#napoleonic cavalry

[northernmariette]

A Napoleonic cavalry game (sort of)

Now that I have posted three extracts from David G. Chandler’s The Illustrated Napoleon regarding Napoleon’s cavalry, if you were transported back in time and asked to which branch of it you would like to belong, which would you choose: heavy cavalry, line regiments, light cavalry?

For me, it’s easy. All I needed was that mention that the line regiments’ roles were varied. I hate routine with a passion! So even though the line regiments (basically the dragoons) seemed to have been the least flashy in terms of uniforms, and possibly in terms of prestige, enlist me in the dragoons.

[wearemercs]

Lancer by Ocana Dana

[illustratus]

The Scouts (A patrol of the 10th Light Dragoons, Peninsular War)

by William Barnes Wollen

[blue-and-gilt]

Napoleonic era French light cavalry officers' sabre with the à la Marengo style hilt

This style of sabre hilt, with the rounded langets and semi-S shaped guard. Is one of two types that are associated with the la Marengo type. The other has a similar cross guard but a pommel cap that bends towards the knuckle bow, decorated with a lions' face.

These styles are said to have gained popularity following Consular Napoleon's victory over the Austrians in Jun 1800 at the Battle of Marengo. French sword cutlers purportedly drew their inspiration from the sabre carried by Napoleon during the campaign.

It has been claimed that only officers who had participated in the battle were permitted to carry this style of hilt, however this is unlikely to have been true, given the number of surviving examples.

This sword carries a Solingen made 'export' blade with generic engraving that would originally have been highlighted in gold on a background of blue.

Stats: Overall Length - 935 mm Blade Length - 795 mm Curve - 54 mm Point of Balance - 140 mm Grip Length - 125 mm Inside Grip Length - 105 mm Weight - 700 grams

[dragoons-and-cookies]

Voici quelques dessins à la con de moi-même en dragon, que j'ai retrouvé quelque part... dessins au digital et au crayon papier

[joachimnapoleon]

Miscellaneous gems from Les Invalides yesterday. I tried my best to reduce the glare from the display cases, but it wasn’t always possible.

Here are three swords that belonged to Murat.

This pair of pistols was gifted to Murat by Cambacérès.

Lasalle’s saber and pipe:

Various cavalry uniforms:

A Marshal uniform of Lannes, with some close-ups of the embroidery:

On another note, we just missed potentially seeing the younger Prince Murat, who visited Les Invalides one day after @histoireettralala and I, for the commemoration of Napoleon’s birthday.

[josephponiatowski]

Merry chrismamdbwj

Merry crisis

Merry christler

M- merey crism—

…

WESOŁYCH ŚWIĄT!

(Merry Christmas!)

I wish you happiness, a lot of love and most importantly, good food. I wish you all to have a normal and peaceful Christmas Eve this year! ❤️

I have a present for you, please take it:

It’s supposed to be polish lancers making a snowman with little Walewski. Napoleon is not pleased with being a snowman. 😔

I have to tell you that I got part 1 and part 2 of Riyoko Ikeda’s manga about Pepi. I’m actually surprised how did my parents got it for me. They are rare and expensive. Damn i’m really happy.

But remember, presents are not the most important thing during Christmas, it’s being with people that are important to you and spend time with them!

[napolka]

Andoche!

[victusinveritas]

"Colonel, you just got promoted."

"To what?"

"Rear admiral."

[litanumb]

2 studies I made, based of this 2 paintings:

1st painting: détail d'après Adolf Schreyer "Charge de l'artillerie de la Garde Impériale à Traktir en Crimée" (1865) 2nd painting: d'après Ernest Meissonier "Le Cheval de l'Ordonnance" (1869)

[northernmariette]

The Light Cavalry in the Napoleonic Era

This is the rest of what David G. Chandler has to say about Napoleon’s cavalry in his The illustrated Napoleon:

Third, there was the light cavalry. These adventurous troopers wore the most extravagant uniforms, regarded themselves as “the darlings of the ladies”, and developed their own mystique. There were several types. By 1811 there were thirty-one regiments of chasseurs a cheval, between ten and fifteen regiments of hussars (the most sumptuously dressed of all) and eventually nine regiments of lancers (or chevau-legers lanciers), which were raised from a number of sources, including transferred squadrons (and some whole regiments) of chasseurs and dragoons. The light cavalry expanded when the French were called upon to fight Russian armies, which were strong in light horses and Cossacks. Hussars and chasseurs carried similar weaponry - sabers, carbines and pistols - and were often brigaded together to form regiments of between twelve hundred and eighteen hundred men serving in between four and eight squadrons. Light horsemen also (from 1809) carried the eight-foot lance. As might be expected, the light horsemen were strongly represented in the cavalry of the Imperial Guard. There was an Old Guard Regiment de Chasseurs a Cheval from 1804, the Company (later Squadron) of Mamelukes first raised in Egypt in 1799, also attached to the Old Guard, like the First (1807) and the Second (1810) Regiments de Chevaux-lanciers, known respectively as the Polish Blue and the Dutch Red Lancers of the Guard, and three regiments of Eclaireurs raised in 1814, four more of Gardes d’Honneur (from 1813), and the Legion de Gendarmerie d’Elite, going back to 1804.  

Light cavalry duties were particularly arduous and included playing many roles in reconnaissance and pursuit. The Imperial Guard imperial cavalry usually provided the emperor’s personal escort on campaign; Napoleon’s favourite garb was the green undress uniform of a colonel of chasseurs a cheval. The most celebrated commanders of light cavalry included Colbert, Lasalle, and Lefebvre-Desnouettes. 

Such, in barest outline, was l’arme blanche of la Grande Armee. There were also numerous provisional and allied regiments of all types raised for short periods of time. The mounted arm was transformed from a near-laughingstock in the Armies of the Revolution into a most formidable weapon, which perhaps saw its greatest days from late 1806 to 1812, when the horse studs from Prussia were available to supply the deficiencies in French horseflesh (1).The pursuit after Jena-Auerstadt was a masterpiece of light cavalry operation, and the heavy cavalry arguably saw its finest day at the battle of Eylau in 1807.

(1) I swear to the gods that I initially read “horseflesh” as “horseradish”. I can imagine Daru rushing into Napoleon’s cabinet in complete panic: “Sire, the troops are about to run out of horseradish!”  Napoleon, choking on his Chicken Marengo: “Running out of horseradish?!? We must invade Prussia most urgently! It has abundant supplies of horseradish!”

On another topic, I wonder if names such as Eclaireurs, Gardes d’Honneur, and  Gendarmerie d’Elite, were created to make its members feel distinctive and increase cohesion among them, or if these units actually had particular functions. And isn’t the Gendarmerie associated with maintaining civil order more than with combat roles?

David G. Chandler, The Illustrated Napoleon. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1973, 1990. Pp. 95-97

[cadmusfly]

“That you came to my aid even when you were injured and in stupor, Lannes, I am honoured!”

Bonaparte, I didn’t even know you were there. I heard the sound of guns and thought the party was happening without me!

“Well, it will look better in the reports if I say otherwise, no?”

—

Pretty much Napoleon and Lannes Dragon reenacting Spirited Away, though I wasn’t sure whether Lannes should be light green or dark green. What do you think?

Bonus:

“Are you jealous, Junot?”

No. Definitely not! Why would you say that? I’m not jealous. Not at all.

“I definitely believe you, my friend!”

[illustratus]

Vive l'Empereur! by Wojciech Kossak

[empirearchives]

Pretty garments from French Napoleonic military uniforms

There was quite a lot of variety in the uniforms. Here is an account from a memoir of a soldier in Napoleon’s grande armée:

“I had been in the company for five months when, one Sunday, my chief squadron sergeant major, passing in review the preparations for inspection, stopped in front of me and, after looking me over from head to foot, said: ‘Parquin, you may have a handsome uniform, but you are not a soldier! Your gaze should be assured, look me squarely in the whites of the eyes; make me tremble if you can! You are in the army now!’”

Source: The Age of Napoleon, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

[blue-and-gilt]

What happens when a friend and fellow sword collector comes round to talk swords, collecting, rifles, books and generally chew the fat.

[dragoons-and-cookies]

Sully-sur-Loire 2023