No other unit in history -- save certain of the British regiments and the SS of Nazi Germany -- has been written of as extensively as Napoleon's Imperial Guard. In only a few years, the Guard established an imposing, electrifying persona that has captured the imagination of military historians (and wargamers) like no other. The origins of the Imperial Guard are in fact centuries old. Ancient kings from the beginnings of France always had a household guard. Francis I entered Milan with a Grande Garde of 200 mounted men, supported by a Petite Garde of archers and provosts, notably the Cent-Suisse (100 Swiss). The most famous unit of this period was the King's Musketeers, the same unit that would be immortalized by the novelist Alexander Dumas. Louis XIV consolidated the various Royal units into a corps called the Maison du Roy, King's Household troops. This unit at its peak consisted of 6000 horsemen, backed by the Gardes francaises, and the Gardes suisses, two superbly disciplined and aggressive units. Between 1776 and 1786, Louis XV's penny-pinching war minister downsized the Guard, retaining only the Gardes du corps at a reduced strength. This unit remained loyal during the Revolution until the Gardes Fran- caises betrayed the king in 1791. After Louis's death by guillotine and the end of the Royal Guard, there soon came a series of "Guards" for the successive revolutionary regimes. The first was the former royalist Provost Guard, which, sent to expel the Third Estate, joined them instead. They became the "Guards of the Assembly", replaced in turns by the "National Gendarmes" and the "Grenadier Gendarmes". Most of the latter were wiped out suppressing the first of many royalist uprisings in the Vendee region, and were replaced by the "Grenadiers of the National Representatives", later renamed the "Grena- diers of the Legislature". This unit was formed of older soldiers with good records, and led by experienced officers. All members had to be appointed by the Directory, and were nicknamed the "Tricolor Guards". Numbering 1200, this elite unit fell into corruption and disrepute. By 1796, another incarnation, the "Guard of the Directory" -- the final guard formed under the Revolution -- served as an escort for the Directors. The severe criteria for membership included height of at least 510", a perfect conduct record, service in two campaigns, and recommendation from an army commander. Their uniform featured an aiguillette on the right shoulder, a feature that would remain to the end of the Imperial Guard. To this grenadier unit was later added a contingent of cavalry, and also a 25-piece band, compliments of the Conservatoire. Guard of the Consuls Bonaparte's coup d'etat in 1799 marked the end of the Revolution, and with it the "revolutionary" guards; they now became the "Guard of the Consuls". Their uniforms became the basis of those of the Imperial Guard. The grenadiers wore black bearskin bonnets with a brass plate, yellow cords, red plume, red top patch with white cross, cockade, dark blue coat with similar collar, white lapels, red cuffs and turnbacks, yellow grenade badges, yellow buttons and red epaulettes. A decree in January 1800 established the 2089-man unit. It had a general staff, 50 musicians divided between infantry and cavalry, two battalions of grenadiers, a company of light infantry, two squadrons of cavalry usually described as horse grenadiers, (though they may have been lighter), a company of chasseurs a cheval formed from guides that Napoleon brought back from Egypt, and a company of artillery that was at least partially mounted. This was the Guard that went with Napoleon into Italy. They made their legend at Marengo, standing solidly before charging Austrian cavalry and fighting like cornered tigers until Desaix's relief column arrived. The battle produced the Guards' first hero, Grenadier Brabant, who single-handedly manned a cannon until the loss of his hand. After Marengo, Napoleon enlarged his Guard, giving command to Lannes. Lannes' mismanagement of the Guard's large allowance -- its officers' uniforms had a number of expensive gold and silver edgings, and their pay was much higher than for equivalent line units -- led to his replacement by Bessieres, an efficient administrator who picked officers who were like-minded. Strict criteria and strict codes of conduct molded an experienced, mature, and rigidly disciplined unit. Imperial Guard Napoleon's coronation as Emperor on May 10, 1804 brought the unit the title familiar to every military historian and gamer: Imperial Guard. Minor uniform changes produced the Old Guard as they are most often depicted- bonnet cords became white, with red plumes with a top patch of red bearing a white grenade. The brass plate now bore an imperial eagle between two flaming grenades; imperial eagles now appeared on buttons. A pair of gold earrings was also required. They found little action until Napoleon tricked his enemies into attacking him on ground of his own choosing. On December 2, 1805, Napoleon met a combined Russian and Austrian army along a series of rises and creeks west of the town of Austerlitz. There, the Guard cavalry covered itself in glory, while the Guard infantry looked on, straining to join the battle. Napoleon here began his trend of hesitating to commit the most disciplined and battle-hardened unit in his army. In Prussia the Guard found little glory: other units swept up the once-feared Prussian army, while the Guard complained about being forced to do police duties. Old Grumblers New Year's Day 1807 found the Emperor and his Guard in Warsaw. The Guard, worn from pursuit of the Prussian remnants, had traveled a thousand miles in bitter cold and was now further from home than at any time previously. Foul weather had plagued them along the way, obliging them to wade through torrents up to their waists, with mud sucking at their feet until they had to pull their legs free one at a time using their hands. Dorsenne, their commander, halted them at the gates of the old city and scolded them for their complaining, giving them the nickname that has stuck through the centuries, not only to the Old Guard grenadiers, but to veteran wargamers everywhere. "He calls you 'grumblers' (French: grognards)," Dorsenne snapped. Though Napoleon had first used that phrase to describe them on Christmas Day, this was the first that they had heard the term applied to them. Engaging the Russians in a blinding snowstorm at Eylau, the outnumbered Napoleon ordered a charge with all the Guard cavalry he could muster. The usually unflinching horse grenadiers shied somewhat under the Russian barrage. Their commander, Lepic, was reported to have spoken one of several salty memorable phrases in the Guard's history: "Heads up, by God! Those are bullets - not turds!" The charge smashed the Russian advance, but at the cost of over 400 of the Guard Cavalry. Even the toughspoken Lepic was wounded. Napoleon still held back the Guard infantry until Ney arrived to attack the Russian flank. Then, faced with a column of 4000 charging infantry, Napoleon ordered Dorsenne to take only one battalion to repulse them. Elated, they marched in total silence, smashing the Russians back with the bayonet, while cavalry harassed the enemy flanks. Napoleon had been saved. Rebulding the Guard Napoleon spent the spring rebuilding his exhausted army, experimenting with several additional units: Chasseurs a pied This lighter unit, also nicknamed grognards, included guides from the Army of Italy and were only required to be five feet three inches tall. Grenadiers a cheval They had a height minimum of 5'6" and uniforms similar to those of the grenadiers a pied, with huge black horses and tall bearskin caps, giving them a formidable appearance. Their silent, disciplined manner earned them nicknames of "the Gods" by the awestruck, and "Grossbottes"(big boots) by the others. Chasseurs a cheval Napoleon, who would be buried in their colorful uniform at St.Helena, nicknamed these dashing lighter cavalry "The Invincibles" or "The Pet Children." Mamelukes: Napoleon recruited these bold, colorful horsemen during his Egyptian expedition, and maintained this unit to the end. They retained their Arabic dress and weapons, giving them a decidedly romantic look, and filled out their ranks with men of Greek and Coptic backgrounds. They fought magnificently at Austerlitz and in Poland. Gendarmerie Mite: This unit, formed from the pick of the national gendarmes after repeated assassination attempts on Napoleon, was originally four mounted and two foot companies, and became exclusively cavalry in 1809. The rest of the Guard did not consider their police duties particularly glamorous, and wryly called them "The Immortals" in contrast to the more storied chasseurs a cheval. The similarly named gendarmes dordonnance, a holdover from royalist days, had to provide their own mounts, travel expenses and mounted domestics. The rest of the Guard feared that these exroyalists-who fought bravely, if not Brilliantly, during 1807- would become a privileged bodyguard. Shortly afterward, the unit was disbanded, only about two thirds remaining in French service. Empress Dragoons: Line dragoon regiments contributed to this heavy regiment. Though only partially equipped, they later gained horses from the Prussian elite guard cavalry, and also trumpets from the Spanish bodyguard cavalry. The Guard Marins , originally a unit of sailors prepared for the invasion of England, were mostly destroyed in Spain, where a good number of them were captured, though enough escaped to later form one company. There were also engineers, foot and horse artillery and foreign contingents, most notably Polish lancers. Finally, the pre-1809 Guard units also included the velites. The Guard applied this classic term for youthful skirmishers to a unit whose service was essentially an internship. Velites learned from the veterans how to lead troops, paying for the privilege. Successful velites would go on to become line officers or enlisted men in the Guard. Conflicts between wealthy trainees and less-educated veterans ruined the program, and only the 2nd regiment of lancers kept their velites past 1809. 1809 became another watershed year for the Guard. Napoleon again expanded his elite bodyguard by forming the Young Guard, consisting of two tirailleurs-grenadier regiments and two of tirailleurs-chasseurs formed from Old Guard cadres plus the best of the current conscripts. In 1810, the tirailleurs-grenadiers became simply tirailleurs, and the tirailleurs-chasseurs became voltigeurs, or "leapers". During its formation, the Young Guard was noted at one point as Guard conscripts, and their wagons all bore the Guard designations, with the abbreviation "cts" (conscripts) in small letters below. These units became sarcastically known as "cts" instead of their proper designations. More foreign elements were added, including the Velites of Florence and Turin. After the annexation of the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1809, their chevaux-legers were added as a second regiment of lancers after the Polish. They were bumped after 1810 when the Dutch Royal Guard was added, giving Napoleon a regiment of Dutch lancers with Polish drill sergeants, who became the official 2,d regiment of lancers. Their companion grenadiers originally became the 2" regiment of foot grenadiers, but were later bumped to the Yd regiment when Napoleon expanded his French grenadiers in 1811. Middle Guard If the parade of units up to this point seems confusing, one can only imagine how staff officers must have felt. In 1812 Napoleon tried to simplify pay and allowances, adding a "Middle Guard" designation to help regulate matters. The Guard that marched with Napoleon into Russia was almost a small army. Certainly, it contained nearly a corps' worth of infantry and artillery, backed by over a division of cavalry. In total, 34 infantry battalions and 23 cavalry squadrons (plus one company of Marnelukes), backed by 15 foreign elite battalions (the Italian velites mentioned earlier, plus 4 regiments of the Vistula Legion) and one regiment of ex- Pt Vistula Lancers. Each division of Old and Young Guard had its own artillery, plus its corps artillery, while the cavalry had several batteries of horse artillery. This "bodyguard" was larger than the V (Polish) corps of Prince Pontiatowski, St. Cyr's Bavarian VI corps, or the strength of the VII and VIII corps combined! The Guard reached its peak in ability versus numbers at this time. While the hardened veteran units of 1805 and 1807 were diluted somewhat by the conscripts, they still retained a broad base of experience throughout, while their foreign contingents were the best their native countries could produce. However imposing the Imperial Guard's numbers seemed in June of 1812, disease and the Russian winter soon devastated them. Napoleon, knowing he could not remain so far from Paris, began a disastrous retreat from Moscow, his forces dwindling literally with each mile. Out of nearly 100,000 men remaining in his main army after Borodino, he arrived at the Berezina river -- only a fraction of the way home -- with 25,000 effective soldiers. The Guard had the only horse cavalry left. Temporarily boosted to nearly 48,000 effectives by the arrival of two fresh corps plus a stream of stragglers of equal number, Napoleon outmaneuvered a force nearly twice his strength by not allowing them to concentrate against him. The action of November 26-29, 1812 was sharp, and the Guard was not immune. Out of 3500 Old Guard and 1500 Young Guard entering the battle, there remained only 2000 of the former and 800 of the latter on November 29th , as many falling from the weather than as from wounds; in the end, the Guard was used up. It concentrated at Konigsberg, but so many were sick or otherwise unavailable that its effective strength on Christmas Day 1812 was 1065 infantry, 663 cavalry, and 265 artillery and other support troops. Of the hundreds of guns that the Guards brought east, only 9 remained. This, plus 26 engineers, was all that remained of a corps that numbered in excess of 30,000 a mere six months before. Rebuilt Again Napoleon immediately rebuilt his Guard, creating new units and drawing veterans from every theater, so that during the campaigns of 1813, he had enlarged them beyond pre-1812 levels. In April, the Guard mustered 23,823 men of all arms. A temporary armistice in midsummer allowed Napoleon to further inflate the Guard to 61,748 (only ten thousand less than the size of his entire army at Austerlitz) by August. The cost of paying such a huge elite force, often bankrolled out of the Emperor's personal fortune, was staggering, as we shall see later. The campaign of 1813 ended with the disastrous retreat from Leipzig, and the Guard saw much action. Napoleon led one counterattack personally, and Cambronne's chasseurs a pied along with the cavalry of the Guard smashed the turncoat Bavarians and some Austrians under Bavarian General Wrede at Hanau, allowing the Grande Armee to slip across the Rhine. 1814 saw the rebuilding of the Guard to even greater proportions; Napoleon now used it as his main assault army, desperately trying to fight along interior lines as huge Allied armies pushed into France. He force-marched against one spearhead after another, manufacturing units with little or no training to throw in front of the invaders, hoping that the designation of "Guards" would give them pause and turn the tide. The Old Guard mustered 8,000, while the especially bloated Young Guard listed 57,600. This total does not include the Guard Cavalry, or the artillery. It was not enough. Though fighting valiantly, the invaders ground Napoleon's "children" under. Abdication After Napoleon's abdication, Louis XVIII took steps to do away with as many of the Guard as he could, fearing they would depose him. He retained the most trusted of the Old Guard in ceremonial positions and disbanded the rest. At Napoleon's return in the Hundred Days, a Guard of 21,000 went with him, not counting units still forming or stamping out revolt in the Vendee. However impressive, it was not the Guard of 1812, or even that of 1813. The Guard cavalry and the Young Guard saw much action at Mt. St. Jean. Napoleor's last throw was to commit the Old Guard in a desperate attempt to break Wellington's patchwork of British and allied units. Superior numbers mowed the Guard down with artillery and hammered them with cavalry until they could take no more. Their retreat started the rout of the French army. Cambronne, game to the end, scraped together shallow squares against the pursuing cavalry, trying to allow his Emperor to escape to Paris. When asked to surrender, Cambronne gave a reply of which history records two versions. The first, from his monument at Nantes, is the most romantic: "The Guard dies but does not retreat." The other, per Victor Hugo, was more likely given the chaos of rout and pursuit: "Merde," forever remembered in polite French circles as "le mot de Cambronne". Either way, the Allies shot, bayoneted, rode down the Guard out of history. In the hundred years after, many strove to imitate the little Corsican and have their own Imperial Guard, including Bonaparte's own nephew, Napoleon III. None of them, for all their fancy uniforms, could ever match the original model. Even Santa Anna, the self styled "Napoleon of the West", found his Guard destroyed by the rough-hewn Texans at San Jacinto. The Guard had no equal. Was the Guard Worth It? It is instructive to consider the question of costs: was the Guard, ultimately, worth it? Using the base French exchange, the lowest unit in the regular army, the fusilier, was paid 30 centimes a day. The lowest Old Guard rank was private, who got 116 centimes a day. A sergeant in the regular army got 62 centimes, while his Old Guard equivalent got 222 centimes (just under 50 cents). A captain received princely pay by comparison, 6 francs a day, while his elite equivalent received 10, showing less of a disparity. Marshals of France received 111 francs, 10 centimes by comparison, or slightly less than 23 dollars, indeed a large amount for those times. Considering the roughly 3/1 cost ratio below the rank of captain, one could probably outfit twice the number of regular units, given the manpower. It cost 40 million francs to raise an army corps from scratch. Considering further that a Guard army corps cost twice as much on average, then Napoleon could have theoretically had an extra corps in 1814 to defend La Pattie. For all Napoleon's tactical victories, he just ran out of men. The extra corps might have made a difference. It was more than just pay and nice uniforms. The Guard had its own hospitals and barracks, the best foodstuffs, bedding, and so forth (which produced hard feelings among other units, even duels). It was the best possible posting. Casualty rates in the Old Guard were virtually nonexistent between Marengo and Moscow, the only exceptions being the Guard Cavalry (Austerlitz and Eylau come to mind), and the Young Guard. From the retreat to Waterloo -- its worst pounding since Marengo -- Guard units were used more, but the Old Guard was still only a last resort. Portrayal in Wargames Game designers have always enjoyed simulating the Guard; veteran-heavy with the best weapons and horses, the Guard simply overpowers any unit in single combat. In games with morale factors, the Guard always rates the highest (Some series don't even give them a morale, making them unbreakable, or at least un-routable). Their combat figures are larger, and their movement is usually slightly higher. Some games feature special Old Guard rules to measure the morale effects of seeing the Old Guard advancing with fixed bayonets. Most games penalize players for rash commitments of Guard units, especially the Old Guard (specifically the Grenadier units). In most games, you lose victory points, sometimes in multiples of the steps of Old Guard losses. A Guard retreat, especially an attacker retreat, can be disastrous: Results can include morale checks for units within a certain radius, and a drop in overall army morale. Guard units can even take extra losses simply because they are Guards. Most of these rules are in place to keep players from frittering away the Guard. Some are based on the Guard's performance at Waterloo, where the Guard entered at an already bad juncture with the Prussians attacking one flank, while artillery and crack British marksmen shot them to pieces. Even though the Guard made one valiant stand at the end to cover its retreat, game designers have ensured that a decision to commit the Guard has come with grave penalties, especially if repulsed. Napoleon's Guard was more than a psychological weapon. It served as a unit of last resort to cover a retreat or even, in Russia, to ensure having one fresh corps to avert disaster. It was the instrument that Napoleon used to project his will at any point in the battle, but it was an instrument that stayed honed and ready, usually in reserve. Serious Battles The only two battles where the Guard was seriously committed were Marengo, where it stood firm after heavy casualties, and Waterloo, where most Guard formations, including the Old Guard were committed, and all were repulsed after the regular army was also repulsed. I advocate a two-tier system for commitment of the Old Guard. The Young Guard and the Guard cavalry were more regularly committed, especially the latter, but were expensive to replace, so it should cost at least twice as much to replace them, and this should stay standard throughout the period. The Old Guard Grenadiers and Chasseurs are special cases. Before 1812, the penalties for their commitment should be in extra replacement costs, possibly triple line units, and a loss in victory points for having to use them. After 1812, losing Old Guard units was more disastrous. Army morale would suffer effects in proportion to the amount of Guard in the army. The effect on surrounding units -- morale checks resulting in hesitation, or even a retreat in disorder-would be localized, mainly due to the confusion of battle. Players committing the Guard prematurely would find themselves lacking elite units to exploit a decisive break in the battle or to cover a retreat. Having one unit that could fend off pursuit could make the difference between a setback and total defeat. The Imperial Guard was the product of a society that increasingly militarized during the evolution from kingdom to Republic to Empire. The aggressive spirit of the Revolution bred a tradition that needed continual glorification. Even if they ultimately could not live up to it, the Guard acquired a legendary status, never to be recaptured in later eras where improvements in weaponry made battle far more brutal. The trappings of "glory' were briefly revived under the less than brilliant Louis Napoleon, but beautiful uniforms could not replace the elan and tactical brilliance of the Imperial Guard and its Corsican master. Though all generals in the American Civil War considered themselves students of Napoleon, they raised no real guard units. Lee, America's closest equivalent, commented that "it is good we know how terrible war is, or we would grow too fond of it," a sentiment that would have been unheard of as the tall black bearskins waved in precise ranks through the capitals of Europe. Imperial Guard Organization 1812 Back to Table of Contents -- Against the Odds vol. 1 no. 4 Back to Against the Odds List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by LPS. 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