Readers will be aware that my ambition is to have AoN achieve recognition as the UK's equivalent of Empires, Eagles and Lions. That magazine's mixture of erudition, constructive criticism and humour makes it a benchmark against which to measure other single period hobby magazines. I was therefore flattered to receive a packet from Jean Lochet, EEL's editor, that contained comment on some of our previous articles. I am sure that I speak for the whole readership when I say that I am glad Jean seems over the worst of his recent health problems.
Rather than print them all together, I thought I would drip feed them as a series. At the risk of alienating an extremely distinguished foreign correspondent, I present the first Letter from America
In issue 20 of Age of Napoleon, I enjoyed reading Dave Hollins' excellent article on the Battle of Wurzburg. The article was well researched, and since Mr. Hollins asked for comments, I would like to point out a very minor error.
This error is in the very complete Orders of Battle (p. 17) which gives the composition of General de Division Bonnaud's Reserve Cavalry as:
The error occurs because, as we will see below, the Armies of the Republique had no Cuirassier regiments until 1803. Up to then, the heavy cavalry regiments, except for the Carabiniers, were called Cavalry Regiments. The 8th Cavalry Regiment (ex-Cuirassiers du Roi) which was in Lefebvre's Division was the only one to wear the cuirass at Wurzburg. None of the other twenty-three Cavalry Regiments wore the cuirass. The 4th, 7th, 10th and 17th Cavalry Regiments, forming Bonnaud's Reserve Cavalry, were no exception and so should not have been referred to as cuirassiers. What follows is a shorter version of an article I wrote for EE&L 5 (Vol. 2) [1] and called "Les Cuirassiers du Roi and the Genesis of Napoleon's Cuirassiers". I hope that it will be of interest and shed some light on that interesting subject. The Revolution had inherited some 26 regiments of cavalry (including 2 of Carabiniers) from the Royal Army [2] . These were known (besides the Carabiniers) as Cavalry Regiments (régiments de cavalerie). In conjunction with the Dragoons, the Cavalry formed the Battle Cavalry which was simply called cavalry in all the official French texts. The arm was heavily handicapped by the emigration of its officers, and the Battle Cavalry went through hard times. Some of this was due to the lack of resources. The Light Cavalry was favoured, probably because it was cheaper and much easier to maintain than the Battle Cavalry. It attracted the pick of the recruits and they could be mounted on smaller horses that were much easier to obtain. The Battle Cavalry, with its relatively bigger men mounted on bigger horses, was cut off from its traditionally imported German horses. As a consequence, it had to make do with any left over men and horses. [3]
As a result, it slowly dwindled to a shadow of what it had been in the Royal Army. The Carabiniers, the grenadiers of the cavalry, fared a little better and, apparently, remained mounted on larger horses than the rest of the Battle Cavalry. When Bonaparte became First Consul in November 1799, he inherited a total of eighty-five regiments of different arms from the Directory. Among these were twenty-four depleted regiments of Cavalry, which we will call here Battle Cavalry. Many regiments had been neglected and were in a sorry state. Some of its best men and horses had been drawn from the regiments into the numerous units of Guides. What was left was dispersed among the infantry Divisions. Bonaparte may have been an artilleryman, but his genius mind understood and appreciated the importance of a well organised and efficient battle-ready cavalry. He therefore decided to reorganise the arm. This reorganisation was part of the complete re-formation of the French Army, one aspect of which was the general adoption of the Corps d'Armee concept and the formal creation of the Reserve Cavalry. [4]
In fact, the new organisational concept stripped out the cavalry from where it had been scattered amongst the infantry divisions.
Each new Corps d'Armee was to include light cavalry brigades (or in certain cases, light cavalry divisions). In this way, the Battle Cavalry and the dragoon regiments became available to form larger independent cavalry units such as brigades and divisions. These would make possible the massive cavalry attacks that had been so successful at Marengo. The consequences of these reforms were obvious: Bonaparte needed more light cavalry for his army corps, and had a surplus of Battle Cavalry and dragoons. [5]
Bonaparte ordered the War Ministry to form a committee to study the necessary reforms in order to adapt the cavalry (especially the Battle Cavalry)to modern warfare. For over three years, Generals Bourcier and Kellermann [6]
had constantly reiterated their plea to replace the useless cavalry bicorn with a helmet similar to that of the dragoons. In addition, with Ney, they were strong partisans of reintroducing the front cuirass that had protected the earlier King's cavalrymen and which had been largely discarded in recent years. The cuirass had not been completely eliminated, however, as the 8th Cavalry Regiment - the ci-devant Cuirassiers du Roi Regiment- was still very proudly wearing their cuirasses. They had managed to keep these throughout the vicissitudes of the Revolution and its successive changes of government, but by a very slim margin. In early 1800, a "brilliant" report issued by the Central Administration of the War Department had concluded- unilaterally- that "The cuirass kills more men than it saves because of the falls or the chest diseases it causes and reflection of the sun that renders the cuirass a real furnace." [7] Fortunately, the War Minister was not of the same opinion. The cuirass was undergoing a strong renewal of interest in Bonaparte's mind, and in the army headquarters that had started to understand the psychological effect of the cuirassed cavalryman charging an infantryman or another cavalryman.
Captain Barbu of the 8th Cavalry Regiment took the report on the alleged failings of the cuirass very seriously. On 7 January 1800 he wrote a letter for the attention of the War Minister. In a respectful and moving tone he brought the Minister's attention to the reasons why his regiment had a lingering affection for the cuirass. [8]
As the first step towards reforms, in September 1802 Bonaparte wrote a letter to Berthier, the Minister of War: "I want you, citizen minister, to submit to me a scheme for reducing the regiments of heavy cavalry to twenty-two of which shall be Carabiniers- all four squadrons strong. The last six of the now existing regiments should be broken up to furnish a squadron to each of the first eighteen proposed regiments. Of the eighteen regiments, the first five are to wear the cuirass, in addition to the 8th Regiment, which is already equipped in this manner, making, in all, 6 regiments with, and twelve regiments without, cuirass."
Effectively, Bonaparte disbanded 7 Cavalry Regiments of his understrength Battle Cavalry and amalgamated their men and horses into the remaining eighteen. Then the strongest men and bigger horses were transferred to the first twelve regiments. This project was still too ambitious, and Bonaparte realised he had no real need to maintain so many regiments of heavy cavalry. As a consequence, he decided to keep only twelve regiments, but then changed his mind once more. All the remaining twelve regiments were to become Cuirassiers and the other 6 were to be converted to Dragoon Regiments.
This was in agreement with the Reglement that called for smaller horses for the dragoons, but the difference was much smaller than many historians led us to believe. In fact, in the French Army as in other armies, the size of the horses used by the Dragoons made them heavy cavalry and not medium cavalry as so many English language sources suggest. [9]
Battle of Marengo
The Battle of Marengo had shown the value of a heavy cavalry charge. The cuirassier became the 'shock' instrument of choice. There is little doubt that the partisans of reintroducing the cuirass like Ney, Bourcier, Kellermann and many others were influenced by having constantly faced the heavier Austrian Kurassiers, protected by a front cuirass and helmet, during the Wars of the Revolution. On 10 October 1801, some thirty-eight years after the steel breastplate had been discarded, Napoleon decided to form a 'new' regiment of cavalrymen in cuirass (cavaliers en cuirasse) from the 1st Cavalry Regiment. This was the ex ci-devant Colonel-general originally created in 1635. In this way, a new tactical concept re-established an old concept that the '1650's fashion' had rendered obsolete.
It should be noted that in the Ordnance of 19 October 1801 the new cavalry is termed la cavallerie cuirassier (sic) and nor Cuirassiers. The new regiment en cuirasses was equipped with a full cuirass, that is front and back plates, unlike the Austrian Kurassiers who only wore a front plate. They also had a new steel helmet with a brass crest and flowing horsetail, obviously derived from the dragoon's headgear, to replace the obsolete cavalry bicorn. In addition, a new uniform (a habit-veste) had to be designed.
The designing of the new uniform and the manufacturing of cuirasses and the new helmets all took time. The old style, pre-Revolutionary armour that had been carefully kept in the arsenals was reconditioned and brought back into service. This was used to re-equip the 1st Regiment in 1802 and the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th Regiments in 1803. The 4th, 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th Regiments had to wait until 1804 to be armoured. The cavalry subdivision armes des cuirassiers was created in September 1803. At the same time a new type of cuirass, called the 1804 cuirass, commenced manufacture and by 1806-07 had replaced the older model. [10]
Let us return, however, to 1801. In June of that year Chef de Brigade Merlin, in command of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, thought that he had the best reasons in the world to request that his regiment should be recognised as the 1st Cuirassier Regiment. Accordingly, he wrote a report on the matter to the War Ministry. As he believed that his reasonable request could not be denied, he ordered the number 1 to be sewn on to the regiment's portmanteaux, covers, etc. At the same time he equipped his regiment with a helmet of his own design.
Merlin had forgotten his colleague Margaron, who commanded the 1st Cavalry Regiment. [11] This regiment had been authorised to wear the cuirass in order to form a brigade with the 8th Cavalry Regiment. This formation of eight squadrons of cavalryman en cuirasse was the first of its kind in France and was intended to develop the new battle techniques for the arm. Margaron was quite indignant: he did not want a junior regiment to take the place of his senior regiment. He wrote to General Berthier, the War Minister, to explain that the 1st Cavalry Regimen was descended from the illustrious Regiment Colonel-Général formed in 1635. This regiment had carried the famous white cornet which all the light cavalry [12] saluted, including the Cuirassiers du Roi! Margaron considered that the mere fact that the 8th Regiment was cuirassiers was nothing new. It certainly not prevented the King of France from giving his Cuirassiers du Roi the seventh rank. [13]
Poor Berthier was quite annoyed. He was a good man and did not want to displease anyone, but how could he find a satisfactory solution? After considering the position for some time, he called his assistant, Barnier, and ordered him to prepare a history of both regiments. The understanding was that the number 1 would be given to the unit that best deserved it from a grateful country. Barnier found that both regiments had had a fine war record, so that now he had to establish their seniority. To prepare his report he too used the Etat Militaire of 1748 and that of Roussel in 1773. These gave the date of creation for Colonel-Général as 1635 and for Cuirassiers du Roi as 1665. Barnier's report gave the seniority to the 1st Cavalry Regiment. It was written in such a way that after Berthier read it he simply shrugged his shoulders and made no decision, so that the decision remained unresolved. The 1st Regiment kept its designation, and the 8th Regiment kept the number 1 on portmanteaux, etc.
Passions quietened down, and in October 1802 the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Cavalry Regiments also adopted the cuirass, followed two months later by the 5th, 6th and 7th Cavalry Regiments.
In October 1803 the Ordnance advising the subdivision of the arme des cuirassiers was published giving the attribution of the new cuirassier numbers to the old cavalry regiments. The 8th Regiment quietly removed the number 1 from all of its equipment. Colonel Margaron had been promoted Général de Brigade on 29 August and left the command of the 1st Cuirassiers in September. No-one spoke again of that unpleasant affair, but the facts show that for two years two cavalry regiments wore the same number on their portmanteaux!
Rigo, 'Le Cuirassier de 1805' in Uniformes issue 41 and 'Les Cuirassiers du Premier Consul' in Uniformes issue 44 [1] Some copies of EE&L 5 (vol. 2) are still available from the Emperor's Headquarters. United Kingdom purchasers should contact Caliver Books.
ON CUIRASSIERS
Jean Lochet
4th Cuirassier Regiment
7th Cuirassier Regiment
10th Cuirassier Regiment
17th Cuirassier Regiment
In addition, Lefebvre's Division shows in its ranks the 8th Cuirassier Regiment.Sources:
Cdt. Buquoy, Les Uniformes du Premier Empire: Les Cuirassiers, reprinted by Grancher, Paris, 1979
Col. John R. Elting, Swords Around the Throne, The Free Press, New York, 1988
Emir Bukhari, Napoleon's Cuirassiers and Carabiniers, Osprey Men-at-Arms Series, New York, 1977.
Col. HCB Rogers, Napoleon's Army, Hippocrene Books, New York, 1974
Empires, Eagles and Lions, several past issues in Volumes 1 and 2
Suzanne, Général, Histoire de la cavalerie Française, 3 vols. Paris, Hetzel 1874.
Misc. notes from the French Archives and other sources too numerous to quote.
Notes
[2] In addition, there were 6 Hussar, twelve Chasseur à Cheval and eighteen Dragoon regiments.
[3] Smaller horses were easy to get from the Auvergne, Ardennes, the Landes, Normandy and Gascony. In the Royal Army, heavy cavalry horses, besides the ones available from Normandy and elsewhere, were traditionally imported from Germany.
[4] The Corps d'Armée system was generally adopted in the French Army (except for the Army of Italy) between 1802 and 1804. It is covered in EE&L 2 (Vol.2).
[5] The cavalry reforms will be covered in detail in EE&L 3 (Vol. 3).
[6] François Etienne Kellermann, the son of the victor of Valmy. In spite of the fact that he was not as famous as Murat, he was certainly one of the most able cavalry commanders in Napoleon's army.
[7] The French text reads: "la cuirasse tue plus d'hommes qu'elle n'en conserve. à cause des chutes ou des maladies de poitrine occasionnées par les reflets du soleil qui fait de la cuirasse un veritable fourneau".
[8] The letter was discovered by Raoul and Jean Brunon in 1937 and was the subject of well-researched article in the Bulletin of the A.M.A.
[9] See EE&L 5 (Vol. 2): "On Cuirassiers, Dragoons and Medium Cavalry".
[10] The cuirass model 1804 was an evolution of the older cuirass. It was made of steel some 2.8mm thick.
[11] Pierre Margaron was Chef de Brigade (Colonel) who had commanded the 1st Cavalry Regiment since 23 December 1798. He left the regiment in 1803 after being promoted to General de Brigade on 29 August, at the age of 36.
[12] In the Royal Army, the light cavalry was the designation for all cavalry except the Gendarmerie (ED.).
[13] The documents that Margaron consulted were the état Militaire de 1748 and that of Rousel in 1773. These documents gave the creation of the Colonel-General as 1635 and the Cuirassiers du Roi as 1665. However, General Suzanne in his 'Histoire de la cavalerie' gave seniority to the Cuirassiers du Roi which he noted as being created in 1638, with the Colonel-General being raised in 1657. General Suzanne's work is generally considered to be the final authority on this matter. See Rigo in 'Uniformes' 44, p. 33.
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