French Imperial Guard INFANTRY horse colours

[C M Dodson]

I was under the impression that mounted officers of the Grenadiers and Chasseurs a pied had a penchant for black horses as the senior regiments.

I have trawled the net and my reference books but can not find any definative evidence that this is the case.

Can anybody help me here please? I am preparing Guard infantry for my Ligny project and would like to get it right.

Thank you in advance.

Chris

[Fredericus-Rex]

In many European armies the cuirassiers black horses, dragoons ridden brown horses and hussars Falben and other color varieties. Drummers and trumpeters white, gray horses.

[Peter]

Only thing I know for sure is that the "Horse Grenadiers" had black horses. Never heard that the officers of the "Grenadiers à Pied" had black horses.

[Zed1]

It would surprise me to see any secured source for that theory. As far as I have read, I never stumbled accross such comments whatsoever. If it was sort of a preference, perhaps to pronounce inner military social standards whatsoever, this may have been the case but then you will certainly not find a 100% valid evidence in any book.

On the other hand, in mid-1813, the bulk of the guards still wasn't more then a shadow of the past. Most of them regiments had suffered badly in the Russian campaign, a number of battalions had no officers at all and some just existed in theory - on the roll. When the empire went over the brink in 1814, the 'guards' were in no good shape and far away from the glory of the years before 1812.
Taken this into account, and taking into account the hasty rush of raising troops and reorganizing everything in 1815, I have my doubts that the officers of guard regiments had no other things to do then care about horse colours when it was quite a challenge to get enough horses for all the regiments at all.

[Paul]

Don´t know how accurate historex pics are

[C M Dodson]

Thank you to everyone for their prompt and informative responses.

The Historex pictures are lovely and remind me of building their Napoleon as a child. Their pictures to my knowledge are very accurate indeed.

Zed makes some good points regarding the chaos during this period. However, as Mr Adkin states the Guard artillery were able to get the horses they wanted as the Guard always had the first pick. Of the crop so to speak.

I have also very kindly received this picture from a reference book on the Foot Guard which is interesting as it shows, again black horses which may be co incidental.

It would seem on the evidence to date that there is no definative answer so I am happy to proceed with a mixture of blacks and Browns for the project.

Again, thank you to everyone.

Chris

[/URL]hh







[/URL]hh

[Beano Boy]

i remember blucher1815,showing how he painted dark horses.
He painted them a bright red first that seemed rather extreme , then he black inked them to his required shade.
i tried it ,and it worked for Jan`s Waterloo thing!
Sadly he saw fit to deleted all his videos, and all his work on You Tube,but as far as i know his work is still on the Forum somewhere.
Sorry for high-jacking your question.
i thought this might help others too upon the subject of colouring darker shades of horses. BB

[Kekso]

Taken this into account, and taking into account the hasty rush of raising troops and reorganizing everything in 1815, I have my doubts that the officers of guard regiments had no other things to do then care about horse colours when it was quite a challenge to get enough horses for all the regiments at all.

My thoughts exactly. Good thinking and with good arguments.