Easter Egg

Every shiny new French infantry regiment deserves a shiny new marshal to command them, so as promised here is my new general.

His is, of course, Hinton Hunt FN 355: Marshal Davout in marshal's uniform raising his hat, on horse FNH 10. These particular examples are David Clayton castings.

Louis-Nicolas Davout, it is said, was Napoleon's ablest marshal, with an uncanny ability to turn up at exactly the right time to save the day. His most famous victory was Auerstaedt in 1805, where he took on and defeated a Prussian army of over twice his strength while the Emperor had the somewhat easier task of thrashing a smaller Prussian army at Jena. Nobody likes a clever clogs, however, especially one prone to denouncing the incompetence and corruption of his fellow marshals, so he wasn't a very popular chap.

Davout's star really began to wane after the Russian Campaign and all the finger-pointing that ensued, but in 1813 and 1814 he fought a very capable rear-guard action against hugely superior Coalition forces, including a model defence of Hamburg right through to Napoleon's abdication. It was undoubtedly because of his administrative ability that he was appointed Minister of War during the 100 Days. The Armée du Nord could not have been put together nearly so successfully by anyone else. His absence from the army when it marched, however, has been regretted by Bonapartists ever since Waterloo. Certainly, if it had been Davout, rather than Grouchy commanding the French right wing after Ligny, things may have turned out very differently.

When she caught sight of him, Wellington Woman wanted to know if he was a Portrait of the Artist as a French Marshal, which is an outrageous thing to say as my barnet isn't nearly as grey as that. I still get a few funny looks when I wear that hat in to work, though.

As for the shiny new regiment, I've been making progress but haven't quite got there yet. Below are two of my work-in-progress flankers. Both are from the Hinton Hunt French Infantry of the Line 1807-12 range. The chap on the left is the air-guitarist par excellence, an FN 254: Voltigeur, charging. The fellow on the right is an FN 234: Grenadier in Bearskin, charging.

The former is one of six which were very kindly given to me by Ian S. The latter, also one of six, is from a set of what I thought were Guard grenadiers, but was delighted to find were line grenadiers when I eventually got all the paint off. They've been waiting around for over three years while I set about finding sufficient figures to build a regiment around them.

Happy Easter!

WM