Uruguay: Libertad Regiment

The Uruguayan army was very small in comparison to those of the other belligerents.  Uruguay achieved its independence in 1828, but internal political rivalries soon resulted in civil war.  As with Spain's Carlist Wars, the struggle was between "liberal" and "conservative" factions (called the "red" and "whites" respectively) and various overseas countries sent troops to assist the former, including the French Foreign Legion and Italian volunteers led by Garibaldi.  Argentina had experienced a similar power struggle and came to the support of the conservative president, Manuel Oribe, by contributing a large number of troops.  Brazil, however, intervened on the side of the liberals and this proved decisive.  The war ended in 1851, when the 8-year siege of Montevideo was finally ended,  and the liberal government rewarded Brazil for its support with a treaty of perpetual alliance and even some territory.   The civil war flared up again in 1855, when the whites regained control of the government and Argentina and Brazil again intervened on opposing sides; but I'll discuss that in a future post.  Suffice to say that Uruguayan instability, and the further outbreak of civil war in 1864-65, was a major causal factor in the War of the Triple Alliance.  

A Uruguayan force, the "Army of the Vanguard", was despatched to assist the Allies in 1865.  The infantry element consisted of 4 battalions, one of which was the Voluntarios de la Libertad (formerly known as the Voluntarios Garibaldinos).  These troops were largely battle-hardened veterans of the civil wars and are considered to have been some of the Alliance's best troops.

When I painted thus unit, I didn't understand why the command pack features 3 figures that are the same as the rank-and-file pack.  It was only when I saw Alan Perry's own painted version on the Perry Facebook that I realised the strength of the battalion was such that you don't need many figures.  Hooker gives a strength of just 324 in 1866, which gives 8 figures at 1:40 or 16 at 1:20.  So I've rather messed up by painting 18 figures, and should have done my research more competently.  I suppose I could always paint up another command pack and try to flog the extra figures on ebay.  The uniform is a very fetching, Carlist-inspired one.  For the crimson trousers I used the Foundry "Shadow Pink" 18 palette.  I like this unit a lot, despite completely failing on the numbers front.

18 figures.  Painted November 2020.  Flag from Flags of War.