Hi Guys,I'm wondering about the regimental horse colours used by the French Imperial Guard cavalry regiments and what about the trumpeters horses greys /whites or just as the rest of the actual regiment allocated horse colours?
Can anyone also give me 1813-14 strengths for the Gardes D'Honneur regiments and the Eclaireur regiments .
Thanks Peter
Peter:
Guard Cavalry Horse Colours: Generally speaking, the Grenadiers rode black horses, the Dragoons rode chestnuts and the other regiments rode bays. Needless to say, it was not always possible to achieve this 100%. All French cavalry regiments, Guard and Line, mounted their trumpeters on greys.
Gardes d’Honneur and Eclaireurs (Scouts): I am presuming you have done some research on these interesting units. If not, I recommend the Osprey Man-at-Arms series which has an edition on each. Both were raised to try and rebuild the strength of the French cavalry after its catastrophic losses in Russian campaign. The attraction was that after 12 months service, they would be commissioned into line regiments. Their short history is very complicated, and almost impossible to summarise here.
Gardes d’Honneur
Four regiments with each having a strength of just over 2,500 men in ten squadrons. They were supposed to pay for their own uniforms, arms and horses, but financial help was available for those who could not afford it. They did not make very good soldiers and suffered from a high desertion/hospitalisation rate. The regiments were also raided to provide men for the eclaireurs and even the guard cavalry.
15th September 1813:
1st Regiment: 13 officers and 354 men.
2nd Regiment: 16 officers and 286 men.
3rd Regiment: 7 officers and 203 men.
4th Regiment: 6 officers and 202 men.
15th October 1813:
1st Regiment: 15/269
2nd Regiment: 15/246
3rd Regiment: 8/146
4th Regiment: 10/192
It seems reinforcements were constantly sent to the army.
On the 13th March 1814, the four regiments numbered only 800 men in total.
Eclaireurs
Each regiment was established for four squadrons @ 250 men each giving a total regimental strength of just over 1,000 (including the regimental HQ). However, it is doubtful if any of the regiments achieved this and tended to serve as detachments of various sizes (often in different places). Returns are rare. Although the three regimental roles all list about 1,000 men having joined the regiment, it seems far fewer actually served with the army; the shortage being of horses rather than men.
1st Regiment: I am aware of no strength returns for this regiment. They were supposed to have been manned by 250 men from each of the Gardes d’Honneur regiments, but nowhere near this number were sent. However, it appears that the regiment did reach full strength, broken down into two squadrons each of Young Guard and Old Guard; many of the latter coming from the Old Guard regiments. However, like the other two regiments, it seems no more than 50% actually served with the army.
2nd Regiment: 19th Jan 1814; in the depot were 28 officers and 829 men with 498 horses (!). 24th Jan; first detachment left for the army consisting of 313 men. 4th Feb; 8 officers and 200 men left the depot for the army. This gave a total of 502 men with the army. At the end of the campaign they numbered just 200 men.
3rd Regiment: On the 8th March 1814, the 3rd Scouts numbered 66 officers and 794 men, but of these, only about 50% served with the army.
For real detail (providing you can read French!), I recommend:
Les Gardes d’Honneur du Premier Empire by E-L Bucquoy (Nancy: Crepin-Leblond, 1908.
Histoire des Regiments de Gardes d’Honneur, by Lomier (Paris: Edouard Champion, 1924).
Garde Imperiale Eclaireurs, 1813-1814, Collection Raoul and Jean Brunon (Marseille: undated).
Hi Peter,
Books like those from Histoire & Collections consistently show the Grenadiers in large dark horses. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think I recall them as being from Normandy.
The Dragoons and Chasseurs are shown as being lighter coloured animals. Trumpeters and Kettle drummers are shown on greys.