This period is popular among wargamers for several reasons: The army organizations and the battles are well documented, the armies were larger than ever before or since, the uniforms were colourful (very important on the gaming table!), there was a wide variety in unit size, troop quality, and tactics. Artillery bombardment was line of sight only, and aerial support nonexistant, so all units are deployed on the table all the time. No matter what your preferences, there is always an army that suits your style.
Miniatures gamers are prone to tinker with the rules, more so than any other gamers, to make them fit their own ideas of how things did happen and why. This has lead to a great many rulesets being published, not to mention how many has been modified by "house rules". Different rulesets emphasize different aspects of the game, be it simulating the frustrations of high command or individual soldiers sneaking around in the bushes.
The rules we use are a "home-grown" variety, named Grenadier. Figure scale is one figure to 50 men, with one gun figure for each two pieces. Ground scale is one inch equals 25 paces. Tactical units are infantry battalions, cavalry regiments, and artillery batteries. The size of the infantry battallions varies between eight and sixteen figures, and cavalry regiments are of similar sizes. Artillery batteries are three or four gun figures, except for the large russian batteries of six figures. The emphasis is on manuevering units on the field, almost chess like, so there are no morale checks for changing formation or attacking. Also there is no writing of orders or delay of execution of orders. Instead, if a unit is within the command radius of a commander, it can perform any manuevering required. Units break and retreat/rout if they take too many casualties, the definition of "too many" depending upon the quality of the troops.
The rules are available as a HTML document. Either in frames for easier navigation, or as a plain html document if you feel that is easier to use, or your browser does not support frames. The army lists are to be found here.
If you have any questions or comments you are welcome to send me an email, but please read the FAQ first.