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.
Nice looking regiment, good work on them and again another decent set from OG.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Donnie; I think the Old Glory 2nd edition figures are sculpted by the same guy who does Sash and Saber. Unfortunately, like the excellent S&S figures, they have made no additions for many years.
DeleteVery smart Peter. The white facings against the blue is a nice combination.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lawrence. Despite their dark blue jackets, the varied color schemes of the facings, etc., of the Portuguese line make them quite colorful in their own way!
DeleteImpressive brushwork Peter.
ReplyDeleteYou are too kind, Ray!
DeleteSharp look, impressive flag. Another great brigade for the table, nice job all around.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joe; plenty more Portuguese to come in 2025!
DeleteSmashing looking unit.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Richard. I really like the Adolfo Ramos flags! They look great, and the price is very reasonable!
DeleteNice work Peter and I agree with you re both 2nd edition AND S&S miniatures - 90% of my large Austrian collection is comprised of their figures - I do wish they had done more sets!
ReplyDeleteFor Portuguese, I used the Warlord plastic set, multiple times! Cacadores were courtesy of Front Rank....still need to get some more of those....and some cavalry!
I've tried several times at Historicons over the years to prod the sculptor to do more 25 mm Napoleonics, but the money is on their 40 mm lines. He did imply he had Russian artillery all ready to go, but I don't think they were ever released. I have figures for 3 units of Portuguese Dragoons on the way; in my case, Foundry early British Light Dragoons to be painted as same. Front rank would dwarf my relatively smaller Portuguese figures!
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