Guard artillery consisted of two regiments, one of horse, one of field artillery, with varying numbers of batteries. The basic colors were blue with red collar and trim, as for the line. But the Guard artillery, both horse and fool, wore hussar type busbies with red bag and a short plume of white with red bottom. The short jacket had red lace (gold for officers). Belting was white.
Horse Artillery of the Guard
Trousers were infantry style for foot artillery, who wore gaiters and shoes. The horse artillery wore light cavalry style sabertaches, and the mounted trumpeters wore white coats with red and white lace, red piping. The sabertache was blue with red eagle and trim for troopers, gold for officers.
The Guard also had its own train, which wore red trimmed shakoes shaped like those of the Voltigeurs, blue jackets with red lace, red trousers with blue stripes. The mounted drivers had riding trousers with black false boots, dismounted personnel infantry style trousers with white gaiters and black shoes. Officers' trim was silver. Belts white.
Guard Engineers (Genie de la Garde) wore the same cut as the Grenadiers and paraded in bearskin with red cords and plume. The trousers were blue, coat blue, collar and cuffs as well as plastron black piped red. Turnbacks red with white grenade. In the plate one figure is shown with the blackened breastplate and heir-net as well as knee pads for working in the trenches.
In 1870 the Guard moved out with Voltigeurs and Grenadiers in parade headgear, but it was planned to issue kepis. The latter seem to have only reached the officers, with the bonnet de police trimmed in yellow for Voltiguers, red for Grenadiers frequently worn in combat.
Illustrations
Top: (left:) GUARD ZOUAVES 1870 and (right:) FOOT ARTILLERY OF THE GUARD.
More Napoleon III Imperial Guard
Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VII #3
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1986 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com