"Marines of the Imperial guard; which battles?" Topic

Hi everyone,
As I have some suitable 1/72 plastic models left over I was thinking of painting up some Marines of the Imperial Guard this weekend. I always have greater painting motivation when I know I am painting a unit that I might get to use quite alot.
So, do you know which battles the Marines appeared in? So far I have deduced that they were at Bailen (and at Austerlitz although not as combat troops). Did they take part in any others?
Also, was it just a single battalion that took part in these conflicts?

I can't recall if they EVER were more than one Bn.
At Waterloo they were 107 strong – so 1 co.?
Not sure if they did anything there either.

Sadly, at Waterloo they weren't wearing their spiffy duds.
*edit: not that that should stop wargamers from enjoying their splendour!*

Just one battalion. Wiped out at Baylen, but re-constituted and served frequently in the field, usually as engineers, I don't have a list of specific battles on hand.

They were sailors, not Marines (the word 'marine' is French for navy). The French had no Marines during the period as Great Britain and the United States did.

The correct title is Sailors of the Imperial Guard and they were not at more than battalion strength during the period.

They were first formed in 1803 and attached to the Guard to handle the Guard's landing craft for the projected invasion of England. They were first termed matelots (which means 'seamen') but their title was changed when they were actually taken into the Guard in 1804 to Bataillon des Marins de la Garde (marin meaning 'sailor). Apparently most were from Corsica and southern France.

They were employed throughout their existence as infantrymen, sailors, gunners, and pontonniers. They served at the sieges of Stralsund and Danzig in 1806-1807 and went to Spain with Dupont and were surrendered at Baylen.

They were sent to different Spanish prisons and proved adept at escapes and enough of them reached Victor at Cadiz to reform one company. In 1809 there was still only one company (the battalion using the naval term 'equipage' instead of company the original battalion having five equipages and a battalion headquarters).

In 1810 the battalion was reactivated and increased to eight companies, but it appears that only five had Guard status. Only two companies went into Russia in 1812 and one company was in Germany the next year. Three companies were with the army in 1814 and 21 sailors went to Elba with Napoleon that year.

As previously mentioned, there was only one company in the field in 1815.

B

I painted a battalion once when I was a teenager. The drummers were spectacular.

I mean the uniform, not necessarily my rendering…

link

Good choice!

To the best of my recollection, the Guard Sailors were organized by crews, not companies.

Rick

Yes, they were formed in equipages, which were company equivalents.

B

Perhaps a source of confusion is the term "company" – which folks would typically associate with an infantry company, but in this case the organization was a "ship's company" or in other words a crew. Hence an ship's equipage, as they were sailors first and foot soldiers second, at least in concept. I read once, and I cannot immediately recall where that some Guard Sailors, prisoners of Baylen, interned aboard a Spanish prison hulk, managed to overpower their captors and were somehow connect with French in the vicinity. A remarkable tale, that is very nearly unbelievable, but these were not just any sailors…

Jarhead