Papal St Patricks Battalion

 

Sometimes you can trace a Project back to a long held burning desire and this is one of those, I have always been fascinated by those who leave their country of origin to travel far overseas (in a time when such a thing was uncommon) to fight for a cause they believed in. From the Volunteers of the International Brigades to the Irish Battalion in 1860. Add to that I'm a suckered for a lost cause !

I have been reading about the St Patricks Battalion for many years but never really had an excuse to buy any. These wonderful figures from Gringo 40s came on the market a few years ago and have always been at the back of my mind (link to figures below)

The Commander of the unit was Major Myles O'Reilly who I would like to think was some distant uncle 😉

http://www.gringo40s.com/papal-states-infantry.html

But with this Project I can also locate the exact amount that I started it. At the end of my Reet Big Wargames Podcast I get my guests to ask me a question. At the end of episode 6 with Utubes Star Von Ketteringham he asked me "what unit from history that you haven't painted would you like to ?" It was then that I remembered the St Patricks Battalion, next thing I had ordered the figures from the Internet and the rest is History. 

What a joy the Internet is for a Wargames figure addicts perspective 😀 

The unit was made up of Irish Volunteers and was only around for a very short space of time, many of the men went on to join the Papal Zouaves or returned home to Ireland after 1860.

If you want to learn more about the history of the unit and the men who volunteered then I can recommend the book "Victorian Crusaders" by Nicholas Schofield which is published by Helion, link below, with a link to my Utubes review of it.

https://helionbooks.wordpress.com/2022/08/10/victorian-crusaders/

For the pendants amongst you, 

The unit never fought as a single unit as depicted in my photos

Most of the unit never received the wonderful uniform the models I have painted are wearing.

The flags are not correct and I have added more generic Papal States flags until I get more information.

The green is a base of Vallejo Luftwaffe Green Camo, washed with a 50 50 mix of Army Painter Dark Tone and Military Shader, then drag brushed with a 50 50 mix of Luftwaffe Cam Green and USA Uniform, finished off with a light drybrush of USA uniform. Everything else is my usual style, no wet palettes or contrast Paints have been injured in the preparation of this unit 😆

A lovely looking and most unusual unit for the table, for the American readers this went no where near Mexico ! See you again soon when the blogging bug strikes again 👍