Berichten

The old Portuguese army was largely destroyed in the French invasion of  Portugal in November of 1807, and had to be recreated when the British arrived in August 1808. 

The British chose William Carr Beresford to lead the army, with a rank of Marshal in the Portuguese Army. Unusually, he was moderately fluent in Portuguese. His efforts over time greatly increased the size and effectiveness of the Portuguese army, from roughly 25,000 men in 1809 to 50,00 in 1812; by that time Wellington acknowledged that the Portuguese troops were every bit as good as the British. 

The 1st regiment had a dark blue collar and white cuffs. Belong to the Center Division organizationally, it had white piping, turnbacks, and white mixed with dark blue cords on its shako. 

The King’s color is by Adolfo Ramos flags. The figures are Old Glory 2nd edition British painted as Portuguese. 

The Regimental color would have been white, for the Center Division. 

The 1st Line regiment was brigaded with the 16th Line Infantry, and, from late 1810, the 4th Cazadores. That particular Brigade spent most of the war in independent actions.

The Old Glory pack of Scots Artillerymen has a huge 30 figures in it!

I painted about half of them earlier this year; this is the other half!

I probably now have more Scots ECW Artillery than I will ever need!

Still, I had ‘em, so might as well paint ‘em!

Obviously, they need some guns to serve.

Viola, here they are! I actually painted all of the ordonnance back when I did the first batch, so I had 3 extra guns. 

I also made this small unit of Scots swordsmen. 

Once again, it was formed from spare figures. 

More Tartan practice!

Waste not, want not -spoken like a true Scotsman! 🙂

The Loyal Lusitanian Legion was first formed in England in 1808, initially raised from Portuguese who had fled the country as a result for the French occupation in late 1807 and early 1808. 

The Legion was to consist of 3 battalions of 1,000 men, a battery of 6 guns, and some cavalry; it does not appear that the later were ever raised. There was initial talk of red uniforms, but that choice was unpopular with the Portuguese, so dark green uniforms reminiscent of the British rifles were ordered. 

When the core of the Legion arrived in Oporto in August 1808, it recruited additional men in Portugal. Most but not all of the officers were British. The Legion was paid by the United Kingdom, and fought at Alcantara, Talavera, and Busaco. It was commanded by Colonel Robert Wilson, who was given the rank of Brigadier General in the Portuguese army as well. Much of its service was  spent in independent actions behind the French lines or supporting the Portuguese and Spanish militias. 

The LLL was disbanded in May 18111, and used to form the new 7th, 8th, and part of the 9th Cacadores. 

The flag was taken from the internet; I cannot vouch for its accuracy, but it looks good at least!

The figures themselves are Old Glory 2nd edition British line, painted as the Legion. There is an excellent account of the Legion’s history and actions on The Napoleon Series, here.  

I have had a small Portuguese contingent of Minifigs for 3 decades… long before I had British to go with them. Having finished by British army, I have found that I don’t have nearly enough Portuguese  on several occasions – my two Talavera 1809 Snappy Nappy Campaign in a Day events, and again when I ran Fuentes de Onoro at the Fall “Historicon” in 2022. 

Both times I used my Minifigs Brunswickers to stand in for the extra needed Portuguese. Not the worst expedient, but I decided that I needed to augment my Portuguese force, and started acquiring the needed figures

I didn’t want the figures to dwarf either my existing Minifgs Portuguese or my Old Glory British figures. A few years back, Brigade games in the Us acquired a range of Portuguese figures that looks like they would match my existing figures reasonably well in size.  It turns out these are Paul Hicks sculpts, but very different in style from the Spanish that he sculpted expressly for Brigade games. or his other Brigade games figures for that matter. 

This unit is painted wearing the earlier Cacadore uniform, anachronistically wearing the later “Stovepipe” style shako. Considering the difficulties of supplying units in the field, plausible least!

The earlier uniform for this unit had red collar and cuffs piped green, brown turnbacks piped green, and yellow braid on the chest. There will be quite a few more new units of Portuguese marching off the  in the coming months. This is in part spurred for the fact that it looks like Kevin and Mike will be  designing the 2025 Snappy Nappy Campaign ins Day event, and it will be set in the Penisnsula.