"French Dragoons, Lancers and Chasseurs Uniform Green?" Topic

Is the uniform green for Line Chassuers, Dragoons and Lancers the same or different.

I have the Bukhari Osprey book Napoleons Cavalry which is 30 years old and it refers to Dragoons and Lancers being the same and a "mid green" whilst Chasseurs are different and a "dark green" and the illustrations show a very significant difference but I have seen recently some people on here stating that there was only one green.

Just curious which is correct?

As the line lancers were converted dragoon regiments, I have always assumed that they were the same colour green – as to the Chasseurs, from most of the prints I have seen you would be hard pressed to tell the greens apart, especially on campaign – since all my French cavalry are 6 mm, it is not much of a difference at that scale

Honestly the dies faded, were tinted by dirt, etc. There was a *lot* of variation. I have picked specific shades for each of my cavalry types but then I do randomly mix them up some to get some of that variation.

Cheers,

The Bandit

You're going to take advice from the "knowledgeable" people who express their "opinions" on TMP?

Osprey is one of the leading publishers of "authoritative" uniform references. Mr. Bukhari cited assistance from some pretty high-speed authorities in his Dragoons and Lancers volume, and the color plates were by the near-worshipped-as-a-god, but now sadly deceased Angus McBride. Surely Osprey would not have reprinted that Men-at-Arms so many times since 1976, and even put a new cover on in 1992:

link

…if there were any obvious errors in it, now would they?

Of course not. Silly idea. Trust your Ospreys.

Allen

Moreover, Foundry produces separate sets of green for "French Dragoon Green" and "French Chasseur a Cheval Green":

link

Since Foundry themselves says that these are "authentic", who is anyone here to question them?

Trust your Ospreys *and* trust Foundry.

Allen

Nominally, the Dragoon and Chassuer a Cheval uniforms were different shades of green. But in pre-aniline dye days, green was one of the hardest color to get, and the likeliest to fade, run, or otherwise change.

There are two pictures in this site from the Musee de L'armee at Paris.

link

One of them is a captain of the 4th Dragoons and the other is a Chasseur from the 8th. I do not know if the uniforms shown are replicas or real but at first sight the Chasseur one seems darker. Also if the uniforms are real there's also the issue of worn, etc.

Wow. That's a great website.

It is indeed a great site!

hussarbob1746.webs.com