"lance pennons for the 2nd "red" Lancers of the guard" Topic

I thought I would consult the napoleonic expertise of this forum to delve into this crucial topic. :) I have two sources that show the pennons (pennants) to be white over red for the red lancers, every other unit of French lancers that I have seen have red over white. Does anyone know of a reason for the reversal. Just curious to know why.

Thanks,

David

not at home so can't check for sure but maybe its because they were the " Dutch Lancers" its possible they retained their original issue lances

here are 2 links that would appear to validate your research

link
link

Jim,

I wondered about that, but Polish lancers also have the more usual red over white, so I wasn't sure why the Dutch didn't adopt it as well.

David

The Poles were "in French service" aka mercenaries as the Vistula Legion so they would have been supplied by the French initially and then they formed the restored Polish Army

As a nod to their Polish origin the pennons were red over white for the Lancers of Napoleons army. My sources also list that the 2nd Lancers however had white over red

Ah,
So the red over white was polish in origin. That makes sense. Did the dutch have lancers of their own before Napoleon started tinkering with his armies? Jim may be on the right track if that if the case.

David

I was just reading a bit about the history of the Dutch lancers, and they were apparently created in 1810 from regiments of Hussars and Carabiniers, so my assumption would be that the Dutch did not have lancers prior to 1810, which kind of ruins the theory that it was a traditional color scheme.

Any other guesses?

David

I believe it was just a unit distinction between the two Guard Lancer Regiments. The uniform of the Dutch was intended to be an inversion of the Polish regiment's outfit-red faced blue instead of blue faced red (actually crimson). The colours of the pennons were another expession of this inversion.
I think this is in Lachouque.