Borodino 2002

Friday Lecture:
Jean Lochet:
Preparation of French Cavalry
for Campaign of 1812

by Russ Lockwood


Jean Lochet, a 75-year old French paratrooper who fortunately missed being assigned to Dien Bien Phu by a matter of months back in the 1950s, has been studying the Napoleonic era for over 40 years. He is, in short, a national treasure. He also has a strong French accent, which can be difficult to hear if you're sitting in the wind tunnel of a room. Fortunately, he knows and jokes about it, so he brought along overhead projector slides to place text on the screen. Then, wielding a wooden pointer like an epee, he proceeds to amaze the listeners with his research, adding comments here and there. PBS filmed him, although I could see the soundman holding the boom microphone shaking his head and twiddling a switch on some equipment from time to time. -- RL

In 1811-12, Napoleon brought the light cavalry regiments up to 5, then 6, and finally 7 squadrons. Theoretically, that would make them with a strength of 1050 troopers per regiment, with Dragoon and Cuirassier regiments being at 800 troopers. Most indeed made the manpower allotments when they crossed the Nieman in June of 1812.

For Cuirassiers, in November 1811 they were supposed to receive muskets. By December, that order had been modified so that 1/3 did indeed receive muskets for defensive purposes only. A cuirassier division consisted of three regular regiments and one lancer regiment. However, note that the edict came down that these were to be kept in mass--no detachment, escort, or scout duties for the 1812 campaign. After a successful charge, they were to be reformed and leave pursuit to other, fresh cavalry.

For Cheveau-leger cavalry, the troopers were issued a musket, a bayonet, and one pistol, and received some training on foot.

The Grande Armee contained 8 corps, the Imperial Guard Corp and four corps of reserve cavalry in the center. Two other corps, one Prussian and one Austrian, were out on the wings.

Most Hussars and Chasseurs a Cheval regiments contained four squadrons each, or about 1,050 troopers. However, some Chasseurs only had two or three squadrons. Most Dragoons only had three squadrons, falling short of the 800-trooper requirement. The Cuirassier regiments uniformly had four squadrons and 800 troopers. Of the 200,000 animals that entered Russia, over 80,000 were cavalry mounts and remounts.

The Cuirassiers and Dragoons were well-trained, but in the Light Horse regiments, many were young and inexperienced. Some had been transferred from Spain, spending six months getting into position in Poland. Most of these were lost by Moscow.

The French cavalry faced tremendous supply problems while mobilizing, and its horses were often fed green oats, barley, and wheat because the various forage had been stripped by the enormous army. Thus, the cavalry was in a weakened state before the invasion, and horses that died were replaced with whatever was available--and you can't automatically train horses for combat.

Border Idea

Napoleon had expected to defeat the Russian Army at or near the border. However, the Russians traded space for time and attrition and the need for garrisons struck the French Grande Armee. By August, at Smolensk, the original 235,000-man army with 60,000 cavalry that crossed the Nieman River was down to 157,000 men and 31,000 cavalry. By September and Borodino, the total was down to 105,000 men and 30,000 cavalry.

French Cavalry commander Nansouty remarked that "our horses didn't have the patriotism of our soldiers. The soldiers fight without bread, but horses do not do duty without oats."

Even worse, much of the forges, nails, and raw iron was left behind or lost, leaving the French Army without the means to maintain horseshoes and various cavalry equipment.

The Cavalry averaged 10-12 leagues per day, and one French league is about English 2.76 miles. Thus, the cavalry marched, or perhaps force-marched, 30 miles per day.

To get an idea of attrition, cavalry strength in August was down to 400-600 troopers per regiment--which started at 1050--and down as low as 200 troops and as high as 800. Although few numbers are available for June, some examples are: 11th Hussars: June, 1029 to August, 439; 9th Hussars: June, 1077 to August, 721; 7th Hussars: June, 1093 to August, 632; 2nd Cuirassiers: June, 800 to August, 353. The units dispatched to the North suffered less, and fell into the 600-700 trooper area.

Those cavalry that had been dismounted were formed into march batalions or left behind in depots along the way. In theory, remounts were coming, but most didn't show up.

From the spreadsheet of numbers for the August returns, it is apparent that most units suffered 50% losses between the Nieman and Borodino. Some were undoubtedly lost in skirmishes and other combats. But the majority were lost to attrition from too little food and too long a trip.

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