in two forthcoming volumes by Paul Lindsay Dawson among his exciting series of 8 volumes, Line Infantry 1806-1812 and 1812-1815
Coming in autumn 2024 or early spring 2025, the most comprehensive review of the French Line Infantry respecting the 1806 regulations. The predominant uniform colour of the French army was white, over 30 regiments for fact, and realistically over 70, and the last white habits disapeared in 1809, following a brief regulated return to white in July 1808. The headdress of the French soldier till summer 1808 was predominantly the chapeau. The archive of every regiment of Ligne that existed upto 1812 is discussed, as are all the various uniform regulations from 1806 to 1812. Our research shows how the Line was dressed behind the myth and glamour of grenadiers swaggering in bearskins- which few actually did.
Coming later this year or early 2025, the most comprehensive review of the 8 different Bardin regulations, ever written. Bardin regulation was not a single monolithic regulation: it evolved and changed to suit the differing economic needs that the French military faced. Indeed, the regulation as written down and drawn by Vernet never existed.
as 'teasing' Paul shared interesting datas as usual about his investigations concerning French infantry capotes :
As we explore in our forthcoming book on the Ligne, the issue of capotes – a thorny subject at best – is discussed. Having analysed the regimental archive of every regimental of Ligne 1803-1812, as well as records from Comte Daru who was in overall charge of the production of clothing from late 1806 through to 1808 for the French Army deployed in Germany: from Jena till after Friedland and the precarious peace until the army left for Spain. We can draw conclusions from the data.
Capotes were in use from 1803. No regulation colour, so we find green, brown, blue, grey in use. No pattern was specified. From March 1806 a single breasted capote with a detachable shoulder cape was regulation. It was to be worn as the every-day garment of the soldier over the veste a manche. Habits were to be kept for parade use, and tenue de ville. In all other orders of dress, the capote was worn, bar tenue de corvée when the soldier donned his linen smock and overalls. Indeed, from October 1806 Napoleon ordered that all new detachments of men sent from France to Germany were no to carry with them their habits; they were to be issued them in summer 1807. During the state of acute paralysis of the army in winter 1806 to spring 1807, over 200,000 capotes were made in Poland and Germany. We know which regiments recieved these, the cloth used, its colour. Indeed the archives preserve samples of cloth use. For other-ranks i.e. soldat and caporal, the capote was single breasted, and made from grey tricot. The fabric samples are a melange – i.e. mixed fibres – in hue it is mid grey, think British foreign service overalls. For sous-officiers they had double breasted redingotes, made from broadcloth – more expensive, and in theory, a better quality of cloth than tricot. These redingotes are double breasted, and could not be worn over the equipment, unlike the capote. The cloth samples are a brown/grey. When comparing the samples side by side, they are obviousldy different colous, and quality.
From October 1810 – reflecting the March 1810 dress regulation which brought about the adoption of pantalons and not culottes for the ligne with attendant under the knee gaiters as well as new pattern of habit – capotes became rouge-brun tricot. These are illustrated by Bardin and known cloth samples are very close indeed to what is shown. Again, these are single breasted.
It is only from the adoption of Bardin – and never universal – that we find soldiers had the double breasted capote made at first from beige tricot, and changed in April 1813 to beige broadcloth. Of course, this is an oversimplification, as we find capotes being made at the end of the empire from brown, blanc picque de blue, white, green broadcloth or tricot: basically no one really cared what colour the capote was, so long as a soldier had one.
We mentioned the contraversial colour of French greatcoats. As part of Bernadotte's reforms in An VII, he authorised the production of capotes (single breasted greatcoat) for use by the Ligne and Légère in winter months. We know from the archive of the brilliant General Moreau who saved the republic at Hohenlinden, that tens of thousands of capotes made from blue broadcloth were in use by his troops, and had been by the Armies of the Rhine and Danube before he took command. Napoleon continued this trend, and ordered for the men at the Camps of Boulogne to have capotes. The overhwelming majority were made from the same blue broadcloth as the habit. Of course, as no colour was specified, some Colonels chose to use cheaper cloth.
The 8e de Ligne had grey,
the 17e de Ligne had green,
the 18e de Ligne blue,
the 22e de Ligne had brown, dark blue and sky blue,
the 45e had dark blue double breasted redingotes with cloth buttons,
the 54e had brown,
the 85e had grey,
the 94e had beige,
the 95e brown.
It was only with access to hundreds of thousands of meters of capture grey tricot in winter 1806 that a standard colour, material and pattern could be imposed. Before winter 1806/07 regiments had supplied themselves with capotes, habits etc. During winter 1806/07 the state took over manufacture and standardised cloth, cut, colours, and re-supplied the army, so it was dressed almost as new by the time of Friedland in summer 1807: the army in the field had left for war in summer 1805 in clothing that was long past its best in most regiments. Under Comte Daru's energetic leadership, he recloothed over 200,000 men in both French and allied regiments. A lot of Prussian equipment was issued, and where practicable Prussian clothing was also issued. Daru's archive is lodged at Archives Nationales and also SHD, both in Paris. I make extensive use of these resources in my study of the Ligne and Légère. Despite Bardin regulation standardising the capote as a beige tricot redingote, we also know that the War Ministry in Paris ordered that all stocks of old pattern clothing were to be used before new was to be made: so the chaos over single or double breasted greatcoats and their colour lasted well beyond 1813. In 1814 due to acute shortages of cloth, the War Ministry allowed green, blue, brown, white broadcloth and tricot to be used to make greatcoats. We find the 9e léger had white tricot, the 2e léger blanc picque de bleu, the 21e de Ligne still had many brun-beige single breasted capotes in use alongside beige Bardin regulation items as late as 1815. What ever the regulation may have said, battalion practice was always different due to local supply issues. We have found just one regiment which used the regulation drap de Lodève quality cloth for any non Garde Imperiale regiment accross all arms. Local supply issues, cost, and the scale of demand meant that what ever cloth a Colonel could buy in bulk, locally, was used and "damn the regulations". We discuss the supply issues in 1815 in our book "Napoleons Waterloo Army" available from Frontline which is the most comprehensive study ever made of the Armée du Nord that fought at Waterloo in 1815.
The development of the soldiers capote in the French Army is convaluted. Capotes had been in use since the Revolutionary Wars, and appear in the regulations of 1767 for units in cold or wet garrisons. For the Napoleonic period, the decree of 29 June 1804 authorised capotes to be in general service for all regiments in I to VII Corps. No colour was specificed for form. We know from regimental inspections that these garments were single breasted (capotes) or double breasted (redingotes) and were frequently blue. They were issued only in winter. From 1806 somthing more formal was done. The War Ministry issued a circular 25 April 1806:
‘8. The clothing of the infantry soldier of the line shall consist of a white cloth habit in the proportions of the current clothing ; in a sleeved veste of white cloth, able to be worn alone, with small cuffs and collar of distinctive colour, a pair of white tricot breeches, and a greatcoat in cloth, to which it will added a cape which will attach with buttons, and which the soldier will only use in winter and when marching.'
Therefore the eveyday garment of the soldier was the veste manche. On the march the habit was stowed in the havresac and the capote worn, and worn in winter in lieu of the habit to save it from stains, damage etc. The order is problematical. In April 1806 the Grande Armée was in Germany, many hundreds of miles away from regimental tailors who made these garments in regimental depot. Thus soldiers marched to Jena in what ever garments they still had since leving France in summer 1805. From November 1806, Comte Daru requistioned cloth and tailors to produce 245,500 capotes from either German cloth taken from Berlin, Magdeburg, Glogau, Kustrin and other depots or from the stores in Warsaw. At the time, 1,000's of Prussian army chapeau were issued to replace French issue items.
With the Grande Armée returning to France in winter 1807 we know more about the soldiers capotes :
The 1er de Ligne used some 552m grey tricot for soldiers capotes and 17m 60 grey broadcloth for sous-officers redingotes in the 3e battalion.
The 3e de Ligne's capotes were made from grey-beige broadcloth and had green piping to the collar.
The 12e de Ligne had 1,499 capotes made from grey broadcloth.
The 17e de Ligne had soldiers dressed in grey tricot capotes, and sous-officers in beige broadcloth redingotes.
The 22e de Ligne had redingotes for sous-officers and soldiers.
The 35e de Ligne issued sous-officers grey tricot redingotes, no capotes for the soliers were issued.
The 40e de Ligne had capotes from grey tricot.
As we can see, it was largely regimental decisions that agreed on redingote or capote and materials used, rather than the war ministry officials. Again, colonels were free to choose the colour as they pleased. My forthcoming book on the Ligne infantry details every regiments capote.
Given Colonels had free rein, we also find references to white tricot dyed grey, brown capotes, as well as blue redingotes.
Nothing further was formalised for capotes till the regulation of 19 February 1810, which confirmed them to be single breasted and needed 2m 40 of cloth. From 31 March 1810 a cheaper fabric for capotes was authorised: Brun-Beige tricot costing 2fr 75 a meter in lieu of 10fr 13 for beige broadcloth. Martinet shows these single breasted bown capotes. This decree was followed two years later with the decree of 19 January 1812 a new pattern capote was introduced: cut to be double breasted and made from beige tricot. With tens of thousands of earlier pattern garments in store or in use, production did not beging till October 1812. On 5 December 1813 the War Ministry decreed that due to shortages of beige broadcloth, beige tricot was allowed to be used along with blanc picque de bleu broadcloth which was traditionally used for cavalry cloaks, for infantry capotes. Weeks later on 8 January 1814 the War Ministry allowed that capotes were to be made from green, chestnut brown, and white broadcloth and tricot. We find these capotes in stores inventories. The 9e léger had white tricot capotes in use during the First Restoration, and we find examples of these white capotes being dyed grey during the 100 days. Again, my forthcoming books on the Ligne and Légère give the exact details for every regiment.
Judging by the period documentation, beige came in three colours gris-beige, beige and brun-beige. Gris-beige was formalised under Bardin for the surculottes of the cavalry, and judging by extant samples was a grey melange. Brun-Beige seems to be a melange brown, which Rousselot likens to 'Bou de Paris', and Beige judging from extant garments ranges from a light shade to a much darker hue. Five Bardin regulation capotes exist, all are different in colour: one is very much brown, one is approaching gris-de-fer (iron grey) one is beige and two are grey melange. A beige cavalry manteaux in a private collection is approaching the modern understanding of beige. In 1808 judging from returns, grey was the most common colour for capotes and not beige, in 1804 blue.
Paul Lindsay Dawson
ponders nirvana.