I n 1812, the French army that came back from Russia was an army of ghosts. The few soldiers that survived the months of campaigning and long retreat from Moscow were hardly worth counting. The regiments' pillars, the "grumblers" and those who always followed, were dead. The snows of Russia had swallowed the greatest army of the time. To quote Talleyrand: "C'est le commencement de lafin!" (It is the beginning of the end.") Large Uniform Illustration (78K) Talleyrand was right, but Napoleon was not a man to give up that easily. As early as December 1812, he had started to raise and organize a new Grande Armee. After the repeated drafts of the Empire, France had very few able, adult men still available in 1813. In addition to the National Guard, troops in Spain, and the Navy, only boys were now available. Napoleon was going to use them, and, as their young faces were more like those of girls than men, they would be known as the "Marie-Louises," but that is another story. [1] Also available were the sons of the nobles and of the bourgeoisie who so far had been rich enough to purchase a substitute. Now the Emperor was about to tap that reserve. Raising The raising of the Guards of Honor predated the Senatus Consulte dated April 3, 1813, which ordered the organization of four regiments of Guards of Honor with an effective strength of 2,500 men each from among the nobles and bourgeois who until now had paid substitutes to serve in their stead. As early as January 6, 1813, Napoleon had decided to raise some Gardes du Corps. He wrote to Berthier: [2] "I have accepted the offers made to me of the six squadrons of life guardsmen, 200 men in each squadron. They will be formed from volunteers from the departments, all having an allowance of 10,000 francs from their family." In fact, the decrees involved the flower of the French youth, and the new blood tax was going to make some people very unhappy. The candidates, who had to provide their own horses, uniforms and equipment, were offered a commission after twelve months of service. Then, the decree added: "At the close of the Campaign, when we proceed to form a bodyguard, part of it shall be chosen from the guards of honor who shall have distinguished themselves." Spontineity...Not The expected spontaneity of raising the new corps of volunteers from within the vast expanse of the Empire did not take place. Consequently, to meet their quotas, the prefets were obliged to name the volunteers. [3] These new "volunteers" were often called hostages by the army. This unfortunate state of affairs resulted in the impressment of many unwilling young men, and explains the initial hostility, the plots against the cadres, the desertions, and even the assassination attempt against de Segur who commanded the 3rd Regiment in Tours which consisted mostly of Vendeans and nobles from the west of France. [4] Some of these hostile royalist elements circumvented the problem of allegiance to Napoleon by pretending they had only joined the army to repel the invaders of France. The levy of the Guards of Honor proceeded in two steps. The first, early draft took place before the Senatus Consulte of April 3,1813, and produced some 15,000 men and 20,000 horses that arrived at the army in January, 1813. However, so many young men deserted so quickly that their unit name was changed from Life Guard (Gardes du Corps) to Guards of Honor. So desperate was the need for cavalry that an additional 10,000 "volunteers" were to be sent to the army as Guards of Honor. The second draft was not as choosy as the first one. The Empire was at least in part the continuation of the defunct French republic and the Guards of Honor could not be drawn exclusively from the nobles and the educated rich bourgeois. The principle of Egalite (equality) was still in force. Hence, the new corps was open to anyone who could pay for his own horse, equipment, etc., and even that was not strictly enforced (there is evidence that the 10,000 francs requirement was waived in some cases). Consequently, the Guards of Honor included some members of the lower classes and we find in the ranks sailors, farmers, and workers. Many Guards coming from the department of the Gironde were from poor families. In the 4th Regiment, some upper class Guards were very unhappy to be mixed with troopers who lacked manners and education. It was observed in Lyon that many of the boys of the 4th Guards of Honor, drilling in civilian clothes while awaiting their uniforms, belonged to the poorest classes. In addition, let us not forget that the Guards of Honor were drawn from all the parts of the Empire, from Holland to Italy. According to the French archives, in October 1813, 6,837 men came from the French departments, 1,025 from the Italian departments, 207 from the Roman departments, 1,165 from the Belgian departments, 524 from the Holland departments, and finally 302 from the Hanseatic and the Lippe departments. This list does not cover deserters. New Decree On April 5, 1813, a new decree covered the uniform of the new Guards of Honor. The text read: "The four regiments shall be dressed, equipped and armed as the hussars. "The horses shall be of the size of that of the hussars. "The uniform of the four regiments shall be identical, the pelisse shall be dark green, lined with white flannel. "The dolman shall be dark green with red (ecarlate) facings.... "The culotte hongroise [Hungarian trousers] will be red. The buttons will be white, the belt red and white, and the shako red." This bright uniform was designed to emulate the golden youth and stimulate their military motivation. [5] In spite of the difficulties of raising some 10,000 new cavalrymen in 1813, the regiments began to take shape. The 1st Regiment was organized in Versailles, the 2nd in Metz, the 3rd in Tours, and the 4th in Lyon. Command To command the unruly youth, the Emperor appointed strongly committed high ranking officers from the Line and the Guard, who knew how to handle their men. General de Division Count de Pully became the commander of the 1st Regiment, General de Brigade Count Lepic the 2nd Regiment, General de Brigade Count de Segur the 3rd, and General de Division Count Saint-Sulpice the 4th Regiment. A prestigious General de Division Count de France was to command the Division of the Guards of Honor, but never did so. There was an acute shortage of trained subaltern officers and NCOs. The Guards of Honor in the 1813 and 1814 Campaigns In spite of all the problems, the organization of the Guards of Honor proceeded quickly. According to the Vincennes returns of October 23, 1813, the regiments had a total effective strength (at least on paper) of 10,061 as follows: 1st Regiment: 2,394 2nd Regiment: 2,417 3rd Regiment: 2,695 4th Regiment: 2,555 Each regiment included ten squadrons, each of two companies. Although the effective strength reached the 10,000 mark by October, we should not conclude that all the troopers were trained, ready for action, and in the field where they were sorely needed. Far from it. A close look at the Grand Army returns shows that the Guards of Honor squadrons were sent individually to the army as they became trained and operational. The 1st to 5th squadrons were sent first to the Grande Armee, i.e., a total of 20 companies. The official returns shows that the Guards of Honor were short of trained officers and NCOs. The returns dated August 15, 1813, i.e., four days after the armistice ended, list all twenty squadrons with the Grande Armee. However, many of these squadrons were not yet with their parent regiments, but were en route. The returns were as follows: 1st Regiment: 32 officers, 1,213 men 2nd Regiment: 22 officers, 1,235 men 3rd Regiment: 21 officers, 1,197 men 4th Regiment: 20 officers, 1,297 men By September 13, 1813, the effective strength with the Grande Armee was significantly less than that of August 15: 1st Regiment: 13 officers, 354 men 2nd Regiment: 16 officers, 286 men 3rd Regiment: 7 officers, 203 men 4th Regiment: 6 officers, 202 men Lachouque in Anatomy of Glory (page 312) says that before Leipzig "...one squadron of each regiment of Guards of Honor was attached to the 3rd Division." Type of Troops What kind of troops were the "early" Guards of Honor? Nansouty, on October 13, a few days before they were first engaged in combat, reported his disappointment on his inspection of the four regiments: "These regiments are in general poorly uniformed, poorly equipped, badly kept and have a great number of bad horses. The 4th Regiment appears to be the worst one....I have sent a report concerning 86 Guards from the 4th Regiment requesting to be sent back home on the condition that they shall return fully mounted, uniformed and armed at their expenses. There are in the four regiments some men without uniforms or equipment that are ragged...." Yet, like the rest of the Grande Armee, they fought well. The Guards of Honor were engaged for the first time at Leipzig. It is very likely that their effective strength was not much more than one squadron per regiment. They fought with the cavalry of the Imperial Guard. At that battle, they were under the orders of Colonel-Major de Pange (1st Regiment), Mathau (2nd Regiment), de Saluces (3rd Regiment) and Monteil (4th Regiment). They were also at Hanau on October 30-31, where they made a brilliant charge after which they were cheered by the Horse Grenadiers with a "Long live the Guards of Honor!" The number of troopers per regiment had been reduced by losses at the Battle of Leipzig and the retreat to the Rhine. By that time, the other twenty war squadrons had joined their respective regiments and somewhat increased the regimental strengths. However, the 2nd Regiment, stationed in Mainz and Metz, had their numbers greatly reduced by typhus. We have to depend on de Segur's Du Rhin a Fontainebleau to get an idea of the strength of his command on the Rhine. The following is what he has to say (pp. 86-87): "The 3rd Guards of Honor was placed in the vanguard for the defense of the Rhine from the Vauban fort to Germersheim. I had under my command 2,000 guards and 1,750 horses, all that was left....Behind the curtain the 1,500 guards who had not yet fought could continue their training, equipment, remount, etc., to complement the 500 guards that had retreated from Leipzig,...where an equal number had been lost....on top of that I had the problem that I had only one officer for 100 guards, and of that small number only five officers and three NCOs had any experience at all....But during the seven weeks of respite that the Allies gave us... all the equipment problems were resolved and the regiment became fully operational." Typhus took a further toll on the remains of this second Grande Armee. So did desertion, which among the Guards of Honor from Holland and other departments outside France proper increased to an alarming rate. Consequently, it was decided to release from duty and send to the rear these unreliable elements. In January, 1813, typhus, desertion and the release from duty of the foreigners had reduced the effective strength of the 3rd Guards of Honor to 1,550 troopers fully equipped and ready for action. 1814 They found plenty of action during the Campaign of 1814 in France. By the time of the Battle of Montmirail, they numbered some 896 present. At Reims, they made a famous charge in which they were outnumbered by the Russians. The Regiment captured an entire battery, De Segur and General Picquet were both wounded, and Colonel BelmontBriancon killed. Their losses in that battle were heavy. During the Battle of Paris, a few Guards of Honor were present. After the abdication of Napoleon, the royalist elements, de Segur included, joined the restored monarchy as the following extract from a letter from the Count de Segur to the Provisional Government shows: "I offer today, my six hundred guards and myself to the successor and descendant of the kings of my ancestors. "I swear fidelity to him, in the name of my officers, of all my guards, and in my own name, which answers from my oaths." - Le Moniteur, Monday, April 11, 1814. Louis the XVIII kept Napoleon's commitment to commission the survivors after twelve months of service. Some of them were incorporated into the line regiments but most returned to civilian life. During the Hundred Days, 87 Guards of Honor joined Napoleon. They were at first incorporated into the National Guard and then into a cavalry corps. They fought at Waterloo. The Guards of Honor Uniforms Footnotes [1] For a good study of the raising of Napoleon's army in 1813, see Scott Bowden, Napoleon's Grande Armee of 1813, The Emperor's Press, 1990. [2] Napoleon's Correspondence No. 19437, January 9, 1813. [3] The prefets were the departments' administrators. [4] It's interesting to note that de Segur, after the attempt against his life, handled the situation so well that he gained the respect and devotion of his Regiment. That is some achievement when one considers that his unit included names like Charette, Sapineau, and d'Elbee (see EE&L #3, "La Vendee," pp. 8-13). Charette had even gone as far as plotting the assassination of Napoleon. [5] There is an old French saying: "L 'habit nefait pas le soldat, mais il y contribue," i.e., "The uniform does not make a soldier, but it contributes to it." Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 8 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