"Which were Napoleon's favorite units ?" Topic

Which were Napoleon's favorite units and why ?
(Republican and Imperial armies)

His Old Guard Grenadiers, because he spent the most time painting them.

His terrible daughters--the foot artillery of the Guard

In his sleeve-ies! Er, sorry, wrong thread.

Grenadiers a cheval?

He chose to wear the uniform of the Old Guard Chasseurs a Cheval! Maybe tells us something?

Among the non-elites, perhaps 84eme Ligne

Sorry, Robert, that was Victor Hugo's favorits unit, in Les Miz, in 1862.
The beautiful/terrible daughters name is not contemporary to the lifetime of Napoléon.

See : TMP link

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"He chose to wear the uniform of the Old Guard Chasseurs a Cheval"
Yes – also grenadiers à cheval

It is surprising – seeing as he was a gunner – that he didn't seem to like an artillery unit the best.

I'd had thought his favourite would be the volante companies of the guard (Old, Middle or Young).

Maybe the mounted chasseur costume was just for show.

Napoleon's favorite uniform was that of the Guard Chasseurs a Cheval-he was buried in it.

He also wore the uniform from time to time of the Grenadiers a Pied.

Favorite unit(s)? Probably the artillery, Guard or Line, but that's just a guess.

I can't wait until we look into who first used "ok" as a term, and where it came from. Evidently, every time a new phrase is used, it is issued with complete provenance.

That's not to say I don't enjoy you boys continued playground scrapping. It helps my miniatures hobby no end.

Have fun

M. Le Breton:

Thank you, but if I am not innocent, I am at least not guilty as charged. I at no time attributed the phrase to His Imperial Majesty, Napoleon I.

If someone has an objective scientific way to determine Napoleon's favorite unit, I'd be very interested. Left to a guess, I'm going to say the old artillery officer, who tended to sight guns in moments of crisis the way the old hussar Blucher led cavalry charges, was partial to the guns he raised and re-raised, and which tended to be the part of the Guard most frequently committed to battle. As he certainly did say "Leave the Artillerymen alone, they are an obstinate lot. . ."

As an MI NCO, I did two tours with the gun bunnies. Napoleon got that one right.

From what I have read, probably whatever unit he was talking to, trying to motivate at the time.

Thanks Brechtel for this info, I didn't know it;
"Napoleon's favorite uniform was that of the Guard Chasseurs a Cheval- he was buried in it."

Can someone elaborate on why the 84th would be a favorite? Obviously the Consular Guard kept him in power and followed him to the end. It's the rank and file units that I would be interested in hearing about. Though as stated, he would often go over the roles of any unit he was about to review looking for familiar names. He would then address them. "I know you regiment XYZ. We were together at battle XYZ." He would then call out various soldiers, usually sergeants, he recognized. Very powerful stuff for those involved. I'm sure they all felt as though they were his favorites. And then there was the Eagle "kissed by the Emperor himself".

Because of their epic fight at Graz in 1809 for which they were awarded a plaque that was carried on the eagle: 'Un Contra Dix.'

The beautiful/terrible daughters name is not contemporary to the lifetime of Napoléon.

You don't know that for a fact. It is only your opinion, which just isn't that valuable in the long run.

And if it comes between you and Col Elting on any Napoleonic subject, you come out a very poor second.

I did find this site which records battle honors. Also any nickname Napoleon gave each unit.

link

"The beautiful/terrible daughters name is not contemporary to the lifetime of Napoléon."

"And if it comes between you and Col Elting on any Napoleonic subject, you come out a very poor second."

Sure. Elting is a great. I am an idiot. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Except …. you can't provide any source whatsoever for any usage of the term before Victor Hugo in Les Miz in 1862. All you can say is Colonel Elting was under the impression that the term was contemporary. You can't say why or how he came to that conclusion. You assume " between you and Col Elting on any Napoleonic subject, you come out a very poor second". You trust in his conclusion. But you can't verify it.

On the other hand, if it was a contempory term, why can't you (or I or ayone else) find any mention of it whatsoever before 1862?

Various regiments claimed- or were later claimed to have- additional titles (?surnoms) or mottoes (?inscriptions) awarded by Napoleon, from as early as 1796-97.

In Leon's 'Memoires de Napoleon' (1834) Napoleon is quoted as recalling- I remember the delirium into which I plunged this or that corps when I gave Berthier orders such as these [to assign an official title or motto].'

He cites these given at Montebello 1797:
18e 'Les Braves de la dix-huitième, je vous connais.'
25e 'La vingt-cinquiéme s'est couverte de gloire.'

Previously, after the battle of Lonato in 1796, Bonaparte wrote in his dispatch:'J'etais tranquille, la brave 32e etait la!' According to the regimental history written in 1890, they were granted this as a motto on new colours presented in July 1797.

It is also stated with less authority that they were given the title 'Invincible' around this time.

Other titles or mottoes one can find are:

57e 'La terrible 57ème demi-brigade que rien n'arrête' (Borodino 1812)

84e 'Un Contra Dix' (After Graz 1809)

9e Legère 'Incomparable' (?1796-97)

To what extent these are anecdotal I am not sure, and whether all these regiments were in some way Napoleon's particular favourites is not clear.

He added to his above statement re: 1797: "These inscriptions, these nicknames, which I do not limit to those I have mentioned, terrible, invincible, and foudroyante, increased the real value of the soldier."

Is it dreadful to imagine General Buonaparte let loose on today's interweb?

Twitter? Instagram? Facebook?

I reckon he'd do his favourite guard units in pro-painted ABs and all the line units in minifgs strip figs.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and opine that whether or not they were a favourite unit, the uniform of the Old Guard Grenadiers is the blandest and most boring in the whole French Army.

The blandest of the era was anyone who wore brown, which is a three-way tie between Austrian gunners, Portuguese light infantry and Prussia's Silesian hussars. Belgian militia are a close runner-up (this deserves a thread but another time).

I really cannot fathom what Napoleon was thinking uniforming his best unit in the rig of line grenadiers. I can only think that when he came up with their uniform, he was exhausted by a night of unusually vigorous "zig-zags" with Marie-Josephe de Beauharnais. Nobody knows what these were but I reckon he gave them bearskins to remind himself of her "little black forest" (no doubt what he meant there) so he would have something to remind him off her on campaign. Either way it was clearly a mistake to operate heavy machinery or paint Old Guardsmen afterwards.

I hear what you are saying 4th Cuirassier, but I think that the (brown) French service dress for their military nurses look alright:

By contrast, their earlier grey uniform makes them look like prison orderlies. Or prisoners:

I think Grenadiers a Cheval in the long lapelled coat, not the horrible little surtout, are some of the most imposing looking units of the era.

If you see the real thing in Museums, you have to be impressed. Their look benefitted from subtle changes from a Grenadier a Pied of course. The boots and buckskin breeches, the aurore lace and aigulettes, instead of the red fringed lapels, the plain bearskin losing the copper plate……if only someone modelled them in 28mm in that parade uniform (as they do in 15/18mm of course)

If you have the opportunity to go to the French Army Museum in Les Invalides, the actual simplicity of French uniforms of the period, which I believe look the best, followed by the British and Americans, can be seen.

The originals in the museum are wonderfully maintained. The Old Guard grenadiers and the Grenadiers a Cheval, who have very similar uniforms, were magnificently turned out without being gaudy.

I also don't see a problem with either brown or grey, two colors that were also adopted by two of the French hussar units-the 2d and 3d regiments.

I also like the surtout worn by the two guard regiments-simple and elegant.