"Garde uniforms in 1813/1814" Topic

I'm building a French army for the 1813 and 1814 battles, and find myself wondering to what extent the (presumably dire) supply situation would have impacted on the uniformity of the Garde.

Is it likely that all of the Old Guard would have had bearskins and dark blue greatcoats, or might other forms of headwear and other coloured greatcoats become common?

The Young Guard was rapidly expanded. Is it likely that they would all have been supplied with epaulettes and sabres?

Thanks, Simon

Others will doubtless be able to provide details, but as a general observation the Imperial Guard had first dibs on supplies, with dépôts in or near Paris. Unit pride would have done the rest.

So my educated guess would be that both Old and Young Guard did pretty much turn out as per regulation. After all, they were inspected by the Emperor himself on many occasions – would you have wanted to be the quartermaster responsible for any visible gaps in their kit?

(It was different in 1815, when the Guard had to be re-created from scratch.)

Not all the young guard had sabres, many had the single crossbelt as line infantry, at least in 1813. As the young guard was so rapidly expanding (mainly with recruits not "real" guard material) I doubt that there was suficient full dress equipment available right away. Many units would just wear greatcoats but maybe with epaulettes. Anyway in 1814 (winter campaign) the greatcoat was the best thing to wear

Thanks chaps- Marcel's point about the very expansion of the Young Guard was what I had in mind. They were 32 regiments of Garde Tiralleurs and Voltiguers in the process of formation and equipment must have been very scarce.

It also struck me that the Old Guard might have experienced supply difficulties, too, after 1812- they must have lost most of their gear in Russia and recruited back to strength by transfers of veterans from other regiments. But would there have been enough bearskins or greatcoats?

I think the Emperor would have been prepared to be flexible, in the circumstances.