Foot Artillery of the Grand Duchy of Berg, Napoleonic Wars, 1808–1812
Gunners of the Grand Duchy of Berg manning two 6-pdr. guns and a 5.5 inch howitzer of the French Gribeauval system. These 15 mm Minifigs miniatures and Hinchliffe artillery pieces are mounted on 19 × 38 mm Empire III wargame stands, each of which represents a section of two guns. Berg artillery carriages were stained a natural wood colour, the metal fittings were painted yellow.
In 1809, the 1st and 2nd infantry regiment, and the foot artillery company of the Grand Duchy of Berg marched to Spain. The contingent campaigned with the French army in Catalonia until 1811. During Napoleon’s Russian Campaign of 1812, the Berg artillery was part of the 26th Division of Marschall Victor’s IX. Corps of the Grande Armée. In September of 1812, Victor’s Corps was ordered to advance from Kowno in Lithuania to Smolensk in Russia to take up the remnants of the Grande Armée, and act as a rear-guard during the continued retreat. In mid-October, IX. Corps left Smolensk to march east, towards Witebsk on the Dwina River. The Berg Brigade had lost one third of its strength and all of its artillery pieces by the time it met the Grande Armée. One battalion was captured in Witebsk.
Miniatures
Campaign History
- Spain, 1809–1811
- Russia, 1812
Bibliography
- Knötel-Sieg: Handbuch der Uniformkunde, p. 132
- Haythornthwaite, Philip: Uniforms of 1812, Plate 46a
- Pivka, Otto von: Napoleon’s German Allies (1) – Westfalia and Kleve-Berg (Reading 1975)
The artillery battalion of the Grand Duchy of Berg was not raised again after the campaign of 1812.