Mounted Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard
Grenadiers à Cheval | |
---|---|
Claude Étienne Guyot (second-in-command)Louis Lepic |
The Mounted Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard (French: Grenadiers à Cheval de La Garde Impériale) was a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively. They were the senior Old Guard cavalry regiment of the Imperial Guard and from 1806 were brigaded together with the Dragoons of the Imperial Guard.[1]
A part of the Republican Consular Guard, the Grenadiers became the senior "Old Guard" heavy cavalry regiment when the Imperial Guard was founded, in 1804. Their maximum official complement was just over 1100 officers and troopers, commanded by a general of division or a seasoned general of brigade, with some of the most famous cavalrymen of the time as commander.
Rarely committed to battle during the Napoleonic Wars, they were usually kept in reserve, alongside the Emperor, during the most significant battles. When sent into action, such as during the battles of Marengo, Austerlitz, Eylau, Hanau or Waterloo, as well as during a number of actions of 1814, results were usually impressive. The regiment was disbanded in 1815, after Napoleon's downfall and the second restoration of the Bourbons.
Origins and organisation
The origins of the Guard Horse Grenadiers dated back to the Constitution of the Year III, which provided for the organisation of a guard for the French Directory. Within this guard, a cavalry regiment was formed and most cavalrymen were drawn from the 9th dragoons. However, the horse guards would only take service in 1796 and a 1797 regulation stated that the guards were to be called 'grenadiers'. The next major reorganisation came with the French Consulate, just days after the Coup of 18 Brumaire. This reorganisation reshuffled the general staff of the regiment and gave its command to chef de brigade (colonel) Michel Ordener, assisted by three chefs d'escadron (squadron commanders). Further reorganisations in 1801 and 1802 were conducted under the supervision of General Jean-Baptiste Bessières, bringing the regiment to four squadrons of two companies each and integrating it in the newly created Consular Guard, with the general staff of the regiment also expanded.[1]
On May 18, 1804, with the creation of the
Following the abdication of the Emperor Napoleon I in 1814, the restored Bourbons planned to erase the identity of this regiment by asking
Commanders
The Grenadiers à Cheval regiment was commanded by a
Function | Colonel commander | Colonel-major | Second major |
---|---|---|---|
Rank | General of division | Brigadier general | Brigadier general or Colonel |
General Officers | Guyot (November 1813 - November 1815)
|
Oulié Lepic Laferrière-Lévesque Jamin de Bermuy |
Exelmans Castex |
On July 18, 1800, as Bessières was called to take overall command of the entire Consular Guard Cavalry, the seasoned Colonel Ordener took command of the horse grenadier regiment, a command which the latter would keep until May 20, 1806, when he retired from active service. In 1806, with the creation of a second heavy cavalry regiment in the Guard, the 'Dragoons of the Empress', a heavy cavalry brigade was formed and put under the command of a general of division. The command would be given to a senior cavalryman, General Frédéric Henri Walther, a veteran of the French Revolutionary Wars, who would command the unit until his death, on November 24, 1813. His successor would be 45-year-old Claude-Étienne Guyot, who would command the brigade until the fall of the Empire in July 1815. During this period, the most remarkable commander of the regiment would be the battle-hardened Louis Lepic, commanding as colonel-major.[3]
Battles
War of the Second Coalition
The first true engagement of the unit took place in dramatic circumstances during the
War of the Third Coalition
Five years would pass before the grenadiers' next engagement, which occurred during the
War of the Fourth Coalition
In May 1806, General Walther replaced Ordener. Due to his seniority, Walther was also second-in-command of the entire Guard cavalry and exercised this command whenever Marshal Bessières was not available for service. The blitz 1806 campaign against Prussia went on without the regiment seeing any action. Nonetheless, war continued the next year in Poland, with the French in pursuit of the Russian army.[6]
The rigors of the Polish winter, the bad roads and the extreme poverty of certain regions brought about considerable misery for both sides and rendered proper reconnaissance virtually impossible. After some initial maneuvering and minor engagements, the first major battle occurred at Eylau. Here, the Grande Armée gave battle, despite being seriously outnumbered[7] and with the expected reinforcements failing to materialise, Napoleon's position was looking increasingly perilous. The Emperor thus ordered Marshal Murat to launch the entire reserve cavalry into a massive charge. At first, Murat led forward two dragoons and one cuirassiers divisions and these men pierced the Russian line and carried on beyond, only to find themselves behind enemy lines and in serious danger of being surrounded. As a result, the Emperor ordered Marshal Bessières to help the stranded reserve cavalry and thus a second cavalry charge ensued, spearheaded by the Chasseurs à Cheval and followed by the heavy cavalry of the 5th cuirassiers and Grenadiers à Cheval. Commanding the horse grenadiers was Colonel Lepic who superbly led two squadrons of the regiment, as they stormed through the first and second Russian lines, stopping only in front of the enemy reserves. As the handful of horse grenadiers arrived in front of this third enemy line, they were all but surrounded and the Russians at once demanded that they surrender. Lepic defiantly retorted: "Have a look at my men and tell me if they look like ones who want to surrender!" and he immediately ordered a charge, hacking his way back to his own lines. The regiment lost 4 officers dead and 14 officers wounded, as well as a large number of troopers, but the charge of the Guard cavalry did allow their fellow reserve cavalry to break their encirclement and get back to their original positions. The French would go on to draw the bloody Battle of Eylau later that evening.[8]
The Peninsula
The Peninsular War erupted the following year, and the Grenadiers à Cheval, together with two newly created Young Guard infantry regiments and some Guard artillery were a part of Bessières' 2nd Corps of the Army of Spain, and were present in Madrid during the May uprising, where their first surgeon, Gauthier, was wounded.[9] They then campaigned in the north-west of the country. On July 14, at the Battle of Medina de Rioseco, Bessières, with around 14,000 men faced two massed Spanish corps of about 22,000 men, not far from Valladolid. A few squadrons of the regiment saw brief but decisive action as they came up in support of general Merle's infantry attack, which repulsed the Spaniards onto Medina and beyond, winning the battle.[10]
War of the Fifth Coalition
At the beginning of 1809, the Emperor recalled his Guard to central Germany for the War of the Fifth Coalition. They were present at the Battle of Aspern-Essling, under the intense fire of the numerous Austrian artillery, and saw the struggle of their army to contain a vastly superior opponent. When Napoleon himself had his boot torn by a canister ball, general Frédéric Henri Walther, commander of the Guard cavalry, threatened the Emperor that he would have his grenadiers take him behind the lines by force if he refused to do so willingly. The latter complied but had to order a general retreat of the army to the Danube island of Lobau. Six weeks later, Napoleon crossed the Danube again, this time managing to bring out a considerable force, attacking the Austrians on the Marchfeld plain. The ensuing Battle of Wagram would see the Grenadiers à Cheval in reserve during the first day of battle.[6]
However, on the second day, July 6, 1809, the grenadiers, with the rest of the Guard cavalry, were assigned to support general
Back to the Peninsula
During the two years that followed, only a few companies of the regiment would see active service, campaigning in Spain, where they accompanied Bessières in northwestern Spain, where the latter was supposed to support André Masséna's Army of Portugal. Masséna had been busy besieging general Wellington in Lisbon, but he was not able to pierce the fortified Lines of Torres Vedras and subsequently retreated to Almeida. Wellington followed him and on May 5, 1811 found himself in an awkward position at the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro. Masséna needed Bessières' entire Army Corps, if he wanted to thoroughly beat the Anglo-Portuguese, but Bessières brought only symbolic reinforcements: a few squadrons of horse dragoons and grenadiers, 800 men in all, under the command of General Louis Lepic. Despite this setback, Masséna brilliantly exploited a weakness in Wellington's line and it soon seemed like the Anglo-Portuguese would be crushed. Time was at the essence and Masséna promptly sent his young aide-de-camp, Charles Oudinot, to find Lepic and the Guard cavalry, with orders to charge immediately, but Oudinot was soon back to his commander, saying that he was not able to fetch the Guard cavalry, because Lepic only recognized Bessières as commander and that he would not draw his sword without his order. Bessières was nowhere to be found, and after further futile attacks Masséna was forced to retreat.[11]
Russian campaign
By 1812, the imminent eruption of the
War of the Sixth Coalition
The regiment took some time to reform during 1813 and would only go back to action in April. Napoleon reviewed them at Erfurt on April 27; only three days later the Grenadiers-à-Cheval received news of the death of their beloved leader, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières, who had been killed in action by a stray Russian cannonball, next to the village of Rippach. The regiment saw brief action at the Battle of Dresden and was involved in supporting the foot Guards take the village of Reudnitz, during the Battle of Leipzig in late October. The only major engagement of the year would come at the end of October, at the Battle of Hanau. As the Bavarians under Karl Philipp von Wrede were trying to block the retreat of the Grande Armée towards France, Napoleon was forced to commit his élite troops, personally haranguing the Grenadiers-à-Cheval as they were preparing to go into action. The entire Guard cavalry charged by squadron, in column and broke a numerous enemy cavalry, pursuing it for several hundred metres. During this battle, the colonel major of the regiment, general Louis-Marie Lévesque received six sabre cuts to the shoulder and arm and captain adjutant-major Guindey, famous for killing Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia at the Battle of Saalfeld seven years earlier, was killed in action. Another blow was dealt to the morale of the regiment on November 24 of that year, when the regiment's commander-in-chief, General of Division Frédéric Henri Walther died suddenly from exhaustion and illness. He was replaced on December 1 by the 45-year-old General of Division Claude Étienne Guyot, with the senior general of division Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty taking overall command of the entire Guard cavalry.[15]
The following year, war continued on French soil and began very badly, with the French army outnumbered and in very bad shape. The Guard cavalry, under Nansouty, was thus called into action more often than ever, combating valiantly and often playing an instrumental role in Napoleon's attempts to frustrate Coalition plans. Together with other regiments of the Guards, the Grenadiers fought against overwhelming enemy numbers at La Rothière and nine days later broke several Russian infantry squares from General Zakhar Olsufiev's force. At the Battle of Montmirail, the Grenadiers annihilated two Russian brigades and at the Battle of Château-Thierry successfully charged Coalition artillery batteries and two days later helped rout Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's army at the Battle of Vauchamps. They were then involved in several actions, including major ones at Reims and Craonne, where they routed several enemy squares. During this battle, the commander (major) of the Grenadiers, General Lévesque de Laferrière was wounded by a bullet and had a leg torn off and also lost one of its best officers, Captain Kister. Their last action of the campaign was fought at Méry-sur-Seine, where they captured a team of pontooners belonging to the enemy "Army of Bohemia".[15]
Bourbon Restoration and War of the Seventh Coalition
After
Sources
- Pigeard, Alain - „La Garde Impériale”, Tallandier, Bibliothèque Napoléonienne, ISBN 2-84734-177-3
See also
References
- ^ a b Pigeard, 139-140.
- ^ a b Pigeard, 141.
- ^ a b Pigeard, 147.
- ^ a b Pigeard, "La Garde Impériale", p. 142.
- ^ Smith, 58-29, 247.
- ^ a b Pigeard, 143.
- ^ Hourtoulle, 4-13.
- ^ Hourtoulle, 61.
- ^ Pigeard, La Garde Impériale, p. 143.
- ^ Pigeard, Dictionnaire des batailles de Napoléon, pp. 534-535.
- ^ a b Sokolov, p. 455.
- ^ a b Pigeard, "La Garde Impériale" p. 144.
- ^ Sokolov, p. 454-455.
- ^ Tulard, vol. II, p. 961.
- ^ a b Pigeard, "La Garde Impériale" p. 145.
- ^ Pigeard, "La Garde Impériale" p. 145-146.