The lonely writer types again...
It looks like if I writing this for myself or the audience has fallen asleep while reading it
Part III. 1807 - 1810:
After the disaster of 1806 and the acension to Kingdom Saxony was drawn into the war against Russia towards the battle of Friedland.
6000 men, 8 Battalions of about 640 men each, 5 Squadrons and 2 Batteries. They saw action at the Siege of Danzig and a the Battle of Friedland where the König Kürassiers fought with distinction. As approval the Saxon King elevated them for their bravery 'Guard' and renamed them to Leibkürassiergarde.
Some Changes in the Army:
1808 New Colours and Standarten were delivered to the Army, for the Chevauxlegers Hungarian Horse equipages, new Sidearms and longer Bajonettes for the Infantry and some kind of general staff for the Divisions were established.
1809 the War against Austria
Motivated by their Ruler Saxon Officers wrote down all what happened on this Campaign in memorandums to be brought to the attention of the their Sovereign.
Saxon mobilized 16,302 men arround Dresden. 23 Battalions, 20 Squadrons and 24 cannons in 4 Batteries(excluding 46 Regimental guns).
May 8th 1809, on the first Rest the "Schützen" of each Brigade were pulled together to form Light Battalions.
Explanation: The Schützen were 14 men of each Musketeer Company who were used as some kind of Screen for their Battalion consisting of the 'sharpshooters' of their unit.
Funny detail: To be called a sharpshooter was defined by hitting the bulls eye with the first shot
May 31st 1809 a new Horse Battery is raised; consisting of men from the foot artillery and 4 'light' 8pdr cannons.
June 8th 1809 While encamped near St.Pölten and by order of Napoleon the depleted Saxon Battalion were fused together to form 1 Battalion out of two of each Regiment. The small 'Schützen-Battalions' have to be filled up to strenghten their ranks so that any company has to contain 174 men.
I prefer not to go into the details of the Campaign because that would extremly lenghten this thread. All I like to say about the spirit of the Saxon troops that fought and died in this War that they ALL stood their ground and followed the orders of their leaders whatever it was. What was written by infamous french writers about the Saxons at Wagram was to blame them and to glorify the French because they were Gods on the Battlefield and the others the Scapegoats.
Next Part the Reorganisation of the Army 1810
Thanks for following.
Günter