Joseph Bonaparte’s Army 1808-1814
The Army of Joseph Bonaparte was originally scheduled for inclusion in my Minor Nations/States thread, but with my decision to break apart that thread, the amount of information now available, the complexity of the changes more than merits its own thread. I have continued the format adopted for the Portuguese Army.
Listed below are the sources I have drawn on to produce the information covering the period 1808 to 1814:
Prontuario de las Leyes y Decretos del Rey Nuestro Señor Don José Napoleon I (Tomo I to III);
Philip Haythornthwaite “The Napoleonic Source Book” & “Uniforms of the Peninsular War 1807-14”;
Otto von Pivka Osprey Men at Arms “The Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars” & “Armies of the Napoleonic Era”;
Rene Chartrand & Billy Younghusband Osprey Men at Arms “Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars Volume 3”;
Coronel J J Sanudo “Base de datos sobre las Unidades Militares en la Guerra de la Independencia Española”;
Luis Sorando Muzas & Massimo Fiorentino various issues of “Soldats Napoleon”;
Jose Maria Bueno “Andalucia y sus Milicias”, & “Los Franceses y sus Aliados en Espana 1808-14 volumen 2”;
Michael Oliver & Richard Partridge “Napoleonic Army Handbook – the French Army and Her Allies”;
J Estrampes & Didier Davin “Le Bivouac” issues from 2010 & 2011;
A Du Casse “Mémoires et Correspondance Politique et Militaire du Roi Joseph - Tomes 4 to 9”
John R Elting “Swords around a Throne”
Claude Lebrun for providing various materials.
Information in English on the timing and detailed internal organisational changes has often been incomplete, confusing and contradictory and in some cases just plain incorrect. As more information has become available in recent years, the aim is to bring the information up to date. However corrections/amendments to the notes that follow would be much appreciated (where appropriate with supporting evidence) as it is quite possible that I have failed to identify all of the relevant decrees etc or misread/misinterpreted some of the information or some may not have been implemented.
Some words of caution – strengths are theoretical; actual strengths were much lower and in some cases no more than a cadre existed, or units may even not have been formed.
For Spanish Army Ranks and their British equivalents see post by Jeff Lewis at http://www.napoleon-series.org/milit...n/c_ranks.html
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Flags and Standards
See attached pdf article.
Regimiento de Infanteria - Malaga Nº 6
Regimiento de Infanteria Ligera - Castilla Nº 1
General Staff
To be added