Chasseurs à cheval ioniens

Chasseurs à cheval ioniens
Chasseur à cheval ioniens during the First Empire
active	December 13, 1808 to September 12, 1814
Country	France
Armed forces	French army
Armed forces	Hunters on horseback
Branch of service	Light cavalry
Strength	1 company

The Chasseurs à cheval ioniens were a small cavalry unit that only existed during the time of the Napoleonic Army .

As was not uncommon at the time, Emperor Napoleon set up the unit on a whim by decree on May 18, 1808 ( Decret organisée Napoléonne Corr. N ° 14557. Volume 18, p. 115). The provisional order of November 23, 1807 was thus relativized.

The few available information say that the staff should have come from a cadre of the 25 ^e régiment de chasseurs à cheval , although according to the will of the emperor it should be formed from volunteers from the Ionian Islands . Although the formation of an escadron was planned, this was reduced by order of December 1808 to one company (half an escadron) with a total of 128 riders. (The organizational structure was the same as that of the French chasseurs à cheval .)

The unit in command was the Chef d'escadrons Lastour.

With the rest of the garrison of Corfu , the company was returned to France in 1814 and incorporated into the 6 ^e régiment de chevau-légers lanciers on September 12, 1809 in Lyon .

The uniform of the “25 ^e chasseurs à cheval” was worn by arrangement , with the difference that the jacket was gray and provided with dark red piping. Furthermore, the buttons were silver-colored with the embossed inscription "Chasseurs ioniens". A standard was not carried.

There is no information about any combat operations.

literature

• Guy C. Dempsey: Napoleon's Mercenaries. Foreign Units in the French Army Under the Consulate and Empire 1799 to 1814 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).