page_title: Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
section_title: War of the Sixth Coalition
hierarchical_section_title: Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale / Battles / War of the Sixth Coalition
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Mort du maréchal Bessières à Rippach, près de Weissenfels, le 1er mai 1813.
context_page_description: The Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively. They were the senior "Old Guard" cavalry regiment of the Imperial Guard and from 1806 were brigaded together with the Dragons de la Garde Impériale.
  A part of the Republican Consular Guard, the Grenadiers became the senior "Old Guard" heavy cavalry regiment when the Imperial Guard was founded, in 1804. Their maximum official complement was just over 1100 officers and troopers, commanded by a general of division or a seasoned general of brigade, with some of the most famous cavalrymen of the time as commander.
  Rarely committed to battle during the Napoleonic Wars, they were usually kept in reserve, alongside the Emperor, during the most significant battles of 1804-1815. When sent into action, such as during the battles of Marengo, Austerlitz, Eylau, Hanau or Waterloo, as well as during a number of actions of 1814, results were usually impressive. The regiment was disbanded in 1815, after Napoleon's downfall and the second restoration of the Bourbons.
context_section_description: The regiment took some time to reform during 1813 and would only go back to action in April. Napoleon I reviewed them at Erfurt on April 27; only three days later the Grenadiers-à-Cheval received news of the death of their beloved leader, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières, who had been killed in action by a stray Russian cannonball, next to the village of Rippach. The regiment saw brief action at the battle of Dresden and was involved in supporting the foot Guards take the village of Reudnitz, during the battle of Leipzig in late October. The only major engagement of the year would come at the end of October, at the battle of Hanau. As the Austro-Bavarians under Karl Philipp von Wrede were trying to block the retreat of the Grande Armée towards France, Napoleon was forced to commit his élite troops, personally haranguing the Grenadiers-à-Cheval as they were preparing to go into action. The entire Guard cavalry charged by squadron, in column and broke a numerous enemy cavalry, following it for several hundred metres. During this battle, the colonel major of the regiment, general  Louis-Marie Lévesque received six sabre cuts to the shoulder and arm and captain adjutant-major Guindey, famous for killing Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia at the battle of Saalfeld seven years earlier, was killed in action. Another blow was dealt to the morale of the regiment on November 24 of that year, when the regiment's commander-in-chief, general of division Frédéric Henri Walther died suddenly from exhaustion and illness. He was replaced on December 1 by the 45-year-old general of division Claude Étienne Guyot, with the senior general of division Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty taking overall command of the entire Guard cavalry.
  The following year, war continued on French soil and began very badly, with the French army outnumbered and in very bad shape. The Guard cavalry, under Nansouty, was thus called into action more often than ever, combating valiantly and often playing an instrumental role in Napoleon's attempts to frustrate Coalition plans. Together with other regiments of the Guards, the Grenadiers fought against overwhelming enemy numbers at La Rothière and nine days later broke several Russian infantry squares from General Zakhar Olsufiev's force. At the Battle of Montmirail, the Grenadiers annihilated two Russian brigades and at the Battle of Château-Thierry successfully charged Coalition artillery batteries and two days later helped rout Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's army at the Battle of Vauchamps. They were then involved in several actions, including major ones at Reims and Craonne, where they routed several enemy squares. During this battle, the commander (major) of the Grenadiers, General Lévesque de Laferrière was wounded by a bullet and had a leg torn off and also lost one of its best officers, Captain Kister. Their last action of the campaign was fought at Méry-sur-Seine, where they captured a team of pontooners belonging to the enemy "Army of Bohemia".
caption: Death of Marshal Bessières on 1 May 1813. The Marshal had been the first commander of the regiment, up until 1800 and thus he was particularly loved by the Grenadiers-à-Cheval.
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