General Bruyère
Bruyère is generally considered to have been one of Napoleon’s great cavalry commanders. He was aide de camp to Berthier at Marengo, playing an important role in bringing Desaix to the battlefield. He was wounded twice at Wagram. I didn’t plan to give his light cavalry regiments flags. I al- ready thought it was a bit much letting them have ‘eagles’ as it was highly doubtful that French light cavalry carried them in the field. However with few poses available to the 10mm wargamer, the Napoleon of this project couldn’t resist turning a blind eye to the indiscretions of his colonels and allowing some regiments to bring their standards on campaign.Bruyère’s Light Cavalry Brigade
Now with both the 13th and the 24th Chasseurs à Cheval based and painted, I had completed General Bruyère’s light cavalry brigade. The brigade worked out as a total of 20 figures at 1:50 (see Orders of Battle). 650 men in the 13th gave a unit of exactly 13 and 350 men in the 24th a unit of precisely seven. However as I explained in Post 149, to fit with my light cavalry basing I transferred one figure from the 13th to the 24th. As far as squadrons went, my shunting a figure from one regiment to another meant that squadrons were made up of exactly four figures as the 12 figures of the 13th represented its three squadrons and the eight figures of the 24th represented its two. A very satisfactory outcome, I thought. It was only left, now, to place the brigade in position on the right flank of the French front line, hugging the bank of the Danube, where they were on the first day of hostilities when the battle really got started.
POST 164
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