Friday 18 September 2015

General Dorsenne

Jean Dorsenne first came to Napoleon’s attention in the early Revolutionary campaigns in Italy and Egypt where his heroic conduct won him promotion to chef de battalion. He was admitted to the Guard when it was formed in 1805 and his performance at Austerlitz won him further promotion to full Colonel followed swiftly by elevation to the rank of Brigadier General.

Soon Dorsenne was given command of the Foot Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard which he commanded at Eylau. He later served in Spain before being recalled by the Emperor in time to fight at Ratisbon and Aspern-Essling where he received a serious head wound from a cannonball. He recovered enough to take part in the battle of Wagram and was then shipped off to Spain once more to serve as governor of Burgos. In 1812 he began to suffer severe headaches caused by his wound (hardly surprising when a cannonball has bounced off your head) and died after an operation.

This figure FN/360 GENERAL DORSENNE in uniform of Colonel General of Grenadiers on horse FNH/10 will be commanding my own 2nd Grenadiers of the Guard until such time as the 1st battalion is mustered. General Dorsenne was last seen here (click) on this blog.

11 comments:

Wellington Man said...

Superb! What an absolutely brilliant figure

KEV. Robertson. said...

It is good to have a little history of a favoured Napoleonic figure- most interesting IAN. Kev.

Stryker said...

Thanks chaps - it is a lovely figure, another example of Marcus Hinton chosing to represent 'personalities' based on their uniforms rather than their fame. I don't think any other figure manufacturer ever did this.

MSFoy said...

This is particularly good example - fabulous painting, as ever. I was always interested that Marcus did the French personalities in their ceremonial Colonel-General uniforms - the results are spectacular - when did they wear this stuff? - I ask only because I have no idea - Soult as Col-Gen of Chasseurs (or whatever) - marvellous stuff, but was it for the Coronation or something?

Stryker said...

Tony - good question but we know that Murat, Poniatowski and Lasalle were always well dressed dudes!

the Archduke said...

wounded in the head at Aspern-Essling and served at Wagram. What did they make these men out of? Something tougher than the models, I think.

Stryker said...

Archduke - not just wounded in the head - hit in the head by a CANNONBALL!!! - how is it possible to survive that? 'Respect' as they say...

MSFoy said...

Hit by a cannonball, but look at that hat...

I rest my case.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful figure, always like personality figures

Paul

Paulalba said...

Cracking figure and paint job Ian!

the Archduke said...

Musing lengthily over Mr Foy's case, which had me laughing out loud. I put it to my learned friend that if the aforementioned hat was pertinent to my client's survival from the cannon ball strike, which is not contested, then my client must necessarily have worn at least the hat element of his "stuff" beyond the coronation..........