The following questions have been answered by Mr. Emmanouil Vovsi. Mr. Vovsi is an immigrant from Latvia. He holds a Master Degree in history and he is an expert on the Russian army. He also has great interest in the French army and its uniforms. While Latvia was part of Russia, Mr. Vovsi was involved with a Russian commission for the study of the Napoleonic Wars and consequently has a great many contacts among Russian historians. Mr. Vovsi will be glad to answer questions on the Russian army from the readership.
Question 5-2: Did the tirailleurs and fusiliers of the Pavlov Grenadier Regiment wear shakos, fusilier mitres or mitres like the grenadiers in 1812?
Answer to Question 5-2: (by Emmanouil Vovsi)
All the troopers of the Pavlov grenadiers wore the mitre including the tirailleurs. Although the mitre was discarded on February 13, 1805, it was worn by the Pavlov Grenadier Regiment until 1914. The Pavlov Grenadier Regiment was not transferred to the Russian Young Guard until 1813. In January 1808, the Pavlov Grenadier Regiment under MajorGeneral Neverovshy received an unusual award. The grenadiers had been authorized to kept their mitres because of the regiment's gallant behavior at the Battle of Eylau. The newly produced mitres made on the old pattern were engraved with the soldiers names. There were still more than 500 of these mitres in use with the Pavlov regiment in 1918, many of these with battle damage. Several of these mitres have found their way into the present reenactment group "The Pavolski Grenadier Regiment" based in St. Petersburg. The mitres had color distinctions shown on the following drawing.
On the left Mitre of the 1st Battalion, center 2nd Battalion and right 3rd Battalion. The 1st Battalion has a green center (black in the drawing), the 2nd Battalion a white center and green plume all around, The third battalion has a yellow center and the rest of the plume is green (black in the drawing).
A regiment of grenadiers had one battalion of grenadiers and two battalions of fusiliers. The grenadier battalion was formed with 4 companies of grenadiers while the fusilier battalions had I company of grenadiers and 3 of fusiliers.
Only the NCOs and grenadiers in both the grenadier and fusilier battalions wore the mitre. The officers wore the shako. The fusiliers wore the shako or Kiver.
Until 1805, the tirailleurs, which were part of the grenadier companies, wore the mitre.
I should complete my answer with some Important Information on the organization of the Russian Army between 1810 and 1814.
In 1756, all 46 fusilier regiments were renamed "Musketeers". The term "Musketeer Regiment" was only used until 1811. After 1811, all the "Musketeer Regiments" were renamed "Infantry Regiments". After 1810, the grenadier battalions were disbanded and organized into regiments. Each regiment of Grenadiers, Infantry and Jagers consisted of three battalions of four companies. Each battalion contained one grenadier company subdivided into two platoons, one of which was tirailleurs and the other grenadiers. The other 3 companies were named fusiliers, musketeers or Jagers according to the regiment.
Beginning in 1812, the Grenadier Regiments were segregated into the 1st and 2nd Divisions.
Question 5-1: Did the 1812 Russian Fusilier shakos and cartridge pouch have a single or triple flame?
Answer to Question 5- 1:(by Emmanouil Vovsi)
As mentioned in EE&L 5, the Russian infantry in 1812 was equipped with a cartridge pouch made of black leather. Since July 14, 1808, the plaque on the cartridge pouch and the shako had been replaced by a grenade with one or three flames depending on the unit.
The Grenadier Regiments (1st and 2nd Divisions) had a grenade made of copper with three flames. The shakos and cartridge pouches of the Miner companies of the 1st and 2nd Pioneer Regiments were also equipped with the three-flame grenade made of white metal. The regiments of the navy and column leaders had grenades with three flames.
The Infantry and the Jager regiments (Divisions 3 to 27) had a grenade with only one flame made of copper for the NCOs and rank and file and gilded for the officers. The officers, NCOs and rank and file of the Engineers also had a grenade with one flame made of white metal.
Sources: Parkhaev, Oleg Russkayja Armia v 1812 gody, Moskwa, 1989, part III
Question 6-1: On page 18 of Wellington Light Cavalry by Bryan Foster (Osprey #126), there is a black and white drawing of an officer of the 14th Light Dragoons in 1812. This was the regiment that served in a dismounted capacity in the New Orleans Campaign. The caption stated that as late as 1814, Lieutenant Bretherton reported that while wearing the 1812 uniform, he still had the bearskin-crested helmet. Can there be any chance then that the helmet was worn at New Orleans and not the shako?
Answer to Question 6-1: (Kindly provided by Philip Haythornthwaite)
Yes, it is true that Lieutenant Bretherton mentions that he wore the old Tarleton helmet to the end of the Peninsular War (1814), but the regiment came home before being sent across the Atlantic, and even if the rank-and-file hadn't received the 1812-pattem shako during the Peninsular War (and they could well have done), they would almost certainly have been re-clothed before embarking on another campaign. So yes, it's possible that the Tarleton was still used at New Orleans, but I would doubt it very much. (Officers' uniforms were rather a different case from those of the other ranks: the latter received periodic re-clothing en bloc, but officers bought their own uniforms and thus might not always wear the same pattern as that of the ranksandfiles; and there are documented cases of officers wearing a combination of two patterns, e.g. the 1812 light dragoon coatee with pre- 1812 Tarleton, or the pre1812 dragoon coat with the 1812 maned helmet.
Question 6-2: Many years ago, I purchased the complete set of Les uniformes du Premier Empire reedited by the Lt.Col. Bucquoy and Guy Devautour. The only minor, and its very minor, drawback to these books is that they are in French and my French is truly terrible. Have they ever been published with an English-language text?
Answer to Question 6-2:
As far as we know no English-language text has been provided with the reedited series on uniforms by Commandant Bucquoy. That is not an isolated case, a multitude of French books have never been translated in English. The same is true for many fine books in German. It's difficult to study the Napoleonic era without some reading knowledge of both languages. But of course there is EE&L trying to publish Continental works.
Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 6
Back to EEL List of Issues
Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1994 by Emperor's Headquarters
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