Confederation of the Rhine

Sculpted by Alan Perry

This range will be dealing with the ‘Zwergstaaten’ or dwarf
German states. These Principalities and Duchies saw action fighting alongside
the French Armies in Austria, Russia and Spain, some saw service in all three.
This is possibly the first time these have all been made as a range (probably
no one in their right mind would tackle them) as there are so many variants in
uniforms, often in the same battalions. They represent a colourful change from
the main armies in that there are often uniform styles you wouldn’t see normally,
where you have Austrian, Prussian and French styles mixed, sometimes in one
uniform.

I’ve mostly stuck to the earlier uniforms before they were
completely assimilated into the French style, although normally giving a couple
of uniform variants to choose from. Sometimes the unique uniforms did carry on
until 1813.

These have been great fun to make. I must thank Peter Bunde
for all his generous help and additional information it’s been invaluable. Also
a big thanks to Stephen Hall and Andy Taylor ( no, not that Andy Taylor, a
different Andy Taylor!) for their speedy and fantastic work painting them. Next
to all of the listed on the site you’ll find the appropriate code for Peter
Bunde’s Brigade Plates (www.brigade-uniform-plates.de).
These excellent plates, that Peter sells, will give you all the info on the
uniforms and service history of the regiments, something which you won’t find
anywhere else!  For additional reading
matter on the Confederation of the Rhine troops you get much better than ‘With
Eagles to Glory’ Napoleon and his German Allies in the 1809 Campaign by John H.
Gill, Greenhill books. I’ve added some organisational info with the listed
codes to help you with the regiments on the tabletop.