"Napoleon's Town Guards " Topic
3 Posts
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Tango01 | 03 Jan 2017 1:09 p.m. PST |
"…It reminded me that there are vast areas of Napoleon's second line and regional forces which I have never really understood. I'm looking at some splendid chaps in Alfons' blog – the Gardes d'Honneur of Lyon, Metz, Nantes, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Bayonne etc – if ever you needed a questionable case for some spectacular painted units for your collection, you need look no further. I shall have a look through the appropriate volumes of Elting and so on, but I was just wondering (idly), at what strength did these units exist? I note that they had both foot and mounted companies, did they have any duties beyond making the town look good on ceremonial occasions? did they do actual police or garrison work? did any of them ever serve in the field? what relationship (if any) did they have to the Garde Nationale, or the regulars? who designed the uniforms? – the mayor? To whom did they belong – the town or the army?…."
Main page link Amicalement Armand |
Musketier | 03 Jan 2017 3:01 p.m. PST |
The name "Gardes d'honneur" is a giveaway of their ceremonial role. When acting as hosts to the Sovereign or foreign dignitaries, major cities would send out a mounted honour guard to escort them into their walls, and post ceremonial sentries on foot along their route to the town hall, or wherever. The leading burghers, or their sons, would vie for membership in these outfits: Those were definitely not combat units – although Napoleon would build on the concept when creating the Gardes d'honneur attached to the Imperial Guard in 1813. (posted here as I can't post on the blog apparently, having none of the required accounts) |
Maximilien S Foy | 03 Jan 2017 8:54 p.m. PST |
Thanks very much for this – appreciated. I hadn't really intended to put a query on TMP – Armand and I appear to share a shadowy relationship! My blog is just old-fashioned Google, which is not to everybody's taste, I guess. |
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