"french artillerymen in green" Topic

I came into possession of some French artillerymen painted with green pants and standard blue coat with green lapels. Are these French allies? To my knowledge they were all in blue with red turnbacks. Thought I'd ask before I went to the trouble of re-painting.

French Coastal artillery.
Give Google Pictures a try with these words.

8 prairial an 11 (28 mai 1803)
Arrêté contenant organisation des compagnies de <b?canonniers gardes-côtes
IX. L'uniforme des canonniers-gardes-côtes sera composé d'un habit de drap bleu national, parements bleus, revers et retroussis vert de mer, doublure de serge et cadis blanc, gilet et culotte de tricot vert de mer, chapeau* bordé de laine noire, bouton de métal jaune, timbré d'une ancre, d'un canon et d'un fusil. Les distinctions relatives aux différents grades des officiers et sous-officiers seront les mêmes que dans l'infanterie.
X. L'armement consistera, pour chaque sergent ou canonnier, en un fusil, une baïonnette et une giberne ; le tout des mêmes forme, largeur, longueur et proportion que celles de l'infanterie.

* replaced by shako from about 1810. The uniforme was supposed to also then be replaced by a white one. It is unclear how far this was adopted.

Right when you think you have a grasp on Napoleonics. Did any of these fellas serve in Spain? Drafted into a low quality army like Dupont's?

Maybe i could build a crew for siege guns?

Yeah. After 40 years of Napoleonics playing and painting, i did not know about these guys. Might be interesting to have artillery of divisions with Marins in them painted like this, for fun if not accuracy. :)

They were really for fixed harbor defense (they were a part of the Garde nationale), and were located with their guns in the port fortifications.

Distribution de compagnies des canonniers gardes-côtes en 1811 :
Bruges 1
Lille 2
Saint-Omer 4
Le Havre 9
Cherbourg 12
Brest 18
Nantes 14
La Rochelle 13
Bayonne 1
Perpignan 2
Montpellier 3
Toulon 10
Antibes 10
Corsica 4
Genoa 4
Nice 1
Anvers 15
Tuscany 5
Civita-Vecchia 2
Amsterdam 7
Groningue 4

I do not know if the British ever tried raiding Bayonne or Perpignan, but they did other raids on the Catalonia coast and might have tried something at Perpignan, which was a/the key supply/staging area for the French in Catalonia. You will see ithe port there is about 10km from the France/Catalonia border.

In 1814, some of their men were drafted away into line artillery units as individuals, and so not in their unique uniforms.

Thanks LB

Thanks for the clarification.

I think Oman mentions coastal gunners used as garrison troops in Spain but I could be wrong.

That would be very interesting if so.