Hello
I was wondering if someome could help me trace the French regiment of the line (86th) during the Napoleonic wars.
An ancestor of mine enlisted in the 86th (around 1804) and was held captive after the battle of Salamanca (1812). In the records of the Birtish prison (Portsmouth castle) he was still part of the 86 untill the end of the war.
Now I would like to now what the 86th did in the meantime (before the battle of Salamanca).
What battles did they fought as well ?
Was a regiment always kept together ? Or is it possibele that the regiment was split up for different battles at other parts of Europe ?
For example, how did new recruits (in my ancestors' case around 1804) join their regiment (86th) if this regiment was already fihgting miles away at some part of Europe ?
Boris
https://bit.ly/86e-combates
https://bit.ly/86e-enfermedad
Casualties in Spain and Portugal of the 86th line infantry regiment of the French army. It is among the units with the most losses for Spain. Casualties of 1808 include 257 drowned in the shipwreck of the ship "The Three Brothers" (Registres Matricules)
hello it is not around 1804, the date of 2 Frimaire an XIV means 23rd november 1805,
like the others recruits he should join first his regimental depôt, Saint Malo in Britanny for the 86e, in column with others conscripts and escorted, or in groups of conscrits with no cadres or even alone being left to his own device traveling hundreds of km across the French Empire during days, weeks if not one or two months to reach their regimental depot (Wakken-Saint Malo ~535 km today maybe one week), France under the Napoléon was a true Tour de France of columns of military travellers, soldiers, or conscripts still with civilian clothes destined to such or such regiment, you can find young men dead left in the hospitals of the french towns across the country who didn't even reach the regimental depot
Napoléon didn't cease to create further battalions in the infantry regiments, so it happened that all the battalions can't be in the same theaters or places, not to mention the Depot 5th Battalion, e.g. circa may 1811 the 1er 2e 3e Bataillons were in the Armée du Portugal while 4e and 5e in Saint Malo, and first half of october 1811 it is given as such, taken from Guerre Nationale de 1812 Préparation à la Guerre en 1811 Tome VI
among others the 86e had Belgians Italians and French from Limousin and Périgord, a local searcher from Limousin traced the fate of 505 conscrits from Dept of Corrèze joining the regiment in 1812
175 dead (128 in Spain, 13 in Germany, 34 in France)
83 in the hospitals (47 in Spain, 26 in Germany, 10 in France)
64 always in the regiment in 1814
48 deserters not taken
30 prisoners
28 missing (11 in Spain, 16 in Germany, 1 in France)
28 deserters condemned
26 reformed
9 deserters sent to depot in Strasbourg
9 transferred in another unit
5 replaced
To begin with, read this:
https://books.google.ch/books?id=7pBTtdmypsYC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
Then, in order to answer another of your questions, you may read this here:
https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/du-village-a-la-caserne-les-etapes-de-la-conscription-sous-le-consulat-et-lempire/
And if that's not yet enough you may fight your way through each of the records concerning the 86e listed here and look at the comments on each individual soldier. Have fun. 😁
https://fr.geneawiki.com/wiki/Matricules_Napoléoniens_1802-1815/Série
https://fr.geneawiki.com/wiki/Matricules_Napoléoniens_1802-1815/Séries_disponibles
So he was taken prisoner when the Salamanca forts surrendered. The right hand column really focuses only on major events and reasons for leaving the regiment. With sickness being so prevalent it would be unwise to assume that he was present under arms at each of these battles, but it was possible.
Which battalion did he serve in? This is a table from my book Wellington at Bay- Battle of Villamuriel, 25 October 1812 which features his regiment.
All the best
Garry