"Bloody good article on French Chasseurs a Cheval" Topic

On the Warlord games website, including pics of the models painted as the various regiments. Well worth a look:

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Nice article. Very informative.

Warlord do put out a gem of an article every now and then, they've done a few good reads on the Napoleonic wars now. One thing they do really well is keeping the writing style approachable for people new to the era/not big into historical reading, which is really good.

Navy Fower Wun Seven: I am most sure I have all the information from above but I really like the way they presented it. French chasseurs a cheval are my favorite Napoleonic cavalry and I never get tired of reading about, and perusing illustrations of them. Thank you for posting this. John Miller

So underrated. So many do the French Hussars and forgets these 'workhorses' if you'll pardon the unintended pun. Nice find.

Overall very well done. A few minor quibbles – they missed the fact the the 17th and 18th regiments were disbanded under the Republic for "acts of indiscipline", leaving only the 16th to wear light blue facings, and I'm not sure I'd translate "aurore" as "gold" or "amaranth" as "lilac", or that it was cheaper to train Chasseurs than Hussars (uniform them, certainly!)

Still, as I said, overall, a fine and free resource!

The French army, even without including those allies who wore similar uniforms, had almost 60 regiments of chassuers a cheval and dragoons, yet it's always the hussars, cuirassiers and Garde cavalry that manufacturers seem to go for. As someone said, the chasseurs were the workhorses of the French armies, providing integral cavalry for the infantry corps and skirmish/reconnaissance units for the heavy cavalry.

My wife and I just completed our move from Paris, TX to Montgomery County, PA – northwest of King of Prussia – and the first box I unpacked for my bookstacks contained this book – "Charging Against Wellington" by Robert Burnham. (I mention the name, for I want to copy this posting also to the topic of the new plastic Chasseurs a Cheval set.

She gave it to me for Fathers' Day, Birthday, or Christmas in 2013, and I find it excellent.

Marshall Bessieres was given a command to pursue the Spanish early in the Peninsular War, and move against a combined – but not unified – force of Generals Blake and Cuesta. LaSalle was there with four squadrons of the 10th Chasseurs, and 4 of the 22nd Chasseurs. There were also elements of the Imperial Guard cavalry, but they were deployed to contain Cuesta while the main French force took on Blake. LaSalle maneuvered onto an open flank of Blake's infantry, and charged, wrecking his force, with only one unit able to form square to delay. This was done only by Chasseurs a Cheval!

Burnham tells us that 5 Chasseur regiments had only one company in Spain in 1807 as part of provisional regiments. 3 had only a single squadron in Spain. 4 regiments had only their 3rd & 4th squadrons in Spain, usually without their regimental headquarters.

10 of the regiments had 3 or 4 squadrons in Spain. This makes 22 of the 31 total Chasseur regiments.

"By the final year of the war…seven of the nine cavalry regiments opposing the Allies were Chasseurs.' This new box of plastics should work well for this last year of the war.

I love this book!

Garde de Paris

I regret that no one made early Chasseurs as shown by the figure of the 7th Chasseurs in the Rousselot plate above – graceful cut-away coat, rose facings, white vest, standing with left hand on his hip.

Back in the 60's to 80's, I took Stadden 30 mm dragoons of the Guard (Empress Dragoon) figures, and painstakingly created Chassseurs a Cheval of the line, and for this figure of the 7th. They cast our much too thin, but were recognizable, and useful in gaming. Since then I learned that only one squadron of the 7th served in Spain. My intention was to do 6 figures of the 5th (jonquille), 7th (rose), 10th (cramoisi), and 26th (? dark red ?).

The figure of the 1st Chasseurs – in dolman, scarlet facings, would paint well as the 5th – yellow cuffs, green collar edged yellow. Lots of action in Spain, sometimes under LaSalle. I took a Willie 30mm Prussian hussar, scraped away the barrel sash, changed heads, and did one figure of the 5th. Planned 6 for a squadron, but never had time, or anyone to game with in the past 12 years. The 5th had buff leather, at one time rode on "claybank" horse – a khaki-like variety of color, with black mane tail and lower legs.

The 5th were at Medellin against the Spanish, where 5 officers were wounded (1 died later). Great victory for the French. At Talavera, 4 officers were wounded.

They fought in 1813 at Vitoria (2 wounded); Othez (1); Tarbes (1) and Toulouse (1), where this uniform could be appropriate.

Garde de Paris

Now shipping!

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It looks like there were 7 chasseur regiments, still with Soult in southern France at the end of the war – and probably dressed Bardin style. I can only find 6. The colors are from Rousselot, and much different than in the article posted above:

5th (green collar edged jonquille; jonquille cuffs and turnbacks.)
10th (Cramoisi collar, cuffs and turnbacks.)
(I think the rest wore some variety of orange!)
13th (Rousselot says orange collar and cuffs)
15th (Orange collar only)
21st (The ever-mysterious "Aurora," collar only. I use 50-50 orange/yellow)
22nd ("Capucine" collar and cuffs, which I do as dark orange, perhaps some brown added to orange)

Might anyone know which would have been the 7th regiment still with Soult?

The article also says the elite companies had red lapels!?!?! I find not such data.

The turnbacks were always the regimental color. Lapels were also always green. Only collars and cuffs varied, regiment to regiment.

GdeP

GdeP

The Histoire & Collections title shows green lapels for all.

The only other Chasseur Regt. on the Spanish Front is the 29th with Suchet's Army of Catalonia. Nafziger lists them on his O.B. 814DSAB

Also, why do the figures all seem to have sabretaches?
They were only sometimes worn with the Chasseur's Hussar style dress.

Camcleod, you are right! I did not notice the sabretaches! Purely a hussar item, not Chasseurs a cheval.

GdeP