Général de Brigade Baron Pierre-François Bauduin

Bauduin was born on 25 January 1768 and joined the French army in September 1792 as a sous-lieutenant with the 59th Line.  He was present at the siege of Toulon and fought with Napoleon's army in Italy, serving on the staff of General Herbin.  Bauduin distinguished himself at the battles of Montebello and Marengo, where he was wounded, and was given command of a battalion for his troubles.  He fought in the major campaigns of 1807-1809 and was created a Baron of the Empire in 1810, by which time he was colonel of the 93th Line.  He was wounded again at Borodino but survived the retreat to be promoted to Général de Brigade rank in 1813.  During the final campaigns prior to Napoleon's abdication, Bauduin commanded a brigade attached to the Young Guard.  He was decorated by Louis XIV but re-joined Napoleon for the Hundred Days, which saw him in command of the 1st brigade of the 6th division in Reille's II Corps.   It was in that position that he was mortally wounded while leading an attack on Hougoumont at Waterloo. 

This sculpt of Bauduin was a freebie at this year's Partizan wargames show (and many thanks to John "Levied Troop" Francis for giving this to me).  It's a nice little figure (sculpted by Bill Thornhill, I believe), although with minimal uniform detail so you have to paint on all the fancy general's braid.  His companion is a light infantryman from Perry Miniatures.  Bauduin's brigade consisted entirely of French light infantry (from the 1st and 2nd regiments).  I don't know exactly how he died, but leading a charge seemed an appropriate use of this figure.  I was going to have two infantrymen with him, but the base looked a little crowded so I stuck with just the one.  It will be a good while until I get around to painting up this chap's brigade.  Next up are a series of posts on more AWI French.

2 figures.  Painted August 2015.