Steven’s Chilean Army for the South American Wars of Liberation

This is the Chilean element of San Martin’s Army of the Andes from my 1817-18 Chilean Project.

Roland Davis painted all the figures. Except where noted all figures are the 15mm range from Grenadier Productions. Roland uses the Black Undercoat Method of painting and basing style based on XF-52 Flat Earth (see Flock page for more detail). Flags are based on my best guess Flags for 1817-18 Chilean Project. Uniform guides were the books by John Fletcher of Grenadier Productions (Fletcher, 2005, 2006) in particular the illustrations by Prof. Julio Luqui Lagleyze and Cesar Puliafito that appear in Fletcher (2005, p. 28 – 36).

Roland also painted the Argentines. I’m painting the Royalists although very, very slowly.

The Full Array

For the Chileans I’ve now got all the infantry and cavalry – five infantry battalions, two cavalry squadrons and some staff. Just the artillery to go.

Including the Argentine element I’ve now got quite a lot of Patriot figures painted up. Nine infantry battalions (+2 if you move the Grenadier and Cazadore companies into separate battalions), eight cavalry squadrons, two generals and three brigadiers.

General Staff

Bernard O’Higgins was the main-man for this period of Chilean history. I’ve used two figures from PS-014 General O’Higgins – O’Higgins himself on the horse and the charging guy. The standing officer is from PS-015 Patriot General San Martin as I wanted San Martin to get the standard bearer.

The staff figures are Battle Honours British staff officers painted appropriately. Roland just picked out the chaps with bicornes.

Cavalry

In a discussion on the Liberators 1810-1830 Yahoo Discussion Forum, John Fletcher expressed the opinion that all references to Chilean Cazadores a Caballo, Chilean Horse Cazadores or Chilean Escort Cazadores, are the Caballeria Cazadores de la Escolta Directorial. He recommended getting two squadrons for the Chilean campaign.

So I did. And they look great. The base figures are PS002 and PS003 Argentina Granadero a Caballo Cavalry (shako) although Roland had to add the epaulettes. Nice bit of putty work that.

Infantry

Line Infantry

Unlike their Argentine compatriots the Chileans had a standard infantry uniform. The figures are all using PSU-003 Chile Infantry 1817-1823 UNIT PACK. The only difference between line battalions was the flag. I’ve got some battalions with the flag of the transition (the tricolour) and some with the Lone Star flag. See Flags for 1817-18 Chilean Project.

Coquimbo Cazadore Battalion

One infantry unit did have a significantly different uniform … the Coquimbo Cazadore Battalion. The figures are PS-010 Chile Infantry 1817-23 Command and PS-009 Chile Infantry 1817-23 Cazadore. All stands are cazdores.

Artillery

Haven’t got the artillery yet.

References

Fletcher, J. (2005). Liberators! Volume 1: The War in the South. Grenadier Productions.

Fletcher, J. (2006). Liberators! Supplement 1: The War in the South. Grenadier Productions.