August
Greg continues his translation of Journals of the Sieges made or sustained by the French in the Peninsula from 1807 to 1814 by J. Belmas, with another two sections from Journal 3. The first is on the Siege of Lerida, with an interesting account of the tools and materials consumed by the French during the siege, plus a list of the ordnance captured when the stronghold capitulated. The second part added is on the Siege of Mequinenza in 1810, a siege I had not heard of before.
Paul Thompson has written a very interesting article on General Sir James Leith in Spain 1808.
Michael Crumplin writes about The French MacDonald – a Controversial Marshal, the story of Marshal MacDonald from the dwelling place of his father in Scotland through his long military career in the service of Napoleon and then Louis XVIII.
July
Peter Phillips has translated another detailed history on the Russian Army of the period – History of the Bialystok Musketeer-Infantry Regiment.
Greg continues his translation of Journals of the Sieges made or sustained by the French in the Peninsula from 1807 to 1814 by J. Belmas, with another two sections. The first concludes Journal 2 with the capitulation of Gerona in 1809. He has now embarked on Journal 3 that begins with the Siege of Astorga. These accounts give us a day-by-day account of the sieges, plus correspondence from the protagonists, and the strengths of the opposing forces.
June
Jonas de Neef has submitted another very interesting translation of French soldiers documents that can be found in Military Life of French Soldiers
The new article is: A German Soldier’s Diary of Napoleon’s 1812 Campaign in Russia, written by Wilhelm Anton Vossen, born in Oberkassel in the former Roer Department on 13 September 1784, was conscripted into the French Imperial Army on 4 Vendémiaire Year XIII. He was made a corporal on 16 Brumaire Year XIV; fourrier on 1 July 1806; sergeant on 28 June 1809; sergeant major on 1 July 1809; second lieutenant by decree on 10 October at the Kremlin in Moscow in 1812; lieutenant by decree on 21 August 1813 in Hamburg.
He participated in the campaign of 1806: battle of Jena on 14 October, Pultusk on 24-25 December 1806, Eylau 7 February 1807; 1809, near Regensburg and Wagram; 1812 Mogilev, Smolensk, Mozhaysk and Borodino, wounded at Vyazma 3 November 1812, Krasnoi, crossing of the Berezina 28 November 1812. Participated in the siege of Hamburg in 1813 and 1814. Discharged from the Royal French military service by order of His Majesty Louis XVIII on 13 September 1814. Vossen then entered Prussian service on 8 July 1815 as a second lieutenant in the 1st Rhine Landwehr Infantry Regiment and was discharged on 26 August 1821 by order of the cabinet on grounds of disability. He was an innkeeper and landowner in Oberkassel and was appointed an honorary member of the General Provincial Foundation and the local commissariat at Heerdt by the Prince of Prussia (Emperor Wilhelm I) on 18 January 1854. Vossen passed away on 19 September 1860.
Peter Phillips continues his translations of works on the Russian Army of the period with the History of the Lifeguard Jager Regiment 1794-1815. This is another monumental translation consisting of six chapters and numerous appendices.
May
Greg continues his translation of Journals of the Sieges made or sustained by the French in the Peninsula from 1807 to 1814 by J. Belmas, with another two sections. These cover Volume 2 of this work, continuing the account of the siege of Girona by the French Army of Catalonia in 1809. These accounts give us a day-by-day account of the sieges, plus correspondence from the protagonists. Part 22 includes orders of battle of the French Army of Observation and their Siege Army outside Girona.
Paul Thompson has written an account based upon The Journal in Portugal, Spain and France of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dashwood, 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards (1787–1832)
Charles Dashwood entered the army with the 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards on 8 December 1803 at the rank of ensign, was promoted to lieutenant and captain on 17 April 1806, and then to captain and lieutenant colonel on Christmas Day 1813. He campaigned in Hanover in 1805, Portugal, Spain, and at Waterloo. In the Peninsula he accumulated considerable experience as a staff officer, initially acting as ADC to brigadier general Charles Stewart and then as Deputy Assistant Adjutant General with the 4th Division. He served in this same capacity with the Cavalry Division from May to September 1813 before switching to the 1st Division in October 1813. In addition to that of Charles Stewart, he served on the staffs of Generals Edward Pakenham, Henry Fane, and John Hope. Charles Dashwood fought at Sahagun, Benavente, Douro, Talavera, Bussaco, Fuentes de Oñoro, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Vitoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Adour and Bayonne. He received the Peninsular Gold Medal for the Nive, and was severely wounded at Waterloo.
April
Greg has added another 4 sections of Journals of the Sieges made or sustained by the French in the Peninsula from 1807 to 1814 by J. Belmas. These cover Volume 2 of this work, continuing the account of the siege of Girona by the French Army of Catalonia in 1809. These accounts give us a day-by-day account of the sieges, plus correspondence from the protagonists. There is a lot of detail about the armies involved.
John B. Scott has submitted a biography of General Sir Cornelius Cuyler. Cornelius Cuyler was a British Army officer whose fifty-five-year career carried him through five major conflicts and across three continents, and yet he has remained absent from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the Napoleon Series, and the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. The dispersal of the primary sources across the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, together with the family’s Loyalist trajectory after 1783, accounts for his obscurity in the modern record. The present biographical sketch is built on his own first-person Statement of Service of 31 January 1810, on the London Gazette across nearly six decades, and on the seven Cuyler family wills in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury at The National Archives, Kew.
John of Manic Malta has written an interesting article entitled Napoleon’s Seven Days in Malta: Reform at Revolutionary Speed describing how when Malta surrendered in June 1798, Bonaparte did not treat the island as a place to be held quietly until the fleet moved on. He and his officials began changing things at once. That is what makes the episode worth more than a passing mention in the story of the Egyptian expedition.
Book review:
Bussaco 1810: an informal guide to the battle
March 2026
John Pezzola has submitted a well-researched article entitled The Battle of Spear’s Farm (Chateauguay), 1813: A Study of Strategy and Tactics during the War of 1812. On October 26, 1813, a British force consisting of Canadian militia and Mohawk warriors commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry defeated an American invasion force led by Major General Wade Hampton at the Battle of Chateauguay. The Battle was part of a campaign to invade Lower Canada and capture Montreal. The victorious Canadians and their First Nation allies held on to their position until their scouts alerted them that the American invasion force had retreated.
Peter Phillips has translated two more works on the Russian Army of the period. The Russian Medical Services 1801-1815 is the General Staff study of the Military Medical Services in eight chapters dealing with; the development and organisation of the military medical administration in peacetime and wartime; personnel in the Military Medical Department; health and hygiene conditions in military units; treatment and care of military personnel; procurement of medical supplies and their distribution to the Military Department; the Veterinary Department in the armed forces; activities of the Military Medical Directorate during wartime; scientific research by military doctors. It ends with a biography of the Chief Inspector of the Military Medical Department, the Scottish born Baronet James Wylie.
Pskov Dragoons and Cuirassiers 1796-1815 – This article about the Pskov Dragoons Napoleonic involvement comes from Prince S.P. Chrusov’s History of Her Majesty’s 4th (Pskov) Leib-Dragoons, published in 1886. The regiment was raised in 1706, but the translator has dealt with their service from the start of the reign of Tsar Paul I in 1796. The dragoons deployed to the border with Prussia in 1805 and thus avoided the Austerlitz debacle, saw combat in East Prussia in 1806 and 1807, served in Austrian Galicia in 1809, and fought as part of II Cavalry Corps in Barclay de Tolly’s First Army throughout 1812, being re-equipped as Cuirassiers in December 1812 (wearing captured French cuirasses – Carabinier brass for officers and polished steel for lower ranks). Thereafter, all the way from Grodno to Paris in 1813-1814. They also repeated the long march to Paris in 1815.