They were indeed cavalry.
There were 5 companies. The état-major was a logistics and medical element only, not a command element.
Each company, per establishment:
- 4 officers
- 14 nco's
- 86 guardsmen
- 2 trumpeters
- 1 drummer (2 for Milan)
- 1 farrier
- 1 chief mounted groom (palefrenier)
- 26 mounted grooms
So the whole group should have been upwards of 600 men (all ranks), but not all were mounted, and not all were really combattants.
The recruiting was supposed to voluntary and paid by the recruits and based on geogrpahic regions. It did not go so well. Conscripts were added. Still the 5 companies managed to send into Russia only 17 officers and 274 other ranks (as of June 1812). They were losing 20-25 men per month just traveling in the spring. After combat and the retreat – I think about 5 guardsmen made it back from Russia, with a couple of the officers.
A single larger company was re-raised in 1813 and disbanded in 1814. They wore the red color distinctive.
At Leipzig, the "Gardes d'honneur de la garde" were French – not Italian. A different group entirely.
Guardie d'onore dalla guardia reale italiana
- 1º compagnia di Milano : capitano-colonnello comandante conti Gaetano Battaglia – distinctive rose (very light crimson, "pink")
- 2º compagnia di Bologna : capitano-colonnello comandante conti Astorre Hercolani – distinctive yellow
- 3º compagnia di Bresica : capitano-colonnello comandante cavaliere Vincenzo Arici – distinctive chamois (yellowish buff)
- 4º compagnia di Romagna : capitano-colonnello comandante conti Francesco Milzetti – distinctive red
- 5º compagnia di Venezia : capitano-colonnello comandante Lodovico Widmann-Rezzonico – distinctive orange
Although they had no command structure above the "compagnia" I believe that the capitano-colonnello conti Battaglia would be considered the senior officer. I am really not sure why or how these honor guard companies migrated into being actually called to service in the field. Elsewhere in France and the French empire, such companies were ceremonial or at most used by the prefects to keep order among the civilians. Indeed, these honor guards were a sort of legal draft-dodging for the affluent. So sending the 5 companies of them into Russia was rather asking a lot of them.
They had nice uniforms ….
Quite separate from all the above was a civil guard infantry battalion raised in Milan for local police support to the (French) royal government, per a decree of December 1811. This is the unit for which Gboue provided a link.
This battalion was called to the field for the campaign of 1813.
Two of these guard battalions were also raised for Venice, by conversion of the two former sedentary national guard battalions. These were not a part of IV corps, did not take part in active campaigns and thus were still "sedentary" in their respective cities when the Austrians disbanded them in 1814.
- Sasha