Lazun's Legion Hussars

These figures that were painted by my uncle are the showpiece of the my French AWI figures - he really did a wonderful job on these. The hussars of Lazun's legion performed scouting and reconnaissance functions for the French forces on the march as well as seeing action at Gloucester Point during the Yorktown campaign (along side the marines I showed in my August 29th entry), mixing it up with Tarleton's legion (poorly mimiced as Tarringgon's cavalry if you watched Mel Gibson's The Patriot).

All of my cavalry are based on 3"x3" stands to accommodate the large figures. I use two figures on stands for skirmish formation cavalry and three figures for cavalry in formed order (line). Since the Lazun Legion Hussars routed Tarleton's cavalry in the action at Gloucester point, I based these figures using formed order, as skirmishers in Volley and Bayonet wouldn't be able to impose their will on other cavalry. I have some British dragoons that can pose as Tarleton's force in a pinch, but I hope to paint up a proper unit to represent his force in the future. Once I paint up a proper Tarleton force, I can put on the hypothetical alternative history Yorktown battle I've been thinking about.

Royal Deux-Ponts Infantry Regiment

This is another of the French Infantry units that I acquired, indirectly from my Uncle's collection. I believe this unit represents German soldiers in French service of the Royal Deux-Ponts Infantry regiment, which was French line regiment number 92, actually comprised of German soldiers raised by the duc de Deux-Ponts. These stands are comprised of only fusilier figures and would represent either the entire regiment, or just the four fusilier battalions of the regiment, depending on the scale of the battle they're used in.

According to Mollo's Uniforms of the American Revolution in Color, this regiment accounted for itself quite well at the battle of Yorktown, leading the storming party into the British fortifications.

This unit features a beautiful hand-painted flag and a very animated officer, which was painted with a very 'German' look to him, mustache and all! OK, I guess he looks very 'French' too.

Regiment de Viennois

This is the first of two French Line Infantry units that were painted by my Uncle. As I didn't paint these figures, most of what I know about them is purely a guess on my part. From what I can determine this unit can represent the Regiment de Viennois which was comprised at least partially of Chasseurs for which the uniform and facing colors seem to match nicely.

The flag is hand painted on lead foil, and closely resembles the flag of the Soissonois Infantry regiment, although the colors are slightly reversed. The Soissonois regiment also wore uniforms faced in red, although to the best of my knowledge they retained their bearskin caps throughout most of, if not all of their time in North America. Still in a pinch I wouldn't hesitate to press this unit into service as the Soissonois regiment.

I'm very impressed at these figures, which were painted about a decade ago by my uncle as they exceed anything I have painted myself. The amazing thing about this is my Uncle's technique and skill has continued to advance well past that shown on these figures while my own painting techniques have seemed to 'peaked'. I'm quite happy to have been able to get these units into my collection.