Naples 1799-1800

[Eclaireur]

I've been looking at putting together a skirmish level campaign, maybe using Sharp Practice rules, concerning the overthrow of the short lived Parthenopean Republic by Nelson and an allied task force during 1799-1800. Their mission involved raising a revolt against the French and their Neapolitan allies, and restoring the Bourbon monarchy of the Two Sicillies to the throne in Naples.

This involved many small scale landings, naval actions, marines, spies, a fighting cardinal, you name it. In addition to a battalion of British marines + armed sailors other allies were involved, the recapture of Naples in 1800 involved 500 Swiss, 450 Russians, and 400 Portuguese marines.

So my first question ... does anybody know of any good sources on these events, histories, what ave you? And the second would be whether anyone has any uniform information on those other allied forces involved?

EC   

[italwars]

Eclaireur..in short i have everything you could need as is one of my favourite historical and wargame periods...and i 'll be happy to help you but i'll  need more time to do it as this month will be  a very demanding one for me at work ecc....
note that i've already begun in this very forum/section, about a  month ago, a post dealing with that period with uniform plates that ll complete with other plates and by adding translated captions.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=126607.msg1600323#msg1600323

By any chance do you read Italian?..aside that they are some scant sources also in English and French that could be find on the web (PDF scanned old books) i'll have to find my notes with titles and authors...
I have some minis from that period out of the nice 28mm Trent French revolutionary wars range..they have a packet labelled "Italian Banditis" which is quite useful has the real fight for the Bourbon Army was carried out by what we call "Briganti" (badly translated with Bandits) sort of irregular peasant fighters that made the bulk of Cardinal Ruffo Army that reconquered for the Bourbons their Reign chasing, even if temporary, the french and their Italian Jacobine puppet Republican Allies (should i better say collaborators or traitors  )...from what i read he trusted only his irregulars..the few uniformed troops of his sort "Holy Reconquista Army"  were unreliable...the Spanish Guerillas, for example from Front Rank, are also useful to depict those irregulars as the 18/19c. Spanish were quite similar to depict the appearance of Southern Italy peasants..same footwears, shirt sleeves or capes, some similar headgears, blunderblusses ecc......you can also go with the Gringo 40 "Picciotti" from their Garibaldi range..they are perfect to depict the irregulars of Cardinal Ruffo Army....i'm dreaming to ask Trent , who seem to have a soft spot for exotic subjects, to also make Neapolitan Regulars for 1799...not very difficult to obtain as they are in short jacket and bicorne like many others...
well ..
have a google image search, in the meanwhile, with words: "Cardinale Ruffo", "Lazzaroni" (Neapolitan pro Bourbon populace that resisted the French of Championnet ), "Sanfedisti" (the name given to the recruits of Cardinal Ruffo) and "Briganti"
for now i praise your project and i'll come back with more info as soon as i ll have more time...

[Leapsnbounds]

This looks like fun.

[Jemima Fawr]

And there's ecclesiastical air support.  What's not to like?

[Aaron]

William James' "Naval History of Great Britain" will most likely have details of any action involving naval personnel. I haven't delved into this area (Naples) yet, but in looking for actions in the West Indies I found it had very detailed accounts of the sort of things that make great Sharp Practice / skirmish games. You can download the whole thing for free (it is in the public domain) here: https://archive.org/search.php?query=william%20james%20naval%20history.

[Eclaireur]

Well I must say, some fantastic answers here people 

@Italwars - I thought you might be able to help! In fact I nearly DM'd you rather than posting in the public forum. Don't worry about taking a while to respond, this will probably be a long, slow, burn. I'm just starting to paint French troops at the moment.
I think there should be a fair variety of figures usable for Briganti

Maybe even these guys could be useful?
https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=23_28_98&products_id=3890

https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=23_37_47&products_id=1755

and maybe some helpers of Cardinal Ruffo?
https://www.perry-miniatures.com/product_info.php?cPath=23_37_47&products_id=1756

I'm not so wild about Trent to be honest but I think there should be many possibilities with other ranges. Looking at your Albanian chasseur in the other thread, I wondered about converting some plastic Perry AWI British infantry.

I will try with Italian sources - ma mi italiano e un po' schiffo! I very happily visited Naples and Ischia this summer and was delighted to see that this island also plays a part in this story.

@Aaron - I think you're right about James. It is listed as a source for these events in Digby Smith's Napoleonic Wars Data Book, so many thanks for the link

EC