Hello There! I have been painting units to refight the Battle of Maida so have decided to write the British and French orders of battle to show progess on the project.
Here is the French now. After referring to a number of written and internet sources I have found many discrepanicies concerning the number of battalions that some regiments had at the battle. For example the 1st Legere is reported to have had either two or three battalions present while the Swiss had either one or two battalions.
Also the number of men in each unit has not been forth coming as there appears to be many vague total quoted for the whole French force but little on individual units. I have listed the hypothetical figures from a copy of 'First Empire' that I have found on the internet.
French Order of Battle
Commander: General Jean-Louis-Ebenezer Regnier, (Reynier)
1st Brigade: General de Brigade Louis Fursy Henri Compere
1st Battalion, 1st Legere 600 men
2nd Battalion 1st Legere 600 men
1st Battalion, 42nd Line 600 men
2nd Battalion 42nd Line 600 men
2nd Brigade: General de Brigade Antoine Digonet
1st Battalion 23rd Legere 600 men
2nd Battalion 23rd Leger 575 men
3rd Brigade: General de Brigade Louis Peyri
1st Battalion 1st Polish Legion, (1st Polish Line Infantry Battalion) 400 men
2nd Battalion 1st Polish Legion, (1st Polish Line Infantry Battalion) 400 men
4th Battalion 1st Swiss Line Regiment 600 men
Artillery: Commander, 'Griois'
1 Company Horse Artillery 2 guns 20 men
3 Batteries Foot Artillery 18 Guns 45 men,
(I don't think so!)
Cavalry:
9th Chasseurs a Cheval 300 men
Compere's Brigade
Conflicting sources state this brigade consisted of three battalions of the 1st Legere only while the greater majority of sources state there were two battalions of 1st Legere and two battalions of 42nd Line.
I have chosen to place two battalions of each regiment in this brigade.
The 1st Legere had an extensive experience of campaigning in Italy, during the revolutionary Wars and were present at the Battle of Marengo.
The 42nd Regiment also fought in the Revolutionary Wars in Flanders
Digonet's Brigade
The 23rd Legere were formed in 1792 and had fought in Northern Italy in 1805 and been present at the battle of Caldiero.
Peyri's Brigade
Some sources has placed the 42nd regiments battalions in this brigade. I believe that this brigade only consisted of the foreign troops in French service.
Again the Swiss troops here are described as either one or two battalions
The Polish troops are repeatedly described as 'poor and unreliable' in Hopton's book and this was put down to the fact they had been recruited from Austrian prisoners of war.
On their initial contact with the British, while they were landing on the peninsular, 400 of these Polish troops drove back the Corsican Rangers but were in turn pushed back by British infantry.
9th Chasseur a Cheval
The 9th Chasseurs were the only cavalry to take part in the battle. They arrived with further Polish troops and General Digonet on the 1st July.
Artillery
These are described a 'mountain guns' in Hopton but the calibre is not described. Mountain guns are more easy to transport across the mountainous tertain of the area but lacked the punch of larger calibre guns on the battlefield.
Regnier's force was described as deficient in artillery so I am unsure of the eighteen foot artillery guns present in some orders of battle. However the speed of the advance of the French and the mountainous character of the region may explain why they are not present but the mountain guns are.
Initially Regnier is supplied with two companies of horse artillery and two companies of foot artillery and present at the battle itself were 'four light field pieces' I would say these were four pounders.
The calibre of the guns are described as not larger than the four pounders used by the British.
The total
5100 infantry
300 cavalry
Sources
The Battle of Maida 1806, Fifteen Minutes of Glory by Richard Hopton
Wellington's Switzers by Alistair Nichols
Scenario: Maida 1806 - Honour Scenarios Wiki (google.com)
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