by John Cook
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In A History of the Peninsula War Vol IV, Sir Charles Oman says this on page 332.
"But Drouet, who had been told to give Ferey his best support, then fed the fight with three bataillons d'élite, composed of the eighteen grenadier companies of his two divisions".
Oman then footnotes this as follows.
"British narratives persistently state that the infantry of the Imperial Guard fought in Fuentes village. But it is absolutely certain that there were none of these troops with Masséna's army. The explanation lies in the fact that the grenadier company in a French regiment wore bearskins, and that a mass of grenadier companies could easily be mistaken for Guards. All 71st and 79th diaries speak of fighting with "the Imperial Guards" for this reason."
Later, on page 334 quoting from William Gratton's Adventures With the Connaught Rangers 1809-1813, an edition of which Oman edited in 1902.
"The town (Fuentes) presented a shocking sight................ The French grenadiers with their immense caps and gaudy plumes, lay in piles of ten or twenty together - some dead, others wounded, with barely the strength sufficient to move, their exhausted state and the weight of their cumbrous accoutrements making it impossible for them to crawl out of the dreadful fire of grape and shot which the enemy poured into the town."
Drouet's 9th Corps consisted of Claparéde's and Conroux's divisions each of which comprised one battalion of the following regiments, apparently amalgamated into provisional regiments.
Division Claparede
One regiment comprising a battalion of
54e de ligne, 21e Léger and 28e Léger
One regiment comprising a battalion of
40e, 63e and 88e de ligne
One regiment comprising a battalion of
64e, 100e and 103e de ligne
Division Conroux
One regiment comprising a battalion of
16e, 9e and 27e Léger
One regiment comprising a battalion of
8e, 24e and 45e de ligne
One regiment comprising a battalion of
94e, 95e and 96e de ligne
The battalions from which the component grenadier companies forming the three bataillons d'élite were drawn is unclear, and the official returns, shown by Oman at Appendix XII, do not reflect the them. This, nevertheless, seems clear evidence of another example of the temporary provision of a formation reserve from grenadier companies for a particular battle.
Elsewhere, on page 561 of the same volume, when describing the action at El Bodon in September 1811, we also find this,
"On the 24th a very large force was up - observers on the heights of Pastores saw a great mass of cavalry in the plain below them, and four divisions of infantry, one of which was made out by telescopes to belong to the Imperial Guard, from its high plumes and bearskins"
The senior infantry regiments of the Imperial Guard only served in Spain very briefly, returning to France in 1809. We can, therefore, discount this as yet another probable mis-identification of grenadier companies from line infantry regiments, which seem to have been formed into combined grenadier battalions.
It is also of interest that we have here a definite example of the use of combined grenadier battalions in 1810, and a probable example of the same thing as late as September 1811. One wonders if the French armies in Spain were somewhat anachronistic compared with others elsewhere. On the other hand, is it possible that the combining of grenadier companies for tactical purposes was still in vogue generally, but without collateral evidence, not being documented in most official returns, it remains hidden from us? These examples also confirm that the shako had far from replaced the bearskin in grenadier companies of line regiments as late as 1811 and continued to be worn in Spain.
I would like to know if anyone has evidence of combined grenadier battalions being formed post 1809 in theatres other than Spain?
More Aide-de-Camp
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Further to Jim Gaskill's question about French grenadier battalions, which was discussed in ADC FE33, it may be recalled that back in FE28 there was