"French Napoleonic Army Uniforms Reference" Topic

I recently purchased Franklin's guide to British Napolenic uniforms, and I was wondering if there is a similar book available for the French army.

I know the French Army was vast, and a lot more diverse, but is there such a book in existence?

Failing that, is there a uniform, or other, reference book for the armies/regiments that fought in Spain?

Many thanks!

Ryan

L et F Funcken's 'Uniformes et les Armes des Soldats du Premiere Empire'

Haythornthwaite's 'Uniforms of the Peninsular War'

both out of print, but still kicking around on Amazon/eBay

Elting's Napoleonic Uniforms, while expensive, is very beautiful : link

And of course the hundreds of Osprey on the French army are always a good, decent start.

I can think of some books you might like.

The first is "Napoleon's War in Spain: The French Peninsular Campaigns, 1807-1814" by Commandant Henry Lachouque, Jean Tranie, and J.C. Carmigniani. It's a more of a military history than a uniform guide, but it's very well-illustrated with both BW and color illustrations. It also has full-page illustrations of the soldiers of both sides, some of which include as many as sixteen figures each. It isn't comprehensive by any means, especially since it's not devoted to the study of uniforms. It's out-of-print, so you'd have to search for it.

The second is Philip Haythornthwaite's "Uniforms of the Peninsular War", illustrated by Michael Chappell. It has sixty-four pages of color illustrations, each of which illustrate two or three soldiers. It's a handy little book, but again, it's not completely comprehensive. The text does much to fill in the gaps left by the illustrations. This book was first published in hardback in 1978, and has since been reprinted in softcover version(s); it might still be in print.

The Osprey books are good, but one would have to buy at least several of the French titles to get all the information one needed.

You also might be aware of the two-volume set by Lilian and Fred Funcken, (part of their Arms and Uniforms series) which many Napoleonic wargamers have bought at one time or another. I think it was originally published in the 70s. The Funckens devoted the better parts of both volumes to the French. These books "show their age" in some ways: they have some errors, in spite of the large amount of soldiers illustrated and the exciting style of the Funckens' art.

The problem with researching Napoleonic uniforms is that it seems hard (at least to me, anyway) to find everything one needs in just one place. And one advantage of having multiple sources is that you can compare them against each other and avoid certain errors. For instance, the artist who illustrated the two separate Osprey books on Napoleon's line and light infantry chose to paint the light troops' coats in a lighter color of blue than those of the line infantry (they were actually the same indigo blue color.) Anyway, you get the idea.

You also might like the "Historie & Collections" books, which are available in English. As far as I know, this series doesn't have a title devoted to the Peninsular War yet. However, they have a ton of illustrations of soldiers, colors, etc., and are probably the best one-stop source of Napoleonic uniform information that I can think of. "Borodino The Moskova" and "1814 – the Campaign for France" would both give you a lot of information about late French Napoleonic armies. The only hitch is, they wouldn't include specific information about French units in Spain or their allies. But if you wanted to get familiar with the French in a hurry, you could do worse.

Please excuse me if I've rambled a little bit. I hope this helps.

Jeff

It looks like Connard Sage and I wrote our posts at the same time. Connard gave you the correct full title of the Funckens' French edition books.

The Funcken books are available online in the original French. Click on 'Armee Imperiale'

link

Funcken are a bit dated now and there are much better books available.

Go to amazon and type in napoleon. You will find just about everything you need.

Commandant Bucquoy's book of postcard-like representations of French Infantry is a gold mine of information, showing some of the units that served in Spain, as 17eme leger; 27eme leger; 8eme de ligne; 26eme de ligne; 27eme de ligne; 42ene de ligne; 63eme de ligne; 65eme de ligne; 67eme de ligne and others.

Back in the 1970's, I decided to build some wargame units based on the Ist Corp in Spain, and gleaned information from many sources. Rousselot helped with a few drummers and sapeurs – heads of column. His Chasseur a pied plates give great detail for the 2eme Leger; an odd depiction of the 17eme leger with scarlet turnbacks you might expect to see only for Young Guard units; and others.

You might send a list of units you would like to do, and have us respond with any specifics we have found about those units. I have information on the 9eme leger; 24eme de ligne; 96eme de ligne details – all first division of first corps.

Also 16eme leger; 8eme de ligne; 45eme de ligne of second division (DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY WAR-GAME-USEFUL INFORMATION ON THE 54eme de ligne?). And finally the 27eme leger; 63eme de ligne of the third division. Minor "stuff" on the 94eme and 95eme de ligne, also in that division.

GdeP

Try:

link

The problem with the New York Public Library uniform 'collection' is that it undoubtedly was assembled by someone (not in the library, by the way) who tore up a lot of books, good or bad, to get that material assembled. The Knotel material, as well as JOB's stuff is excellent and quite usable. Much of the other material, though, isn't labeled and you have to do at least some research on your own to figure out who belongs to what unit.

That being said, I have found it to be quite useful.

I have found that if you want excellent uniform reference material you have to spend the money to get it. The four uniform books by Col Elting, the Rousselot plates, Courcelle's excellent prints, along with material by Maurice Orange, Detaille, etc., isn't cheap. Luckily, there is excellent material by Courcelle and Eugene Leliepvre in some of the Osprey's and if the Osprey's are by bona fide historians of the caliber of Rene Chartrand, such as Napoleon's Sea Soldiers, the material is excellent and reliable. Unfortunately, there are too many Ospreys (Napoleon's Guard Infantry, Line Infantry, and Light Infantry come to mind )where the material has to be used with care.

And, lastly, the study of uniforms is confusing to the extent that 'There are three sorts of uniforms for every period of history: those described in the uniform regulations; those shown by the artists of that period; and what the soldiers really wore!' (stated by Roger Forthofer).

Sincerely,
K

Brummie Lad,

There are three books produced by the Musee de l'Armee in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s that have the entire, or close to it, Napoleonic collection assembled in them in photographs. I picked them up in 1994 at the Museum for FF 300. They are now selling at the Red Lancer for $150.00 USD each. Even though that is expensive, they are well worth it and I would highly recommend them.

The are thin, tall volumes and are packed with photographs of the collection and are invaluable in uniform research. It is original material plus paintings and the Grande Armee is covered from muzzle to butt plate. I don't know anyone else who owns the three other than myself and I don't think the production run was very large. I was lucky to stumble across them.

Sincerely,
K

Wow, lots of information there. Thanks!!

I might try buying a book a month, as I'm not in any major rush because I'm going to be working on the British Army in 6mm first.

I really appreciate the advice! :)

I do not know the French well, and the problem with any uniform book is that it's a whole lot easier to make a mistake than to catch one. Some books are more reliable than others, but it takes a lot of comparison and research to figure it all out.

To extend the question beyond the Peninsula, I find the Guy Dempsey books very good, and while I would not endorse the Histoire et Collections battle series – too many little mistakes in the Allies – I believe their Imperial Guard and Hussars are probably pretty sound, being French and all…

If you want a single small volume as a primer, before delving into anything larger or more expensive (or buying a huge range of Osprey titles), try the Brassey's book on Napoleon's Army. It covers all arms of service and actually contains a lot of helpful information.

link

For those of us who paint 6mm you might not need much more, unless you are using a VERY small brush!

Brummie
Try Ian Allen books in Brum – they often have a good selection including most of the H&C books mentioned.

For Spain, there are two books by Bueno "Los franceses y sus aliados en Espana 1808-1814" (though I didn't find the second one very interesting compared to the first). I've seen them for sale recently though I don't remember if at a show or Ian Allen.

Online, there are sites such as empire.histofig.com
and 1789-1815.com/armee_fr.htm

see also

TMP link

Try these as well:

link

link

There is no exhaustive volume covering ALL uniforms of the french napoleonic period.

Funckens are laced with mistakes – despite having been ground breaking when published (some 40 years ago !)

the two best reefrences remain to this day:

Bucquoy cards reprinted as several volumes during the 1970s and 1980s: They are invaluable and cover some aspects very exhaustively (like the volume on cuirassiers). If you read french the text is incredibly packed with details.

Rousselot plates: these have all been recently reprinted as 2 large bound volumes by LCV Services: lelivrechezvous.com

Again all in french – but Rousselot plates are THE reference although focusing on regulation uniforms with some of the non-regulation types shown – but does NOT cover all

On the Imeprial Guard – there is my own work :=) La Garde Imperiale et ses uniformes also from LCV services (180 plates by Boisselier + original contemporary works several hundreds of them)

The H&C books also cover the IG and hussars but as computer-generated drawings all based on Funcken, Bucquoy, Rousselot, Boisselier.

YM

Try link

Paul,
Yes, fine for the 1815 campagne.
Regards,