I am going to be alone for two weeks ! so home is all for me and I decided to use the (half empty) bed as a board (considering white blankets) for the battle of Austerlitz. At least it won't be so empty.
I decided to array the Grenadier Battalion of the Novgorod at the Battle of Austerlitz on 5th December 1805.
This battalion - together with other troops - was deployed on the Pratzen Hill, encharged to defend that position from the French attacks. This battalion (actually very under numbered) fought with quite few impetus, and it gave field and the village of Pratze to the French
Here bottom the two flags (in the corrected colours) of the Novgorod Regiment.
Note that the Leibfahne or Colour of the Colonel was present with the Grenadiers Regiment of every Musketeers regiment
I did a lot of research and I posted my ideas on The Miniatures Page.
I will report that topic:
Retention of Miters
The grenadiers and fusiliers were ordered to replace their miters with shakos on Feb. 25, 1805. Austerlitz and the Polish campaign soon followed, and it is known that some regiments fought wearing their miters, but information is scarce.
-- Kaluga, Estonia, Mogilev, Kostroma, Odessa, Vilna, and Penza were all raised after the introduction of the shako.
-- The Jan. 4, 1806 order, allowing officers in the Caucasus Inspection to wear shakos in action, may imply they had converted.
-- The Pavlovsk Grenadiers famously wore their miters through the Wars, redistributing the grenadier and fusilier miters by company with the 1811 restructuring.
-- Austerlitz relics, an all light crimson miter, and a straw miter with a dark band, have been identified as belonging to the Narva and Old Ingermanland grenadier battalions.
-- An officer's diary indicates the Apsheron grenadier battalion had switched before Austerlitz.
-- The regimental history of the New Ingermanland is said to relate a Nov. 1805 order to change the miter bags to dark green. However, since the facing change occurred in Nov. 1804, this is an error as to the year.
-- The Moscow Grenadier and Vladimir grenadier battalion are thought to have fought at Eylau in miters.
-- The Azov regiment was fully re-equiped (presumably with shakos) after heavy losses as Austerlitz. Other regiments suffering heavily would include: Galich, Butyrki, Narva, Podolia, Kursk, and Perm.
I simply summarize the information I've gotten here:
Every Grenadier Regiment had:
1 battalion grenadiers + 2 battallions fusiliers
Every Musketeer Regiment had:
1 battalion grenadier + 2 battalion musketeer.
The problem is the head-wear of the Grenadiers (and therefore of the Fusiliers). Did they fight with mitre or shako?
According to the information I've gotten, surely at the battle of Austerlitz fought with the mitre the following battalions of grenadiers:
*Novij Ingermanland Musketeer Rgt
*Old (starij) Ingermanland Musketeer Rgt
*Moskowskij (grenadier regiment)
*Vladimirskij Musketeer Rgt
*Kievskij (grenadier regt)
*Fanagoriskij (grenadier regt)
*Narvskij Musketeer regt
*Malorossiski (grenadier regt)
(Obviously there is also the Pavlov regiment and some others that by sure wore the mitre at the epoch, but they didn't participate to the battle of Austerlitz: *Pavlov, *Ekaterinenbourg etc )
Starting from an information about the Caucasian inspection where it is told that "all men of that inspection"already wore the shako, I considered that if the grenadiers of that regiment in that inspection wore mitre also the other regiment of the same inspection did the same; this system will give a quite accurate idea of the regiments that at the battle of Austerlitz wore the mitre. And so:
*ARCHANGEL Musketeerl Regiment: Lithuania Inspection (where there is the Ekaterinenbourg Regiment) so its grenadiers wore the mitre.
*PSKOV Musketeer Regt: Lithuania Inspection (as above); grenadiers with mitre
*JAROSLAVSKIJ Musketeer Regt: Dniestr Inspection (where there was the Novj Ingermanland regiment with mitre); its grenadiers wore mitre
*BRIANSKIJ Musketeers Regt: Ucraina Inspection (where there was the Malorusskij Regt with mitre) its grenadiers wore the mitre
*MOSKOWSKIJ Musketeers Regt (not to be confused with the Moskow grenadiers regt): Kiev Inspection (where there was the Narvskij regt with mitre); hence its grenadiers wore the mitre too.
*VIATSKIJ Musketeer regt: Inspection Kiev (as above): hence its grenadiers wore mitre
*KURSK and PERM Musketeers Rgt: Smolensk Inspection; no reference; hence they wore shako
*VYBORG Musketeers: Brest Inspection (whrere there was the Old Ingermanland regt with mitre ) hence its grenadiers wore mitre; NB in this inspectionb there is also the Rgt Apcheron, that is known because one of its officers wrote they got the shako just before the battle of Austerlitz; so this inspection was in transition. So I considered Old Ingermanland as with mitre (because it was one othe oldest regiments of the army, while the rest got the new shako
*RIAZAN Musketeers rgt. Finalnd Inspection: shako
*GALICIA Musketeers: Ucraina Inspection. As above: hence mitre
*BOUTYRSK Musketeers Rgt: Kiev Inspection, As above: hence its grenadiers wore mitre too
*AZOV + PODOLSK Musketeers: Brest Inspection; as above:hence their grenadiers wore shako
*APCHERON Musketeer regiment: shako
*NOVGOROD Musketeers: Kiev Inspection: as above; its grenadiers wore mitre
*SMOLENSK Musketeers; Ucraina Inspection; as above; its grenadiers wore mitre
*IMPERIAL GUARD: all with shako
*LEIB-GRENADIER with shako
Bottom and top: here a little comparation between a "normal" wargame board (bottom) - picture taken from this site http://www.mapsymbs.com/austerlitz.html - and (top) a 1:1 ration battalion in papersoldiers. Consider that in the "normal" wargame there are represented 5 battalions, while (top) just one battalion.
Bottom: I used some cotton (from the make-up!!!) to recreate the idea of the firing of the Battalion. Up to you to judge the effect
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