Austrian Cavalry

There were two wings of cavalry in Daun's main army, under two of the most-famed austrian generals, Buccow and O'Donnell.

The General der Kavallerie Adolph Nicolaus, Baron Buccow was reputed by Daun as "an admirabily active and versatile commander". Anyway he was disliked by Lacy. At Torgau he commanded the right-wing cavalry and directed some important counterattacks, suffering a wound which contribuited to his removal from active service.
The first line was formed by the Brigade Voghera, CR3, Erzherzog Leopold, CR 27 Benedikt Daun

and one of my favorite regiments, DR 9 Aspremont-Linden, better known as "Savoyen":

The second line was formed by Brigade Wiese, with DR 7 Batthyany and CR (ii) Buccow:

The left wing was under the command of the General der Kavallerie Carl O'Donnell of irish descent, which at Torgau distinguished himself repelling the Holstein attack. He took the control of the Army after Daun's wound.

According to Duffy "...was of an amiable disposition, he played the flute, and he enjoyed the company of a young mistress named Augusta. Daun describes him as being something of a showman".

Here is in front of CR4 Erzherzog Ferdinand from the Brigade Lobkowitz:

the other two regiments of the Brigade, DR 19 Hessen-Darmstadt (red-coated) and CR 25 Anhalt-Zerbst:

The second line was formed by Brigade Zollern, CR 14 O'Donnell and CR 26 Emanuel von Portugal:

Ried Light Corps

Ried light corps, 3686 infantry and cavalry: during the battle Ried did his best to slow Frederick advance in the woods and later counterattacked the Prussian in the flank.

Ried himself with the Deutsche Feldjager Corps:

Grenz Regiment 66, Slavonische Broder:

The husaren: I painted HR24 P.A.Hesterhazy, but at Torgau there was the HR32 Szecheny. Indeed, the first (wrong) OOB I was able to find gave HR24: moreover they have a colorful uniform:

HR 24 Paul Anton Esterhazy (from Brauer Bogen, Tafel 71):

HR 32 Szecheny (from Brauer Bogen, Tafel 71):

The Staff Dragoner and Infantry Regiments:

the blue coat of the Staff regiment allowed the outfit to evade capture in the confused final stages of the battle: they were mistook for Prussians!

Prussian second and third columns

The second column was under the command of General Lieutenant Von Hulsen, a doughty commander who fought at Lobositz, Kolin, wounded at Kunersdorf and again here at Torgau.

Later in the day he lead the final push of infantry. All his horse being shot under from him and since his age and his wound prevented him from going on foot, he set himself on a cannon and had himself dragged into the enemy fire. The scene according to Menzel:

Hulsen and IR 7 Bevern:

The Brigade Braun and Queiss:

A close-up of the Grenadier battalions from the Brigade Braun:

IR 25 Ramin, IR19 Markgraf Karl and the Fusilier Regiment 35 Prinz Heinrich from Brigade Queiss:

The last column to arrive on the field was the cavalry column under the command of the General der Kavallerie Georg Ludwig, Herzog von Holstein-Gottorp:

according to Duffy, his late arrival was causated by his "long breakfast". Anyway his cavalry nearly won the day for Frederick, before being repelled by the Austrian cavalry furious counterattacks.

The cavalry column:

The Herzog von Holstein with his infantry brigade, IR 16 Dohna and IR 22 Alt-Schenckendorff with a battery of 12 pdr heavy guns:

The cavalry, under the command of Count von Finckenstein, who fell into austrian hands in the later stages of the battle; Brigade Aschersleben (CR3 Lentulus and CR4 Schmettau):

Brigade Meinecke, C1 Schlabrendorff, CR5 Prinz Friederich and CR12 Spaen:

The Dragoon brigades: DR11 Jung Platen, DR12 Wurtemberg and the super large DR5 Bayreuth:

Zeiten's Corps

After a long pause, another batch of the Prussian Army at Torgau: the Zeiten Corps (21 battalions, 54 squadrons and 40 guns) here depicted lying motionless behind the Rohr-Graben, their Commander riding boldly in front of them:

The Avant Garde, commanded by Von Kleist: the Frei Battalion Salenmon, the HR1 (Kleist)

and the Kleist Frei-Cavalry: the Frei Husaren in red and green and the Frei Dragoner with their austrian-like fur caps.

The cavalry wing: the first line, cuirassiers under Gen. Lt Prinz Von Wurtemberg, the second line dragoons under Gen. Lt von Platen.

A close-up of CR 13 (Garde du Corps).

The infantry wing: the first line (Gen. Lt von Neu-Wied) and the second line (Gen. Lt von Forcade);

the first line was comprised of the Saldern and Zeuner brigade with the best regiments of Prussian infantry: IR 1 Zeuner (ex Winterfeldt), IR 13 Syburg (ex Itzenplitz), IR 18 Prinz of Preussen, IR 15 II and III Battalion Garde and IR6 Grenadier Garde:

And now something of completely different...

After a long absence (the real life, so bad...) no pictures: not yet.. I want to tell about my beginning with this hobby: it was in the early ’70. In my city there was a section of the italian branch of IPMS were I learnt the basics of static modelling. My first model was a Frog FW-190 A in 1:72 (an interesting kind of model: nice decals, well documented and correct colour schemes and the landing gear sink totally absent!). Then I switched to german tanks in 1:72 and 1:35 and finally to 1:72 plastic soldiers.

Lead miniatures a rare bird: you need to order them from Great Britain, paying them in Pounds with an International Money Order and waiting for the Custom bureucracy peculiar notion of time.
The only resources at hand were the readily available and cheap Airfix 1:72 plastic napoleonic soldiers: French and British line infantry, Prussian Landwher, French Cuirassiers and Artillery, British Hussars and Royal Horse Artillery.
My collection grew up (with substantial reinforcements from some Minifigs cavalry, bought in the most expensive model shop in Florence) until I moved to Rome to begin my Academic career. No soldiers were painted until 1995, when I took the brushes from the closet and started the Torgau Project.

In 2001 the Napoleonic plastic collection underwent a major disaster in the hands of my 2 y.o. son: the unfortunate survivors, lead and plastic intermingled, were sent to garrison a forgotten plastic bag. In the meantime the rate of growth of Torgau project was as unsteady as possible until 2005 when finally I decided to finish the project, and my interest in plastic soldiers revamped in the form of Strelets Swedish and Russians of Great Northern War.

Finally, a couple of years ago the Napoleonic plastic heroes emerged from their resting place just in time to be fully restored and rebased: this concided with massive investiments in plastic soldiers. Now I have more than 150 boxes ranging from Thirty Years War to Napoleonics, all of them waiting for painting….
In the future posts I’ll mix the Torgau project pictures with those from the “Holowczin Project”, another Volley and Bayonet project, and those from the “Napoleonic DB-Hx Project”, so stay tuned…

Lacy corps

The Lacy Corps was placed between Zinna and the Grosserr Teich: it faced for almost all the day the stranded Zeiten Corps. Lacy was subsequently blamed for not being capable to stop the redeployment of Zeiten towards Suptitz.



The von Goesnitz Saxon cavalry Brigade under F.M.L. Zeschwitz:





Right: the Saxon redeployed. Bottom: the Kaiser hussars, in front of dragoons and cuirassiers and the croats, whose 3 pdr. light battalion guns fixed Zeiten attention until late in the afternoon.




Lacy infantry: the Buttler and Meyern divisions




A close up of the pink faced Ligne regiment (IR 38):




Lacy and his staff: uniquely in my collection, they are Baccus.