Imperial Guard (Napoleon I)
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- This article discusses the soldiers who guarded Napoleon. For other uses of the term, see Imperial Guard (disambiguation)
The Imperial Guard (French:Garde impériale) was originally a small group of elite soldiers of the French Army under the direct command of Napoleon I, but grew considerably over time. It acted as his bodyguard and tactical reserve, and he was careful of its use in battle.
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[edit] History
The Guard had its origin in the Consular Guard (Garde des consuls), created November 28, 1799 by the union of the Guard of the Directory (Garde du Directoire exécutif) and the Grenadiers of the Legislature (Grenadiers près de la Représentation nationale). These formations had for principal purpose the security of the executive and legislative branches of the French Republic and gathered a small number of soldiers, about a thousand. One can question their utility, given their non-opposition to Napoleon's 18 Brumaire coup of 1799. The Consular Guard changed its name to the Imperial Guard on May 18, 1804.
Napoleon took great care of his Guard, particularly the Old Guard, and the Old Guard Grenadiers were known to complain in the presence of the Emperor, giving them the nickname Les Grognards, the Grumblers. The Guard received better pay, rations, quarters, and equipment, and all guardsmen ranked one grade higher than all non-Imperial Guard soldiers. Other French soldiers even referred to Napoleon's Imperial Guard as "the Immortals."[1]
The Guard played a major part in the climax of the Battle of Waterloo. It was thrown into the battle at the last minute to salvage a victory for Napoleon. Completely out-numbered, it faced terrible fire from the British lines, and began to retreat. It was the first time the Guard retreated without being ordered to do so. At the sight of this, Napoleon's army lost all hope of victory.
"La Garde meurt et ne se rend pas!" "The Guard dies, but it does not surrender!" is attributed to General Pierre Cambronne. It has been suggested that this was in fact said by another General of the Imperial Guard, Claude-Etienne Michel, during their last stand at the Battle of Waterloo,[2][3] — it has also been suggested that the quote was ‘invented’ by a French newspaper editor[4] — but whatever the truth it makes a suitable epitaph.
[edit] Composition
The Guard was composed of three echelons. The Old Guard comprised some of the finest soldiers in Europe, who had served Napoleon since his earliest campaigns. The Middle Guard was composed of his veterans from the 1805 to 1809 campaigns. The Young Guard consisted of the best of the annual intake of conscripts, and was never considered to be of quite the same calibre of the senior Guards, although its units were still superior to the normal line regiments.
[edit] Numbers
In 1804 the Guard numbered eight thousand men. By the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, it had swelled to just under 100,000 men. The Guard had its own artillery, infantry and cavalry components just like a normal Army corps.
| Year | Number of soldiers |
|---|---|
| 1800 | 3,000 |
| 1804 | 9,798 |
| 1805 | 12,187 |
| 1810 | 32,150 |
| 1812 | 48,500 |
| 1813 | 92,472 (mostly young guards) |
| 1814 | 112,482 |
| 1815 | 25,870 |
[edit] Regiments
[edit] Éclaireurs
In the Russian campaign of 1812, the French army had suffered badly from attacks by Russian cossacks, dragoons and mounted grenadiers. Fighting on French soil for the first time since the French Revolutionary Wars, Napoleon decided to reorganise the Imperial Guard. In article 1 of a decree of 4 December 1813 he created three regiments of "Éclaireurs" within the Guard (the 1st Regiment of which was attached to the Guard's regiment of mounted grenadiers, and was thus named the regiment of Éclaireurs-grenadiers) as counterparts to the cossacks. They arrived in the theatre of operations late in the Napoleonic Wars, joining the army on 1 January 1814 just in time to participate in the Six Days Campaign (fighting at Brienne, La Rothière, Champaubert, Montmirail, Montereau, Craonne and Arcis-sur-Aube) then to be dissolved on the Bourbon Restoration.
The 1st Regiment's first commander was Claude Testot-Ferry, transferred from his command of the Empress' Dragoons, and most of the Regiment's officers were directly recruited from within the Guard. It was made up of four squadrons of 250 men, including Pierre (an old soldier from Testot-Ferry's old regiment of the 10e régiment de chasseurs à cheval), Delavillane, Lepot (from the Guard's mounted grenadiers) and Kister. The first of these squadrons had uniforms largely in the Hussar style, based on those of the Gardes d'Honneur (a green dolman and a pelisse with white lacings), and were attached to the Old Guard. The other 3 squadrons were uniformed in the style of Chasseurs de la Ligne (a short green habit-veste, also known as a "Kinski") and attached to the Young Guard.
[edit] Empress's Dragoons
The dragoon regiments of the line distinguished themselves in the German Campaign of 1805, and so Napoleon decided (in a decree of 15 April 1806) to reorganise the cavalry of the Guard and create within it a regiment of dragoons, made up of 3 squadrons, headed by 6o officers personally selected by Napoleon. The first squadron was to have 296 men, and be made up of "vélites", whilst the other two were regular squadrons of 476 horsemen. To complete this new unit, each of the 30 dragoon regiments of the line provided 12 men who had done 10 years' service, and the brigadier, chasseur and dragoon line regiments provided the sous-officiers. This regiment quickly became known as the "régiment de dragons de l'Impératrice" (the Empress's Dragoons) in tribute to their patroness, Joséphine de Beauharnais, and until its last member died the Regiment marked the anniversary of her death.
The unit's numbers rose to 1269 in 1807 with the addition of 2 new squadrons, and on 9 December 1813 it was attached to the Guard's 3rd regiment of éclaireurs. The dragoons' uniform and weaponry was the same as those of the Guard's mounted grenadiers, only in green rather than blue, and (in place of the bonnet à poil) a copper helmet with a hanging mane in the Neo-Greek Minerve style and a red plume.
[edit] Officers
1806 :
- Colonel Commandant : Jean-Thomas Arrighi de Casanova, cousin of Napoleon
- Colonels-Majors : Fiteau and Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville
1810 :
- Général de division, commandant : Comte de Saint-Sulpice
- Colonel-Major : Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville
- Major : Marthod
1813 :
- Général de division, commandant : Comte Philippe Antoine d'Ornano
- Général de division, major : Baron Laferrière-Lévêque
- Général de brigade, major : Baron Castex
[edit] Campaigns and battles
1807 : battle of Eylau and battle of Friedland
1808 : Spanish War of Independence
1809 : battle of Essling and battle of Wagram
1812 : Russian campaign - At Bourzovo, 400 dragoons charged cossacks ten times their numbers, and at Maloiaroslavets Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville charged the Russians with the cry "A nous les dragons !".
1813 Saxony campaign : battle of Bautzen, battle of Wachau, battle of Leipzig, battle of Hanau (at which a squadron of the dragoons under Claude Testot-Ferry rode in to save Napoleon being captured by the Prussians, with Testot-Ferry getting out alive despite his horse being killed under him, his uniform cut to ribbons and his helmet receiving 22 sabre blows)
1814 Six Days Campaign : battle of Brienne, battle of Champaubert, battle of Montmirail, battle of Château-Thierry, battle of Vauchamps, battle of Montereau, battle of Craonne, battle of Arcis-sur-Aube, battle of Saint-Dizier, battle of Paris
1815 : Hundred Days, during which they lost over 300 men, including 25 officers, notably general Louis-Michel Letort de Lorville (battle of Ligny, battle of Waterloo)
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Georges Blond, La Grande Armée, trans. Marshall May (New York: Arms and Armor, 1997), 48, 103, 470
- ^ The retort to a request to surrender may have been "La Garde meurt, elle ne se rend pas!" ("The Guard dies, it does not surrender!") or the response may have been the more earthy "Merde!". Letters published in The Times in June 1932 record that they may have been said by General Michel. The Guard dies, it does not surrender. Cambronne surrenders, he does not die
- ^ D.H. Parry (c. 1900) Battle of the nineteenth century, Vol 1 Cassell and Company: London. Waterloo
- ^ Elting, J.R. Swords Around a Throne: Napoleon’s Grande Armée. (Da Capo Press, press ed. 1997. pg.657)
[edit] See also
- Voltigeurs, skirmishers members of the Imperial Guard (at times, the Guard had 12 regiments of Voltigeurs)
