unlike the infantry, each cavalry regiment had 4 flags, one for each squadron, with a white field for the 1st squadron, red for the 2nd, yellow for the 3rd, and blue for the 4th. I have used scaled down Infantry regimental colors by Adolfo Ramos (15mm); these are pretty close to correct, but evidently the regimental designation would have been on a light blue scroll below the Arms of Portugal. Cravats were in the color of the cuffs. 

3rd Regiment, Gardes d’ Honneur

The 3e Regiment of Gardes d’ Honneur was raised from the 10th (Tolouse ), 11th (Bourdeaux ), 12th (La Rochelle), 13th (Renne ), 20th ( Périgueux), 22nd ( Tours), 29th (Florence ), and 31st (Groningen) Military Divisions. 

A commemorative plaque on the battlefield marks the involvement of the 3rd Regiment in the Battle of Château-Thierry on February  12, 1814. 

The 3e Regiment also fought at Leipzig, Hannau, Saverne, Meaux, Craonne, Reims, Landau, and Paris.

The Colonel of this regiment was Philippe-Paul Segur. He was born in Paris in 1780, became a Colonel in the Chevau-Legers of the Gardes de Paris in 1809, and a Count of the Empire in that year as well. He was promoted to General de Brigade in 1812. In 1824 Ségur published a book on the Russian campaign of 1812, which was not very flattering to Napoleon. General Gaspar Gougaud, who had also served on the Imperial staff in Russia in 1812, severely criticized. Ségur challenged Gourgaud to a duel which was accepted, though he lost the duel and was wounded by Gourgaud. He survived to publish several more books, and die in Paris at the age of 92, in 1873.

The Regiment was disbanded in Tours on July 17, 1814. 

Portuguese 23rd Line, “2nd Almeida”

The 23rd (of 24 total) Portuguese Line Infantry Regiment was named the 2nd Almeida regiment, and  was recruited in Beira Province and based in Viseu. 

The 23rd belonged to the Southern Military Division, and thus had scarlet piping and turnbacks, and scarlet mixed with dark blue cords on the 1806 shako. 

The 23rd had sky blue collar and cuffs, as seen here. 

Theoretically dark blue trousers were worn in winter and white in summer; it seems the fashion was for the officers to wear the white trousers year round. 

Once again these are 25/28 mm Old Glory 2nd edition British figures painted as Portuguese, with an Adolfo Ramos flag. 

The 23rd formed part of the 9th Portuguese Brigade, along with the previously seen 11th Regiment and the 7th Cazadores. It was attached to the 4th British Division form 1810 onwards. 

Portuguese Napoleonic Artillery

The latest addition to my Napoleonic Portuguese is two batteries of Artillery.

These figures are sold by Brigade Games in the US.

The cannon are by Foundry, and were already painted as surplus from an order I made for my British Artillery 10+ years ago! 

Portugal had 4 regiments of artillery, differentiated by subtle differences in the colors of the collars and cuffs; this battery has dark blue collar and cuffs. That indicates it belongs to the 1st or Lisbon Regiment. 

Here are both batteries together. 

The other battery has black collars and cuffs, denoting the 2nd or Algarve Regiment. 
Pretty difficult to tell the difference, right?

I have two more painted spare British guns, so maybe I should add a third battery?!