The EE&L Staff will be glad to answer questions pertinent to our era of interest. Questions (comments and additional information) should be sent to either:
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Jean A. Lochet, 4 Kelly St. Metuchen, NJ 08840
or Mike Gilbert, 203 Gatzmer Ave. Jamesburg, NJ 08831
Marc Raiff, 29 Barchester Way, Westfield, NJ 07090-3747: e-mail: mraiff@worldnet.att.net
Question 2-1: I have read that the 11th Hussars during the Campaign of 1813 was not an elite unit. Can you elaborate on the military value of the French Hussar regiments during that Campaign and that of 1814?
Partial Answer to Question 2-1: It would take several pages to fully cover the military value of the French Hussars (as well as that of other cavalry regiments) during the Campaigns of 1813 and 1814. One has to realize that the cavalry regiments which were part of the Grande Armee in 1812 were practically destroyed during the disastrous retreat. What follows is applicable to French cavalry participating in the Campaigns of 1813 and 1814.
The French Hussar regiments that were part of the Grande Armee and participated in the invasion of Russia in 1812 were the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th Hussars which were distributed among the different Divisions of Light Cavalry. In January 1813, the official returns show that 2 officers and 40 other ranks were in Poland. The 5th was in a similar situation with 58 survivors while the 9th was in a better shape with 78. The other French cavalry regiments were in no better shape. Some cuirassier regiments had ceased to exist!
Napoleon decided to raise all the cavalry regiments from the existing survivors and the depots. It resulted that the reraised regiments could field only one squadron for the spring campaign and these squadrons were far from equal to the old French cavalry regiments of the previous Grande Armee and were, for the most part, not much better than green troops. We shall address the question more fully in a future article.
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© Copyright 1997 by Jean Lochet
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