JacketOfGreen
Grandmaster Knight
18e Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne "les Braves"
On the frozen and snowy afternoon of 7 February 1807, the 18th Line approached the village of Preussisch-Eylau at the head of a column pursuing Bennigsen's Russian army. The Russian rearguard made a stand on the Ziegelhof plateau; to confront them the two battalions of the 18th were ordered to the left of the main road. In the face of heavy enemy artillery and musketry fire, the 18th deployed into line and was beginning to put pressure on the Russian infantry when, in the act of changing front to the right, the regiment was suddenly charged on its left flank by the Russian St. Petersburg Dragoons. Taken by surprise and overrun before they were able to form square, the color guard of the 1st battalion allegedly buried their eagle in the snow to prevent its capture. Thrown into disorder by the rout of the 1st battalion, the 2nd batallion tried to rally near its color guard. A desperate combat swirled around the eagle, and a group of Russian dragoons including adjutant Fomine, dragoons Podvorotni, Deriaguine and Erofeiev and trumpeter Logvinov were all involved in its capture.
Writing shortly after the battle, Lieutenant Lacombe of the 2nd battalion deplored the eagle's loss but noted that it was taken only after the color guard were slaughtered and the eagle bearer (porte-aigle) was cut down by "the cossacks". A timely countercharge by the 13th Chasseurs a Cheval saved the 18th from further loss, but the damage was enormous: among its officers, nine were killed and 35 wounded - including the colonel, Ravier, and future colonel, Pelleport. The 18th also lost more than 500 men, including several hundred prisoners. If this were not enough, the "buried eagle" of the 1st battalion was never recovered. The regiment was so badly shaken that it was kept in reserve all day on 8 February, when the Battle of Eylau was fought. The 18th Line had thus won its fourth battlefield honor (Eylau) in a most discouraging manner. However, the Emperor again showed his fondness for the regiment in his 20th Bulletin dated 9 February 1807; he minimized the loss of the regiment's eagles, stating that to blame the 18th would be unfair because it had been placed in an exposed position and was therefore subjected to the "vagaries of war". The Emperor ordered that the 18th be given replacement eagles.
For the 1809 campaign on the Danube, the 18th Line remained attached to Legrand's 3rd Division, IV Corps d'Armee, now commanded by Marshal Andre Massena. General de Brigade Levasseur had been mortally wounded at Eylau, and General de Brigade Francois Ledru des Essarts led the three battalions of the 18th together with three battalions of the 26th Light (legere) Infantry regiment. The strength of these six French battalions was 4,268. Also attached were two battalions of Baden's Graf Hochberg regiment. The 18th merited its fifth battle honor (Eckmuehl) after participating in the defeat of the Austrians on 22 April during the first phase of the campaign. One month later, the 18th Line found itself thrown into the bloody cauldron of Aspern-Essling. At 5:30 PM on 21 May, Ledru's brigade was ordered to retake the key village of Aspern, which had fallen into Austrian hands on the French left. If Aspern were to remain in possession of the enemy, the precarious French bridgehead over the Danube at Lobau Island would be in extreme danger. Thus the safety of the entire army depended on Legrand's division. The 26th Light, supported by the 18th Line and the Graf Hochberg regiment, cleared the village streets and occupied the key positions of church and cemetery. They were then struck by an Austrian attack of six battalions, supported by a further thirteen, spurred on by the Archduke Charles himself. After an hour of intense combat in the broiling heat, Legrand's men were ejected from Aspern. Napoleon ordered its immediate recapture. In a titanic struggle over the course of the next 20 hours, Aspern changed hands many times and was reduced to a heap of rubble. The 18th Line suffered 600 casualties but had earned its sixth battle honor (Essling).
With just 1,574 men, the 18th Line fought at Wagram six weeks later, on 5-6 July 1809. The regiment was once more locked in a fierce combat for Aspern village, and again prevented the Austrians from breaking into the French rear area. For its part in this engagement, the 18th Line was accorded its seventh and final battle honor (Wagram). The summer of 1812 saw the 18th Line proudly carry its newly issued eagle and flag (whose reverse flaunted the seven battle honors) into the vastness of Russia. Attached to Joubert's Brigade, Razout's 11th Division, III Corps d'Armee led by Marshal Michel Ney the four battalions of the 18th fought at Borodino in the center of the French formation, attacking and taking the Bagration Fleches and later Semenovskaya village. It was at Krasnoe on 18 November 1812, during the long retreat out of Russia, that the 18th Line lost its third eagle. Marshal Ney had turned to confront his Russian pursuers. When Kutusov demanded a total surrender, Ney led his troops in a brash frontal attack that ended in failure. According to colonel Pelleport, the 18th was virtually destroyed in this combat. By Pelleport's express order, the eagle was placed at the head of the regiment. While other units sought to hide their eagles by dismantling them or hurrying them to the rear, the men of the 18th defended their honor. 600 of them became casualties, with 350 dead. Pelleport's justification was that the eagles should be proudly carried as symbols of the liberty they represented, not hidden away. The eagle and flag of the 18th Line were captured by under-lieutenants Koratcharov and Bolchwing and uhlan Dartchenko of the 2nd squadron, the Russian Guard Uhlans. The captors were each awarded the Cross of St. George for this exploit.
A new regiment was formed around the cadre of the 18th Line for the 1813 campaign in Germany. The regiment served under General de Brigade Bronikowsky in Vial's 6th Division (Legrand having been seriously wounded crossing the Beresina in late November 1812), II Corps d'Armee under Marshal Claude Victor-Perrin, known as Victor. The 18th Line had requested a replacement eagle for the one lost at Krasnoe, and Napoleon approved the request in June 1813. The 18th Line fought at Dresden in August and Leipzig in October. Still under Victor, the 18th Line fought in the ensuing campaign in France and was present at La Rothiere on 1 February 1814. It is not known if the final replacement eagle for the 18e Regiment d'Infanterie de Ligne ever arrived.
"Brave 18e, devant toi l'ennemi ne tient pas!"
This is a quick little retexture I decided to do in about 15 or 20 minutes - the only changes being the number on the shako plate, the regiment number on the flag and the battle honours of the regiment too. I have uploaded screenshots, this one was just a quick retexture for anyone interested in the bravest of all French regiments! I also obviously did this because I am currently in the 18e Régiment d'Infanterie de Ligne!32nd (Cornwall) Regiment of Foot
"They Stood, They Fought, They Died, They Won, They Are Remembered"
After hours of trial and error, I've finally finished the texturing of the 32nd. It's probably my favourite British regiment, due to me being from Cornwall, and as a result I decided to retexture it. I have now actually finished basically everything that I can do without having to edit the coding too much (such as adding in another shako for the officer, for now the officer will have to stick with the ranker shako until I can figure out how to fix it). Anyway, here's the download link for anyone that wants to use the texture. It is a simple retexture of the unit. The installation is very simple, should be self explanatory - put the files from each folder into the folder it is named in the NW folder. There is one issue with this and that is that I had to edit the 5th KGL shako plate - they share it. I'll try to get around to fixing it at some point. Credit where credit is due, though, to Hinkel who helped me greatly. If it weren't for him I wouldn't be past retexturing the equipment, so a big thanks to him!
71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot
"Their conduct was so laudable and exemplary as to gain the affections of the inhabitants, between whom and the soldiers the greatest cordiality prevailed."
I've always been interested in the 71st highlanders, they're one of the more unique and famous units, particularly as highland light infantry. Also, because there were some requests, I thought I'd take it upon myself to do this one. I had to edit quite a lot of files for this (including the UV mapping on the model so ignore the .obj file in the zip, don't put that in the NW folder). Anyway, hopefully there are no bugs/errors, it works fine for me. You can't use any of these textures together, at the moment it's one or the other, unfortunately.