0ur uniform plates present two familiar figures - circa 1810 - of French Napoleonic soldiers, a drummer of the Line Regiments and a sapeur of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard. The latter is a nice complement to the article on the organization of the Guard infantry to be found in the READER'S FORUM on page 57 in this issue.
In a Line regiment, there were two kinds of drummers, the drummers who were part of the so- called Tete de colonnes, which included the members of the regimental band, and the drummers who were part of the battalion's companies. The Tete de colonne musicians are known for the diversity of their usually flashy uniforms, but the companies' drummers wore uniforms more in line with the regulations, which does not mean they strictly adhered to it.
In the Line battalions all the infantry companies, i.e., grenadiers, fusiliers and voltigeurs, had two drummers, but some grenadier companies replaced one of their drummers with a fifer and, in theory, the voltigeur companies were to have two cornets, but that was often ignored and many voltigeur companies found one cornet sufficient and replaced the other with a drummer. Anyway, the Line drummers usually wore a shako similar to that of their company decorated with the company's color pompon as shown on our plate, or the bearskin if the grenadier company, contrary to the ordnance, had managed to keep its bearskin. The Swallow nest was a much favored drummer's ornament of different colors. The drummers of the 26th of the Line, in 18 10, wore red Swallow nests, but that of the 57th were medium blue piped red.
So, we can say that the drummer presented on the plate was typical for the Line regiments. However, in light of the above, it would be presumptuous to claim that all the Line regiment drummers looked like our model.
The Old Guard Grenadiers were only one regiment with two battalions in 1810 and were closer to the Emperor's eyes. Consequently they followed the regulations and we can claim that the plate truly represents a bearded sapeur of the Old Guard Grenadiers with his typical leather white apron and his axe. (It may be of interest to point out that the white apron tradition is still kept alive today by the French Foreign Legion which proudly displays its bearded sapeurs with their white aprons in all formal appearances like the yearly parade down the Champs- Elys6es on the 14 of July.) Each company had two sapeurs or eight per battalion which is more than the Line battalions.
In addition to their axe, the Guard sapeurs were armed with a special short sword and a carbine with a bayonet.
The organizational decree of February 18, 1808, was the Empire's first acknowledgement of the sapeur's position in the Line regiments, which until then had been unregulated. After 1808, there were four sapeurs per battalion. They were part of the grenadier company, under the command of a sapeur-corporal. In many regiments, the number varied somewhat but very often their uniforms, at least in 1810, were similar to that of the Guard, rarely, if ever, without the bearskin, but always with the traditional beard.
Sources
Bucquoy, Cdt., Cavaliers et grenadiers de la Garde, reprint Grancher, Paris 1980.
Bucquoy, Cdt., La Garde Imperiale, les troupes a pied, reprint Grancher, Paris, 1977.
Lachouque, Cdt., and Ann Brown, The Anatomy of Glory, Hippocrene Books, New York,
1978.
Head, Michael, Foot Regiments of the Imperial Guard, Almark Publications, 1972.
Emir Bukhari, French Napoleonic Line Infantry, Almark Publications, 1973.
Windrows, Martin, and Embleton, Gerry, Military Dress of the Peninsular War,
Hippocrene Books, New York, 1974.
Funcken, Liliane, and Fred, L'uniforme et les armes des soldats du Premier Empire,
Castennan, Tournai, 1969.
Color plate
A drummer of a Line Regiment and a sapeur of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard.
Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 7
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