"French Marines in 1813" Topic

I was wondering if anyone has information on the French Marines in Marmont's VI Corp in 1813. There doesn't seem to be a lot written on them. I'm interested in uniform information and questions like did they carry flags and such. Anything useful in painting up a unit or two. Any recommendations for figures would be most helpful.

Many Thanks!

Mark

They were distinctive. If I remember correctly and my sources are at home. They wore the standard shako. White pants and waistcoat. Mis to lgt Gray coats with red facings.

As with Rudy my sources are at home, but I seem to recall that they wore the greatcoat. Of course I may be confusing them with some other unit(s).

Jim

Using the search tool is useful:

TMP link

My uniform comment refers to the French LINE Battalions removed from guard duty along the coast and replaced by new draftees. It does not refer to the French Guard which most of the commetns on the TMP refers to. A good link.

The TMP link refers to the French marine artillery regiments which served as infantry in Marmont's corps, which was what Mark asked for.

Each regiment carried an 1812 pattern flag and an eagle.

Colin you are right. One plate book had an illustration of the marine. I will see if I can find which one.

Gentlemen,

They were not 'marines' they were sailors, more properly naval artillerymen. The French had no marines. They wore shakos, dark blue overcoats, and black leather equipment. Some of them were detailed to rebuild the Guard artillery before the 1813 campaign began, but sailors served well with the Grande Armee as artillerymen, infantry, and engineers.

Sincerely,
K

TMP link

Also discussed here back in 2007 by Kevin and some others.

Regards
James

Kevin you are correct. These were drawn for duty from the 'artillerie de marin and converted into 4 Rgts of naval infantry wearing a dress as you stated. 500 veterans of the corps were left at ports. 400 were transferred to service with Imperial Guard artillery units. Another group of these troops were utilized as the cadre for creating 8 artillery companie. <So of the 9,000 men in the Corps maybe around 7,000 were used as infantry>. (Kevin as you know already tThis is according to Etling in his Sword around the Throne book.)

Prehaps the translation from French to English may cause a lot of the confusion. The term marin is used for sea.
Adding to the confusion are comments fro mencyclopedias liek the following:
"…The Compagnies de la Mer were transformed in line infantry regiments by Napoleon…"

A completely different organization of 'naval infnatry.
"… The Fusiliers Marins (Naval Infantry) are units specialised in the protection and defence of key sites of the French Navy on land…" In the Napoleonic Wars they also served on ships as a member of this corps is given credit for shooting Nelson.

we are using these troops in an 1813 game we have just started. They are in reserve off field but we are expecting a great deal from them. They had a good reputation, I hope they live up to it under my generalship.

Rudy,
That's why a good French/English dictionary is very useful. The French terms 'marin' and 'matelot' translate as sailor and seaman, respectively. Further the term 'marine' translates as navy. Years ago I purchased an 1828 French dictionary which has proved to be very helpful and is almost in the time period.

Sincerely,
K

Agree kevin, I have some very good translation dictionaries for Korean, Greek and Japanese but only travel pocket ones for other European languages.

As you said the older ones are better and complete. My favorite older one is the one I use for my research into ancients which is Lemprieres Classical Dictionary, a 1951 release.

Thanks everyone. I did use the search tool under French Marines but nothing turned up. Wasn't sure what else to us since Marines are the typical (if incorrect) desgination used to describe them in English.

"… Yo no soy marinero.
Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan.
Soy capitan, soy capitan.

…."

<;^}