Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

I am looking for an OB for Bennigsen's army of 1805. This is the army that formed the right wing of the Russian advance from Russia. It was not involved in the Moravian campaign (Austerlitz).

If you have solid information that will help me please respond. I have looked all over the web but cant find anything in English.

Nafziger's OB listings does not cover this army at all.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

Well, that's not simple. Apparently Mikhailovski-danilevski does not give it. There are lists of regiments that composed Tolstoi's (landed in Pommerania) and Essen's (joined after the Austerlitz disaster) corpses and their total strength. Chain of command can be reconstructed - commanders of all the regiments are known. Needless to say everything is in Russian.

I'll try to find the composition of Bennigsen's corps itself, but that won't be simple. So far it's clear it included 3 two regiment strong cossacks brigades. Their commanders names and hence names of 3 cossacks regiments are known.

<center></center>
<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
General-Adjutant Anton Valeryevich Kosyanenko
Commander of the Second Army of the West </b></center>

I got some information from a friend on our teams that was helpful. If possible tomorrow I will post it for you to note.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

The info on the inspections of the Russian troops is found at:

http://myweb.cableone.net/williampeters ... p_1805.htm

You will note that there are some units that were are not part of any "1805 corps" yet. I will look over the Austerlitz OBs (mainly Constantine) and add in the name of the "1805 corps" during this month.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club

Mikhailovski-Danilevski writes that Bennigsen was ordered to compose a corps from troops "on the northern border" at the borders with Prussia. They are units in Lifland and Lithuanian Inspections, plus probably those in St. Peterburg inspection. From these troops were formed corpses of Bennigsen, Tolstoi (sent to Stralsund) and Buxowden. Hence knowing the composition of the later two one can select the regiments that could be in Bennigsens corps. After that chef and commander for each regiment can be found. That gives a sketch of the oob. These regiments should be checked on whether they were not present in other places. A total strength of the force is estimated to be 20 000. Apparently 3 000 of them were 6 cossacks regiments. With that info and knowing the regulations one can readjust the units strength. After that, normally, one should look through the regimental histories of those regiments involved and memoirs of the participants if there are any to find out if the regiments took part in the campaign and probably some special info on their quality, personalities etc.

Quite some work to do. How fast do you need it?

<center></center>
<center><b>Eyo Imperatorskogo Velichestva Leib-Kirassirskogo polku
General-Adjutant Anton Valeryevich Kosyanenko
Commander of the Second Army of the West </b></center>

I would say I need it only as a hypothetical OB and its not time sensitive.

Anytime is fine. The game is out and we can mod it to our heart's delight.

One of my testers wondered how the 1807 force that Bennigsen commanded would compare to what he had in 1805 but I said that this is not a good way to obtain an OB for Austerlitz. All we could assume from that is the same guy commanded the troops and the illogical assumption would be is that they carried over to his command in 1807.

Knowing how armies could and did change in composition I would never go with this kind of reasoning.

Yes, there could be similarities but how could I know that the column/division formations were the same.

Anyway, I discarded that approach. I would much rather uncover the composition through other means.

Colonel Bill Peters
Armee du Rhin - V Corps, Cavalerie du V Corps, 20ème légère Brigade de Cavalerie, 13ème Hussar Regiment
HPS Napoleonic Scenario Designer (Eckmuhl, Wagram, Jena-Auerstaedt, Austerlitz and ... more to come)
Not the President of the Musket and Cannon Club