Spanish Provincial Militia

Over the past couple of weeks I have finally managed to put the finishing touches on the Provincial Militia and Line for my Spanish 15mm army. The figures themselves had actually been completed over a year ago and a few units have seen action on the table, but the line and militia have been awaiting their flags and the labels for their bases, indicating their unit designations.

I put together eight units of Provincial militia, which are essentially the Essex Spanish line figures painted with the red facings and brass buttons of the 1805 militia uniform issue:

This is in contrast to the Urban Militia units which were more mixed in appearance, and for which I used a mixture of browns to represent more hastily acquired clothing as opposed to a regulation uniform.

The militia were present in a number of engagements where it has to be said they performed poorly. At Talavera anywhere up to four battalions were said to have fled at the sound of their own gunfire as the front ranks engaged a few skirmishing French cavalry, much to the bemusement of the British (and annoyance when they were found to have apparently looted the baggage train after their departure). It has to be questioned whether this is really very surprising as they were poorly trained, led and supplied, and it is probably a sign of their fortitude that they were there in the first place.

In the rules our group games with they are classed an 'E' and we have to be extremely careful where we place them, which is normally to the rear where they act as a morale bonus in providing rear support:

The paper strength for Spanish militia units does appear to indicate a number of attached grenadier companies.  Nafziger however appears to dispute this so we have not included them in our order of battle for the Spanish. That said, I threw a few in and painted a couple of figures in blue overcoats, for the sake of variety:

That's the militia completed, and I have finalised nineteen battalions of the line which I also hope to photograph for the sake of posterity over the next few days.