"gendarmerie?" Topic

gents
I know there was gendarmerie de la garde! .Did they ever fight in a batalion?
Did they have eagles? greetings
joe serge

Now you are asking! Gendarmes d'Elite…try Google and you'll learn all about them. Just released by Perrys and shortly to appear from Gringo. The mounted ones get all the attention.

Their duties are well described on various sites. Guarding this and that, escorting various worthies, control of deserters, crowds, scouts/spies etc (duties expecting of Provost Guard)…..

But they could feature on a battle field. Obviously "The Immortals" were too valuable to waste in charging a line of guns, but they (probably little more than a single squadron) were brigaded with Grenadiers a Cheval for The 100 Days and did just that!

GMB certainly do an eagle for them, but it is identical to all heavy cavalry of La Garde.

Their barracks were the same as the guards cavalry? The eagles never saw combat huh? leaving them behind greetings joe serge

You want a different era or period of history… namely the French Revolutionary war period. Gendarme a pied fought at Hondshootte (spelling?)and Fleurs in battalions (or rather "Divisions" as they were specifically titled to differentiate them from regular infantry and national guard troops).

There is a wonderful semi-panoramic painting of the battle of Hondechotte that features the Gendarme of the 29th Division on the left and a company of white coated regular grenadiers on the right overpowering a band of Hanover Grenadiers in defence of the redoubt in front of the windmill.

One of the most detailed and inspiring paintings of the Revolution and Empire periods I have ever seen.

Cheers!
Beeker

There is also a suggestion that the Gendarmes d'Elite charged at Medina de Rio Seco on 14 July 1808.

Well, I'll be honest and admit I have never even heard of that battle until tonight. It is the old story of the Peninsula, if no British involvement, it didn't happen or matter to historians anyway…….Baylen perhaps the honourable exception.

As for eagles seeing combat…I think for cavalry that would have been very unusual indeed…..too risky. Does not stop us equipping every dozen troopers with an officer, a trumpeter and an eagle, though. They look good!

At Medina del Rio Secco, a detachment of 50 Gendarmes, along with a squadron of Empress Dragoons and one from the Polish Chevaux-Legers, under the temporary command of General Lasalle, charged Spanish cavalry to rescue a company of the 4th Legere which had become isolated.

The battle as a whole was another stunning victory for French dash and skill against overwhelming numbers of the Spanish enemy. That is a different old story of the Peninsula- the one your find in French books…..

French Heavy cavalry, Line and Guard, when deployed in regimental strength, took their eagles into battle. Adjt Guindey of the Grenadiers a Cheval, who as a line Hussar had killed Prince Louis of Prussia in single combat at Saalfeld in 1806, was himself killed at Hanau in 1813 helping protect the Regiment's eagle IIRC.

Doubly fascinating.

Again Medina del wotsit is new to me, but I did read up on it, courtesy of Wikileaks, last night…or was it Wikipaedia?

Eagles for Guard Cavalry, with such good evidence for use………….I feel so much better about showing them now. Still not sure I can justify that I did include their use for line Hussars…….but they do look so good. My poor Eclaireurs missed out. Even I could not bend history that much.

Seriously, there must be justification for a whole new thread on who did carry eagles into action….granted would differ with period. Who left them at depot? Who kept them well to the rear but brought on campaign? Was the flag then shown, or kept in the oilskin cover?

The légion de la gendarmerie d'élite had sent three company-sized detachments into Spain by mid-July 1808.
One compangnie, including the commanders of the légion (le colonel général de division Anne-Jean-Marie-Rene Savary, duc de Rovigo & le colonel-major général de brigade baron Jean-Baptiste Jacquin), 5 other officers and 78 gendarmes was in Madrid guarding the French headquarters and senior commanders. If the aigle of the légion was in Spain at all at this time (rather doubtful to me), it would have been here.

One compagnie (+) with 4 officers and 150 gendarmes was assigned to various guard duties along the lines of communication in Spain.

One compagnie with 5 officers and 100 (or 102) gendarmes was at Burgos and marched with Bessières to Medina de Rioseco, brigaded with other small detachments of the guard cavalry.

This compagnie was commanded by capitaine de la gendarmerie François-Xavier Noirot (Lons-Le-Saunier en Jura 1793 – Remiremont dans les Vosages 1825), then capitaine-instructeur de légion de la gendarmerie d'élite. The capitaine Noirot commanded the 1ere compagnie de la légion, in remplacement of the titular commander, the elderly (about 67 years old) capitaine Jean-Philippe Bloume, who officially retired on 1 July. Promoted chef d'escadron in the autum, Noirot stayed with the gendarmerie dite d'Espagne and had several years hard service in counter-insurgency operations.

A sidenote …. Noirot, then a lieutenant de gendarmes d'élite, had been assigned to stay with the duc d'Enghein in the hours just before his execution, and had been entrusted by duke in the moments before his facing th firing squad with his wedding ring, his watch, a lock of hair and a final letter all for his wife, the princess Charlotte de Rohann-Rochefort. Since we have this anecdote from various royalist writers during the restauration (not from the archives of the gendarmerie), I suppose the we can take it that Noirot made good on his promise to the doomed duke.

The other officers of the 1ere compagnie de la légion d'élite were:
lieutenants en 1er François-Jean Besançon (Avignon 1768 – 1821) & Philibert Frapilion (Corgoloin au Côte-d'Or 1766 – Dijon 1831)
and
lieutenants en 2e Jean-Louis Labbé (Le Coudray, Eure-et-Loir 1766 – 1851) & Remy Sarrazin (Castres 1772 – Saint-Arnould, près de Paris 1840), appointed a sous-adjudant major of the légion at about this time.

Another sidenote …. the lieutenant Labbé, a garde du roi at the time of the revolution, was one of the tribunal of judges at the "court" which ordered such severe repressions after anti-conscription/anti-régime riots at Caen in 1812.

The gendarmes did not enter action at Medina de Rioseco until late in the battle, when Blake's two battalions of combined grenadiers attacked the French center, taking four (per Oman) or two (per Foy) of the French guard artillery's guns. The charge then given by the guard cavalry over-threw the Spanish grenadiers and cleared the French center. The gendarmes not not have any officers casualties in this action, nor can I find any report of casualties among the gendarmes.

Perhaps interestingly, Foy mis-identifies them as grenadiers-à-cheval in his re-telling of the battle.

The dragoons of the guard (127 all ranks at the battle) and the Polish light horse (91 all ranks) were not so fortunate. Each also had a compagnie at Medina de Rioseco and they suffered three and four officers wounded, respecitvely – rather a high percentage for such small detachments. The had also acted against the handful of Spanish horse earlier in the battle.

The guard chasseurs also had a much reduced company at the battle (68 all ranks), their detachment in Spain having been already very roughly handled during the uprising in Madrid on 2 May. They did not sustain any officer casualties at Medina de Rioseco and may not actually have seen any action.

- Sasha

Alexandre

Your reply, above, contains possibly more information about this unit than is in any book of which I am aware…..and I do have a sizeable Napoleonic library! Very grateful. This is actually quite important info.

Joe Serge, you have started something really useful here with your topic!

Thank you, deadhead.

By the way ….

The lieutenant en 1er sous-adjudant major Jean-Baptiste Guindey (Laruns, Bearn 1785 – tué à la bataille d'Hanau, 1813) didn't die near, with or defending the aigle of the grenadiers à cheval de la garde. As a junior sous-adjudant major, he would have formed with the 2e division (i.e., 3e & 4e escadrons) – not near the aigle (if it was even carried into battle at Hanau).

In the mid-afternoon, a large corps of Bavarian chevau-légers had stormed into the French guard artillery's positions and the grenadiers à cheval had been sent in with a counter-charge. This charge devolved into a melée, the French horse rather out-numbered. They were disengaged from the Bavarians by their "little sister" regiment, the 3e régiment de gardes d'honneur under général de brigade aide-de-camp de l'Empereur comte Philippe-Paul de Ségur (Paris 1770 – Paris 1837, the future author of a somewhat critical history of the 1812 campaign).

Later, in the evening, Guindey's body was found – it was said among those of six Bavarian chevau-légers.

His friend from his days as a hussar, the capitaine Parquin, had witressed the grenadiers à cheval going in. Actually, Parquin writes that he shook hands with Guindey just as the grenadiers à cheval started their charge …. and saw his body, "covered with sabre wounds", in the evening. He mentions nothing about a defense of the aigle.

Richard Knötel painted the clash of the French guards with the Bavarians, their former ally.
link

- Sasha

In addition to Guindey, only two other officers of the grenadiers à cheval were casualties that day at Hanau.

The officer in command of the regiment, the colonel-major général de brigade baron Louis-Marie Levesque de la Ferrière (Redon, Ille-et-Vilaine 1776 – Vallery, Yonne 1834) was wounded 6 times by saber cuts to the arms and left shoulder. After this, the grenadiers à cheval began to habitually wear their cloaks rolled over the left shoulder in combat, like Russian infantry.

In the lead of the 2e division, where Guindey would have formed, was the 3e escadron (i.e., 3e compagnie & 6e compagnie).

The commander of the 3e compagnie, the capitaine Hidulphe-François-Marie d'Harembert (Fougeres, Ille-et-Vilaine 1782 – Saumur 1823) had his horse Diana killed underneath him by a saber thrust, and also took a sharp blow to the head which damaged his bonnet à poil – but was unwounded himself.

Sidenote …. The title of chevalier adhered to the d'Harembert under the ancien régime, and was re-established in 1818 before being recast as a barony. But the capitaine d'Harembert was never a chevalier de l'Empire (although granted the Légion d'honneur he never erected a marjorat nor apllied for the lettres patentes), nor was he ever made a baron de l'Empire under Napoléon – although he was well known as the baron d'Harembert in later life.

The commander of the 6e compagnie, the capitaine François-Joseph-Balthasar Spennel (Bas-Ottrott, Bas Rhin 1769 – Metz 1843 ) was wounded by a bullet near the left knee, presumably a pistol shot, as a stray round from a musket would have been largely spent and so unlikely to penetrate his stiff high boot.

I don't have at hand a count of the other ranks' casualties at Hanau, but it does not appear that the grenadiers à cheval were too roughly handled. Perhaps this is what the capitiane Parquin meant when he wrote "Poor Guindey!" at the conclusion of the passage about his lost friend.

- Sasha