Westfront
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- Jun 15, 2010
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I went out on sunday to finish a field with a roman site. We had strong winds close to storm and listening to the headphones was nearly impossible even under the hood. I still managed some nice finds and will show the top find separate here. I got a button i didn't noticed because it was slightly muddy. 
Washing finds at home i had a french military button in my hand. Nothing really special in our fields. When looking for the numbers i found the characters BV instead of a line infantry number. Bramblefind had it IDed in the What it Forum. Thanks!
Now to the history. The Battailon Valaisan exist between 1805 and 1811. Valais is a Swiss canton with the St. Bernard and Simplon Passes. 1802 Valais broke with the other Swiss Cantons and declared itself as independent Republic with formal protection by France. Napoleon got a Battailon with Valaisan volunteers to support his troops during his Spain campaign. The total strenght was 661 officers and man. All had a red uniform with the BV buttons. The active serve of the battailon began and ended in the province Catalonia in eastern Spain. First action was 15th July 1808, then 24th July 1808 at the Spanish fortress Gerona and later the second defence of Gerona between May and December 1809.
On 12th Nov. 1810 Napoleon annexed the region Valaise and the Battailon was not longer needed. On 12th Dec. 1810 the men swear allegiance to their new master. In Feb. 1811 the Battailon was withdrawn from Spain, refitted and should become now the 11th Regiment of light Infantry.
The Battailon was not formally disbanded until 16th Sep. 1811 at the depot of the 11th Light in Wesel/Germany.
Coming back to the button: The button travelled back from Spain February 1811 to Wesel/Germany. So this button was lost only a couple days marches of Wesel in a field close to the old road from Cologne to France. This road was built by the Romans, used by troops over 100s of years as one of the classic gates to Germany, the last time 1944/45 by american GIs.
The two surviving uniforms are from a Grenadier officer and of a Grenadier corporal. Both in museum now. The buttons are decorated with the initials 'BV' in the centre and the legend Empire Francaise around the circumference.
Here is the complete history: https://books.google.ch/books?id=cU..._esc=y#v=onepage&q=Bataillon Valaisan&f=false Thanks again Bramblefind for the link.
Washing finds at home i had a french military button in my hand. Nothing really special in our fields. When looking for the numbers i found the characters BV instead of a line infantry number. Bramblefind had it IDed in the What it Forum. Thanks! Now to the history. The Battailon Valaisan exist between 1805 and 1811. Valais is a Swiss canton with the St. Bernard and Simplon Passes. 1802 Valais broke with the other Swiss Cantons and declared itself as independent Republic with formal protection by France. Napoleon got a Battailon with Valaisan volunteers to support his troops during his Spain campaign. The total strenght was 661 officers and man. All had a red uniform with the BV buttons. The active serve of the battailon began and ended in the province Catalonia in eastern Spain. First action was 15th July 1808, then 24th July 1808 at the Spanish fortress Gerona and later the second defence of Gerona between May and December 1809.
On 12th Nov. 1810 Napoleon annexed the region Valaise and the Battailon was not longer needed. On 12th Dec. 1810 the men swear allegiance to their new master. In Feb. 1811 the Battailon was withdrawn from Spain, refitted and should become now the 11th Regiment of light Infantry.
The Battailon was not formally disbanded until 16th Sep. 1811 at the depot of the 11th Light in Wesel/Germany.
Coming back to the button: The button travelled back from Spain February 1811 to Wesel/Germany. So this button was lost only a couple days marches of Wesel in a field close to the old road from Cologne to France. This road was built by the Romans, used by troops over 100s of years as one of the classic gates to Germany, the last time 1944/45 by american GIs.
The two surviving uniforms are from a Grenadier officer and of a Grenadier corporal. Both in museum now. The buttons are decorated with the initials 'BV' in the centre and the legend Empire Francaise around the circumference.
Here is the complete history: https://books.google.ch/books?id=cU..._esc=y#v=onepage&q=Bataillon Valaisan&f=false Thanks again Bramblefind for the link.
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. By strange coincidence I've recently put something very similar, but British on ebay.Robert.
