"The men behind the lines - French departmental ... " Topic

…reserves of the Napoleonic era.

"Okay. Let's learn something, shall we? This is going to be a long read, but it contains a lot of information about another not-so-usual aspect of the Napoleonic French military.

When I started my 'paint all units in PreBardin-style uniforms'-project, I thought it was all about painting battlefield military units. Well – after a while I learned that I was totally wrong. I come from a country where you have the army on one side and the police on the other side. While the army is responsible for protecting the country against foreign enemies, the police is responsible for internal security. One side carries the big guns'n'stuff while the other one is equipped in order to deal with criminals, riots and keeping up public security.

Back in the days of Napoleon Bonaparte, this wasn't the case in the same way throughout Europe. In many states, the king or local nobles payed for armed units that served as a militia which local nobles or representatives sent out to carry out police-like duties. This 'state militia' was the root from which the gendarmerie evolved, a paramilitary force that – in wartimes – often was used as light cavalry or horseback infantry. In other states, this function was carried out by the king's guards…."

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Armadn

Well I thought they wore white – am I wrong? He says they switched 'back' to blue but before 1808 they wore sky blue rather than the dark indigo shown here. Anyone else got any input?