It had been quite a while but it was time to return once more to my Essling Grand Plan (see Post 145). The 24th Chasseurs à Cheval (see Posts 149-153) were based and ready to take their place on my completed terrain tiles. To finish off Bruyère’s light cavalry brigade, I needed to paint 12 chasseurs of the 13th – 12 as a result of moving numbers around, as I mentioned in Post 149. Their facing colour was orange – nice and easy and I used Foundry’s Orange 3B. (It was something of a relief not to have to search around for a paint colour to match a facing colour!) Rousellot illustrated a trooper of the 13th, dated as of 1809. This rear view was replicated by Angus McBride in Osprey’s Napoleon’s Line Chasseurs. The 13th Chasseurs à Cheval were commanded by Colonel Jean-Baptiste Demengeot who actually retired very soon after the Danube campaign, in August 1809. My Demengeot ended up with blonde hair and moustache – for no real reason. He was the figure with my added putty epaulettes whose head I had modified (see Post 65). To the frustration of staff officers, not all French troops wore regulation dress. Some detachments of chasseurs were reviewed in 1809 and out of 11 regiments only two – the 13th being one of them – were recorded as wearing the correct uniform. Pat on the dos, 13th. Unlike my other chasseurs, I gave the 13th white waistcoats.

13th Chasseurs à Cheval

POST 162
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