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3eme Cuirassiers

Napoleon's Cuirassiers

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The Napoleonic era Cuirassiers evolved from the Cavalerie de Bataille in Republican France.   This cavalry in turn evolved from the royal cavalry with the reorganization of the army in 1791.  In 1792 the cavalerie regiments were reduced to 25, and in 1793 a fourth squadron was added to each regiment.  These were the cavalerie regiments inherited by Napoleon as First Consul in 1799.  

A grosse cavalerie piquet by Denis-Auguste-Marie

Raffet in Horne's History of Napoleon Bonaparte.

 By definition, the battle cavalry were big men mounted on big horses; that is, big for the times - remember that the general populations of both men and horses were small then than now.  The government was faced with a significant problem in being unable to supply neither the numbers of recruits to fill out the regiments, nor the numbers of satisfactory horses on which to mount them.  The Consular Arrêté of 10 October 1801 reduced the number of heavy cavalry regiments to 22.  The Ordinance of 19 October 1801 designated the heavy cavalry as la cavallerie cuirassier (sic).

Faced with the manning problem, Napoleon embarked in September 1802 on a typically innovative solution by restructuring (what we now would call reengineering) the entire heavy cavalry arm.  He requested Berthier, the Minister of War, prepare a plan for 18 regiments of cavalry and 2 of carabiniers, all of 4 squadrons.  The excess cavalerie regiments were broken up and their men, horses, and equipment allocated to the remaining 18 regiments.  The 8th Régiment was previously equipped with the cuirass as the pre-revolutionary Cuirassiers du Roi, and regiments 1 through 5 were to be similarly equipped.

From 1801 to 1804 the stronger men and horses of the entire cavalry pool were assigned to the first 12 of these regiments - these became the cavalerie-cuirassiers.  The remaining 6 regiments became dragoons.  This conversion took place by Consular Arrêté or Ordinance as:

Arrêté or Ordinance Date

Provisions or Effect
10 October 1801 1e Cavalerie Régiment equipped with the cuirass.
19 October 1801 The Cavalerie Régiments are redesignated Cavalerie-Cuirassier. 
12 October 1802 25eme Cavalerie Régiment broken up with squadrons providing 4th squadron to the 2e, 3e, 4e Régiment Cavalerie-Cuirassiers; provided these regiments wear the cuirass; directed all cavalerie régiments to designate the first company of their first battalions as elite companies.
23 December 1802 23eme Cavalerie Régiment broken up to provide 4th squadrons to the 5e, 6e, 7e Régiment Cavalerie-Cuirassiers;  provided these regiments wear the cuirass; the elite company of the 23eme assigned to the Carabiniers.
31 December 1802 The 19th-22nd regiments disbanded, providing 4th squadrons to the 9th through 18th regiments; 15 men from the elite companies of the 19th-22nd regiments allocated to the Garde Consulaire with the remainder assigned to the carabiniers.
24 September 1803 The 1st through 12 Cavalerie-Cuirassiers regiments renamed Cuirassiers; cuirassier regiments identically organized to the carabiniers (carabinier organization by Arrêté of 12 October 1801); 13th through 18th regiments converted to 22nd through 27th Dragoons.

This conversion was gradual and for a period of time both cuirassier and heavy cavalry regiments existed together.  At the beginning of 1803 the 1st through 8th regiments were cuirassier while the 9th through 18th regiments were the old style heavy cavalry.

An Imperial Decree of 31 August 1806 established the organization of the cuirassier regiment and on 10 March 1807 the cuirassier regiments added a fifth squadron, however these appear to have remained in depot and used to provide replacements.  

Copyright Notice: This illustration is from The Uniform Plates of Vernet - Lami: The French Army 1791-1815 on the NapoleonSeries.org website.  This illustration is protected by their copyright and displayed here with permission of Yves Martin.

Napoleon formed three provisional cuirassier regiments for the campaign in Spain.  The first two regiments were formed in Tours in November of 1807 while the 3rd Provisional Regiment was formed in Poitiers in 1808.   The 2nd Provisional Regiment was captured at Baylen.   On 24 December 1809 the Provisional Regiment was reinforced with the remnants of the 2nd Regiment and became the 13e Cuirassiers.    The Decrees of 1 July and 18 August 1810 absorbed the Dutch Army and the 2nd Dutch Cuirassiers was renamed the 14e Régiment de Cuirassiers.   The 3rd Regiment was, however, disbanded in Barcelona early in 1811. 

All 13 regiments participated in the Russian Campaign.  Those few survivors returning formed cadres for the reforming cuirassier regiments.  As an expedient, Napoleon stripped the cuirassier depots of all manpower to form the 4eme (bis) Cuirassier Régiment which fought with the reforming cuirassier regiments in the 1813-14 campaigns in Germany and France.

With the restoration, Royal Ordinance of 12 May 1814 disbanded the 13th and 14th Regiments, repatriating the surviving Dutch.  The remaining 12 regiments were reorganized to four squadrons: the first five regiments immediately affected, with the sixth reforming on 6 January 1815.  On Napoleon's return from Elba, he retained the existing cuirassier regiments and attempted to reconstitute the regiments to their previous organization and strength.  These were the regiments that followed the Eagle to Waterloo. 

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