Napoleon neglected nothing. He was well aware that music had a powerful effect on both soldiers and civilians. Marches and hymns by such composers as Devienne, Catel, Gossec, and Gebauer were played throughout Europe. David Buhl, the best trumpeter of his day and also a composer, trained more than six hundred musicians in a special school at Versailles, and these formed the military bands that were attached to the regiments.
197. Drum major of the Imperial Guard, 1806—12 (Musee de I’Emperi).
The regiments strove to give their musicians and drum formations a particular elegance by varying the color of the trim and adding more or less rich ornaments. The forms, colors, and headgear were mostly chosen by the colonel himself and had nothing to do with the regiment s uniform. The uniform of drum majors was especially original and sumptuous. The drums, fifes, and bugles of the light infantry played an important role in military life. The virtuosity of the drummers was especially remarkable; the famous batterie dAusterlitz, with its rhythmic variations and oppositions of sonority produced by striking the sticks alternately on the skin and on the edge of the drum, constituted a veritable “sonata for drums.”
Cavalry fanfares included trumpets, horns, and trombones. Some regiments, such as those of the carabineers and hussars, also had timpanists. The musicians might wear uniforms that reversed the regiments colors, but very often their costume was completely different. As in the infantry, the headgear was chosen according to the dictates of fancy, and trumpeters of the cuirassiers could wear colbacks or white fur bonnets. The drummers could be even more astonishing in their fancy, pushing the limits of the bizarre.
Left: 198. Haiisse-col (gorget) for an officer of the Imperial Marine Artillery, ornamented with emblems of the First Empire. Right: 199. Ceremonial epee mounted with gilt brass engraved with the emperors profile; hilt embellished with mother-of-pearl and silver sword knot. (198,199: Musee de I’Emperi)
The regulations of 1812 attempted to put some order into this array of costumes worn by the musicians mandating the color green for all—trumpeters, horn players, fife players, drummers, master-drummers, and drum-majors. Decorated with braid bearing the imperial cipher, alternating eagles and the initial N, this costume was not worn for the Russian campaign, except in late 1812, when clothing provisions were sent from France to replace those of the decimated Grande Armee.
The Imperial Guard
During the First Empire the elite of elites was the Imperial Guard, which in 1804 replaced the Guard of the Consuls.
On August 9,1803, Bonaparte wrote to Berthier: “As for the Guard of the Consuls in particular, I want to say that no one but myself is to concern himself with what might be, rightly or wrongly, an improvement in its dress or well-being.” The figure of the Guard of the Consuls, the future Imperial Guard, is captured in the image of a warrior in a blue uniform with white facings, a plumed bearskin bonnet set at eye level, solidly standing on legs molded by tight-fitting white gaiters, leaning on his rifle or carrying it in the crook of his arm.
200. Infantry field officers shako, epaulettes, saber, and portfolio of the Imperial Guard, late Empire (Musee de I’Emperi). The shako was worn by Major Rouillard de Beauval, who fought at Montmirail in February 1814, where he was wounded and elevated to Baron of the Empire.
By 1801, the guard s infantry was composed of a regiment of foot grenadiers commanded by Davout and a regiment of foot chasseurs led by Soult. Bessieres had the command of the guard s cavalry: a regiment of horse grenadiers who wore the bearskin hat without plate and a coat like that of the regular grenadiers, and a regiment of chasseurs d cheval in hussar-style uniforms, including bearskin colback, green dolman, red pelisse, buff breeches (or a tailcoat for everyday wear). They had been created in Italy and named the Guides and there constituted General Bonaparte’s escort. They followed him to Egypt and when he became emperor always stayed close to him up to his last battle. Their famous green uniform was the one he wore most often.
The Guard of the Consuls included a horse-artillery regiment, one company of the artillery service corps, and another of engineers. A battalion of matelots, or sailors, appeared in 1804, strangely attired in a hussar-style uniform, dark blue with pale orange appointments.
The Imperial Guard was the force on which Napoleon counted in all circumstances. Composed of the handsomest, most distinguished soldiers, the guard steadily grew from 8,000 in 1805 until it reached the size of an army of65,000 in 1812 and was placed under the direct orders of the emperor.
To join the guard, one had to have served for six years and participated in two campaigns. The ordinary soldier in it had a rank equivalent to a corporal or sergeant in the line infantry and earned an equivalent salary; all who joined were promoted to the rank above the one they had held in the line.
From year to year, until 1814, new corps were added to the guard: for the infantry, regiments of “Middle Guard” (fusilier-grenadiers, fusilier-chasseurs) and the “Young Guard” (sharpshooters, skirmishers, flankers), wearing a shako and blue habit-veste with white or blue facings, or the green
Uniform of the flankers. In 1806 the guard cavalry was given a regiment of dragoons who wore brass helmets bearing an eagle ornament and green habit (long-tailed coat) with white lapels. A regiment of Polish light cavalry was created in 1807 after the Polish campaign. Their Polish-style uniform consisted of czapska, blue kurtka, and crimson trousers. In 1810, when the kingdom of Holland was annexed to the French Empire, the second regiment of chevaux-leger lancers was created—red lancers with a red and blue Polish-style uniform.
In December 1813, the Imperial Guard was increased by three more guide regiments. The guide-grenadiers dressed d la hussarde with black shako or colback, green dolman with white braids, and red breeches. Guide-dragoons wore a tubular red shako, green tunic, and gray trousers with a red stripe. The guide-lancers wore fine all-blue Polish-style uniforms. These regiments, composed entirely of recruits, fought bravely during the last French campaigns in 1814.
At the end of its long history, the Grande Armee, although defeated at Waterloo, preserved intact its bountiful crop of laurels. Neither its enemies nor its victors could claim to have diminished them. Even in defeat the French army remained the glory of France.
201. Jacques Louis David, Napoleon in his Study, 1812 (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.). The emperor, wearing his Colonel of the Foot Grenadiers uniform (see fig. 203), has just drafted the Napoleonic Code.
World History
