Napoleon’s Dragoons of the Imperial Guard

by Pawly, Ronald; Courcelle, Patrice

• ISBN13: 9781849088060
• ISBN10: 1849088063
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-17
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Summary

Dressed in distinctive green uniforms and classically inspired copper helmets, the Dragoons of the Imperial Guard were raised in 1806 by the same criteria as other Guard units - by selection of picked, literate veterans from Line regiments who had six to ten years of service, and citations for bravery in at least two campaigns. The following year they were named Dragons de l'Impératrice in a unique compliment to the Empress Josephine. As a ceremonial regiment it enjoyed many privileges, but it also saw combat on a number of occasions, including the battles of Essling and Wagram (1809), the Russian campaign (1812, when it suffered severe losses), at Bautzen, Wachau and Leipzig (1813), in the 1814 Campaign of France, and at Ligny and Waterloo (1815). The unparalleled documentary and pictorial sources to which Ronald Pawly has access inform this, the latest volume in his unique English-language coverage of the cavalry of Napoleon's Imperial Guard. It includes a history of the unit's organisation and service, uniforms and equipment, drawn from the original manuscript correspondence of Napoleon and his senior officers, orders and inspection reports, which survive in the Paris archives to this day. Interspersed with material on the records of particular individuals - their promotions, wounds and deaths in action - and illustrated with uniform prints, photographs of portraits and colour plates covering all ranks and orders of dress, this is the definitive history of a legendary Napoleonic regiment.

Author Biography

Ronald Pawly was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1956 and still lives and works in that city. He is a respected member of several international societies for Napoleonic studies, and an expert on 19th-century military portraiture. He is the author of the monumental The Red Lancers: Anatomy of a Napoleonic Regiment (1998), and of a study of Napoleonic veterans' tombs in Belgium. This is the ninth volume on the cavalry of Napoleon's Imperial Guard that he has written for Osprey. Patrice Courcelle was born in northern France in 1950 and has been a professional illustrator for some 20 years. Entirely self-taught, he has illustrated many books and dozens of magazine articles for publishers worldwide, and his work hangs in a number of prestigious public and private collections, largely in Belgium, France and Switzerland. His dramatic and lucid style has won him widespread admiration in the field of military illustration and painting.

Table of Contents

The Empress's Dragoons	p. 3
1806: creation and establishment
1807: Definitive Organization	p. 6
Eylau and Friedland-reinforcing the Cavalry of the Guard celebrating victory, preparing for war
1808: Spain	p. 9
Initial advances and setbacks-Napoleon takes command Somosierra-crossing the Sierra de Guadarrama-Benavente
1809: The Austrian Campaign	p. 13
Recall from Spain-Wagram
1810-11: Administrative Evidence	p. 16
Strengths in Spain-regimental states-transfers-stripping the Line once again
1812: A Capital Too Far	p. 20
Assembly-the Christmas battle-the retreat
1813: Men of Bronze, and Marie-Louises	p. 24
Rebuilding the Guard Cavalry
1814: The Campaign of France	p. 40
The Guard committed to battle
The First Abdication
1815: The Hundred Days	p. 42
Plate Commentaries	p. 44
Uniforms and equipment
Index	p. 48
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