page_title: Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
section_title: Service history
hierarchical_section_title: Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale / Service history
caption_attribution_description: Soldaten bei einer jungen Markthändlerin auf der Rast. Öl auf Leinwand. 56 x 81 cm.
context_page_description: The Chasseurs à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a light cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively. They were the second senior "Old Guard" cavalry regiment of the Imperial Guard, after the Grenadiers à Cheval. The regiment had its origins in the Guides raised by General Bonaparte during his Italian Campaign of 1796. It was the Chasseurs that usually provided personal escort to Napoleon, and he often wore the uniform of the regiment in recognition of this service. The regiment was not only known for its lavish uniform, but its combat history as well.
context_section_description: When at the end of August 1799 Bonaparte left Egypt to return to France he took with him a detachment of 180 Guides à cheval and 125 Guides à pied. The men chosen were the most devoted veterans from each company. Soon after the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire the Guides, who had stayed in the south of France, were summoned to Paris and quartered in the Caserne de Babylone. A decree of 28 November reorganized the Garde du Directoire as the Garde des Consuls, but it makes no mention of the Chasseurs.
  By a decree of 3 January 1800 a company of Chasseurs à cheval was created. Its commanding officer was Napoleon's stepson, captain Eugène de Beauharnais, who was promoted major on 5 March. The strength was 4 officers and 113 men, the latter being chosen from the Guides who had returned from Egypt, and 112 were veterans of the Italian Campaign of 1796. The cavalry of the Garde Consulaire, two squadrons of Grenadiers à Cheval and the company of chasseurs, was commanded by Chef de brigade Jean-Baptiste Bessières. In May the company left Paris for Italy. It crossed the Great St Bernard Pass and was heavily engaged at the battle of Marengo (14 June) losing 70 out of its 115 horses. At the end of the campaign the corps returned to Paris. By a consular decree of 8 September it was augmented, becoming a squadron of two companies (troops) and 234 men.
  By a decree of 6 August 1801 the corps was increased to a headquarters and two squadrons. The staff was: 1 chef d'escadron, 1 adjudant-major, 2 porte-étendard, 1 brigadier-trompette, and 4 maîtres-ouvriers. At the end of September the remainder of the Guides got back from Egypt and were merged into the corps. By a decree of 14 November the chasseurs became a regiment. In theory the commanding officer was to be a Chef de brigade, but in fact Bonaparte retained Chef d'escadron Beauharnais in command.
  By decree of 8 March 1802 the Headquarters was increased. It now included four standard-bearers, a trumpet major, two trumpet corporals and a timbalier (kettle-drummer). By decree of 1 October the regiment was increased to four squadrons, with a total strength of 56 officers and 959 men. Beauharnais was promoted Chef de brigade (13 October), and now had as his squadron commanders Morland, Nicolas Dahlmann, Frédéric Auguste de Beurmann and Joseph Damingue, a negro who had distinguished himself at the Bridge of Arcole in 1796.
  From 22 March 1803, when summer training (travail d'été) began, the men were to parade on horseback every Monday and Thursday at 7.30 a.m. precisely on the Champ de Mars. Every Wednesday at the same hour they went through the foot exercise. In winter the parades seem to have been at 9.00 a.m. Swimming and rowing were among the exercises carried out in 1802 and 1803.
  By a decree of 21 January 1804 the regiment was given a major who was to rank with the colonels of the line. The intrepid Morland was given this appointment. By the same decree the company of Mamluks was attached to the regiment. By an Order of the Day of 18 May the Garde des Consuls became the Garde Impériale.
  On 13 May 1805 Beauharnais was made Viceroy of Italy, but he retained nominal command of the regiment until about 1808. Morland now became the actual commanding officer with the title of Colonel Commandant en second, and Dahlmann was promoted major. On 17 September a squadron of vélites (four companies) was created. It seems to have been intended as a kind of holding reinforcement unit. The regiment and the Mamluks greatly distinguished themselves at the battle of Austerlitz (2 December), where two squadrons and the Mamluks were led to the charge by Napoleon's senior aide-de-camp, General Rapp, inflicting heavy casualties on the Russian Imperial Guard and capturing Prince Repnin, the commander of the Chevalier Guard. At Austerlitz the Chasseurs suffered 19 officer casualties, including Colonel Morland, killed, and three squadron commanders wounded. Dahlmann now succeeded Morland, and Claude-Étienne Guyot became major.
  The regiment missed the battle of Jena (14 October 1806), where the 1st Hussars had the privil
caption: A Chasseur à cheval of the Imperial Guard and a vivandière.
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