Napoleonic Wargame Club (NWC)

I've been listening on iPod to Librivox's recordings of War and Peace. Just passed through the LOL chapter about Benningsen's carry-on in 1807 when he was angling for command of the Russian army and was trying to avoid obeying Buxhowden, his superior. Here http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/52/96.../frameset.html is the text from another site. I checked Petre, my only handy reference, and indeed Benningsen did make a carry-on about it. (p.89 &PtIII, Ch.1, p.129) Is this a Russian tradition? I think of Kutusov and Bagration in 1812?

Woot!

Brief Remarks on the Character and Composition of the Russian Army, and a Sketch of the Campaigns in Poland in the Years 1806 and 1807: And a Sketch of the Campaigns in Poland in the Years 1806 and 1807
By Robert Thomas Wilson
Published by Printed by C. Roworth, and sold by T. Egerton, 1810
Original from Oxford University
Digitized May 19, 2006
276 pages


http://books.google.com/books?id=kikAAAAAQAAJ&oe=UTF-8

Available in pdf


Can anyone suggest a good map of the 1807 area of operations I could download?

What chapter in Tolstoy is that in?

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 and ... more to come)

1. The reference is not correct. Pages are useless and ch.1 of part 3 tells nothing about the campaign of 1807. At least because it describes november 1805.

2. I can't recall any trouble between Bagration and Kutuzov in 1812.

3. In many armies subordinates tried not to follow orders they didn't like. Specially when it was a matter of command. To name a few - Jerome Bonaparte declined to obey his brother's order to become subordinate to Davout and left the army. Murat declined to take command of the army after Napoleons leave and left shortly after him. Leaving the army to Eugene.

4. There was another tradition in Russian army. When commander higher in rank (or with seniority within the same rank) came with reinforcements he voluntary subordinated himself to the one who was already in fight. Examples are Miloradovich who subordinated Bagration in 1799 at Lecco and Bagration who subordinated Barclay. There were numerous examples in 1808-09 in Finland and in 1812-1814. It will take time to find them though. When needed references are so difficult to find[:I]

5. There is a map date 1847 here http://www.davidrumsey.com/maps1239.html

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

Bill, the Tolstoy reference is Chapter 9 of Part/Book 5.

The other reference is to my copy of Petre (2001 edition, though seemingly a facsimile of an earlier edition) where, indeed, Part 3 Chapter 1 is 'Benningsen becomes commander-in-chief' and refers to January 1807.

About Bagration and Kutusov: you are so right Kosyanenko. It was not Kutusov but Barclay de Tolly I meant. D'oh!

And the map reference is subperb! Thank you. I was trawling that collection last night but didn't find that particular map. Ta.

Yup, saw the ref. to Petre. Thanks for the chapter ref.

Barclay de Tolly should have been in overall command at Borodino. The distrust of foreigners taking its Toll (pun) on those Germans/Other Non-Russians-Who-Were-Obviously-Trying-To-Ruin-Russia who were in the service of the Czar/Tsar/Zarr (punning again).

In short, the Russians had alot of petty jealousies just like the French and Austrians. Oh yeah and Prussians too (this for Scott!)![:D]

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 and ... more to come)