"Les Carabinières de la Reine" Topic

Posted on the Alternate History Forum as an answer to the challenge "Female Soldiers in the 1700's".
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An interesting "what if?", ingeniously woven into the fabric of French history as we know it… Félicitations!

By doing so I committed what is a criminal offense in Alternate History: I ignored (rather, grossly underestimated) the 'butterfly effect' link – and deliberately so link, as we builders of Imagi-Nations always do

During the French Revolution several leading women asked for the creation of female volunteers battalions link. With the precedent of the Carabinières such female units may well have be raised, at least as garrison troops. Now imagine that the colorful (and short-lived) Ecole de Mars military school is made coeducational: just imagine David's 'exotic' (pseudo-Ancient) uniform with a riding skirt:

Or even, given that the 'tunic' already looked like a mini-dress (it indeed elicited bawdy comments and mischievous rumors about 'bad behaviors' in the dormitories by then) and the whole silhouette not unlike that of the cantinières during the 2nd Empire, keep it unchanged -the girls would be at a great disadvantage is having to fight riding side-saddle.

By the mid-18th C. the cap would look more like a mirliton, i.e. narrower at the top than at the base.

Translated as 1/60 miniatures they would make great alt-18th C. equivalents to the Hinterland Belle Epoque Hussarettes hinterlandminiatures.weebly.com

Years ago the now defunct London Warroom had "Zuffur Plutun Hyderabadi Women Sepoys" on their list, but without image: then *someone, somewhere* must have bought and painted them, and maybe taken some photos?