Gendarmerie d'élite de la Garde impériale
|
Gendarmerie d'élite de la Garde impériale |
|
|---|---|
 Gendarme d'élite in front of Général Napoléon's quarters. Painting by François Flameng . |
|
| active | 1801 to 1815 |
| Country |
 France
|
| Armed forces |
 Napoleonic Army
|
| Armed forces | Guard impériale |
| Branch of service | Cavalerie de la Garde impériale |
| Type | Gendarmerie |
| Strength | 632 |
| Insinuation | Vieille Guard |
| Location | Caserne des Célestins, Paris |
| Nickname | "Les Immortels" |
| Butcher | Coalition wars |
| commander | |
| commander | Last: Pierre d'Autancourt |
| Important commanders |
Anne Jean Marie René Savary (1800–1810) |
The Gendarmerie d'élite de la Garde impériale (elite gendarmerie of the imperial guard) was a so-called legion, a sub-unit of the Garde impériale of the First Empire . The troops were formed in 1801 by Napoléon Bonaparte and were in service until the end of the Empire. In 1802 the unit was incorporated into the Guard Consulaire and taken over into the Imperial Guard the following year. The "Gendarmerie d'élite" was:
«[...] specialty chargée du maintien de la sûreté publique, et de la police dans le lieu où réside le gouvernement»
" ([...] especially entrusted with maintaining public security and providing the police in government properties) "
It was divided into two escadrons , which were initially under the command of Colonel Anne Jean Marie René Savary.
In the first campaigns of the empire they were only assigned a secondary role, they secured the emperor's accommodation and the lines of communication.
In 1808 the Legion was sent to the Spanish War of Independence . Assigned to fight the guerrillas in addition to their normal duty of maintaining public order , they were also used as heavy cavalry, as in the battle of Medina de Rioseco .
In the Russian campaign in 1812 the "Gendarmes de la Garde" fought in the Battle of the Beresina , then in the Battle of Leipzig and in the Battle of Montmirail .
During the First Restoration , the unit remained in service under the name of Gendarmerie des chasses and was given its old name again after Napoléon's return from the island of Elba during the reign of the Hundred Days . During the campaign in Belgium in 1815 a company was still in use.
After the king's second return in 1815, the corps in Châtellerault was disbanded.
organization
An escadron of the gendarmes was set up in 1801 and incorporated into the Guard Consulaire in 1802 . With the formation of the imperial guard in 1804, two escadrons, each of two companies, were formed and accepted into the guard. Each of the gendarmes (theoretically) had to be 176 centimeters tall. The two escadrons of the mounted gendarme were assigned two companies of gendarme on foot. These consisted of 632 officers, NCOs and men. The foot gendarme companies were disbanded in 1806.
Napoleonic Wars
1805-1807
When Austria declared war on France in 1805, Napoléon immediately moved to Bavaria , defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Ulm and then the Russians in the Battle of Austerlitz . In this campaign the gendarmes only took over the courier service for the emperor.
Spain
In 1808 the gendarmes marched at the head of the guards in the Spanish War of Independence. A department of five officers and 100 gendarmes, commanded by Capitaine Noirot, was assigned to the Corps of Maréchal d'Empire Bessières , where it performed its usual role as a security unit. A second détachement under Colonel Major Jean-Baptiste Jacquin was stationed in Madrid with 85 men . On May 2, 1808, the people of Madrid began a revolt against the occupation. The French commander, Maréchal Murat , ordered the cavalry to break up the crowd ( de sabrer - to cut down - as he put it). The "Gendarmes à cheval" put down the uprising, which cost them some injuries, one of whom was Colonel Major Jacquin.
A few months later, on July 14th, the Battle of Medina de Rioseco took place. Together with the cavalry of Général Lasalle , 57 "Gendarmes d'élite" under Capitaine Noirot attacked the Spanish positions. In September the corps was split up, 90 gendarmes remained under the command of Bessières, 163 were assigned to the reserve corps of Général Saligny and 77 to the reserve brigade of the Guards Infantry. On November 10th the Battle of Burgos took place, in which the gendarmes were used as part of the cavalry of Maréchal Bessières in the attack on the Spaniards.
Meanwhile, Napoléon left the pursuit of the English to Maréchal Soult and withdrew the guards from Spain to use them in the upcoming campaign in Germany and Austria. Ultimately, by March 1810, only six officers and 101 gendarmes remained in Spain to fight the guerrillas. At the beginning of 1811 the gendarmerie department in Spain still consisted of 77 horsemen, commanded by Capitaine Jacquin. It was assigned to the corps of Général Dorsenne , where it was used to maintain security and to fight partisans. The department then served in Astorga and during the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo . At the end of the year, the gendarmes finally left the Iberian Peninsula.
Campaigns in Russia, Germany and France
In 1812 the unit was turned off for the Russian campaign . In Russia it was used at Orcher to secure the crossing over the Dnieper , and in the Battle of the Berezina it protected the ford at Studyanka.
Despite the great losses in the Russian winter, the two escadrons fought in the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 . By replacing 400 recruits , the workforce had increased to 1174 riders. In the period that followed, the number of recruits declined, from a total of 540 in 1813, the number fell to 300 at the beginning of 1814.
In 1813, the Général de division François Fournier-Sarlovèse, arrested on the orders of Napoléon, was brought to the fortress of Mainz by the gendarmes .
In France the gendarmes were still fighting the Russians in the Battle of Montmirail and the Battle of Vauchamps .
After the abdication of Napoleon and the return of the Bourbons, it was dissolved.
Reign of the Hundred Days
After Napoléon's return from exile on the island of Elba, the rule of the Hundred Days began , in which the "Gendarmerie d'élite" was re-established as two companies. Only the 1st Company took part in the campaign to Belgium in 1815 under the command of Capitaine Dyonnet. She fought in the Battle of Ligny and the Battle of Waterloo .
The dissolution of the Imperial Guard, to which the troops belonged, was ordered on September 15, 1815 and carried out on September 26 in Châtellerault . The last in command, Général Dautancourt, said to his soldiers:
“A la fin de ma carrière militaire, j'ai eu l'honneur de commander à des braves comme vous, je ne pouvais pas mieux finir. Adieu […] Servez fidèlement le roi et la Patrie! »
" (At the end of my military career I had the honor of commanding brave people like you, it couldn't end better for me. Adieu [...] Serve the King and the Fatherland loyally!) "
Police service
As one could already see from the name, the "Gendarmes d'élite" were primarily responsible for the security not only of the important statesmen, but also for those in the localities inside (and outside) France. For this reason they were referred to by the other troops as the "Les Immortels" (the immortals), as their losses on the later campaigns were relatively small.
However, her role as gendarmerie was initially limited to Paris under the direct orders of the emperor . They did not patrol the conquered cities, this was reserved for the local police or the line's gendarmerie.
A firing squad consisting of 16 "gendarmes d'élite" carried out the execution of Louis Antoine Henri de Bourbon-Condé, duc d'Enghien , in Valenciennes in 1804 .
At Napoleon's coronation, the gendarmes provided an escort of honor.
On the campaigns
During the campaigns, the "Gendarmes d'élite" guarded the emperor's headquarters . Usually they took up positions next to the tent entrance. Sometimes they formed the escort of the imperial staff, but were always at the side of the imperial carriage when traveling.
They also guarded prisoners of war and captured trophies from the enemy.
With the help of the population, who did not like to see these wandering marauders , because they plundered the crops and the houses, deserters of the French army were captured and guarded.
_-_Escorte_de_d%C3%A9serteurs.jpg)
Peace time
During the peacetime, when the emperor lived in one of his palaces, the gendarmerie stood guard in front of the imperial apartments. They also watched the entrances and exits of the respective buildings in order to prevent people from entering who might want to kill the emperor. You were responsible for the Palais des Tuileries, Saint-Cloud Castle and Schönbrunn Palace . Until the dissolution in 1806, this had been transferred to the "Gendarmes à pied" (Gendarmes on foot) and was then taken over by the mounted Gendarmes. The gendarmes stationed in Paris were deployed as imperial escorts with two detachements in the Tuileries and in Malmaison Castle , a detachment on foot also served in the Tuileries, and another as a guard in the Temple prison .
Commanders
On September 5, 1801, Anne Jean Marie René Savary was appointed the unit's first colonel. The Chef d'escadron Jacquin became Colonel en second, the Chef d'escadron Delga became the commandant of the "Gendarmerie à pied", Jean-Pierre Henri and Pierre d'Autancourt (or Dautancourt) were at the head of the two mounted escadrons. Henri was promoted to colonel en second on May 30, 1808, and Jacquin left the army in November of the same year.
Savary was appointed Minister of Police on June 8, 1810 and replaced by Général Antoine Jean Auguste Durosnel, Aide de camp of Napoléon. During the reign of the Hundred Days, Napoléon transferred command of the troops to Général Dautancourt, but during the campaign in Belgium in 1815 it was taken over by Capitaine Dyonnet.
Anne Jean Marie René Savary
Jean-Baptiste Jacquin
Antoine Jean Auguste Durosnel
Pierre d'Autancourt
Standards
Model 1804 front
Model 1804 back
Model 1812 front side
Model 1812 back
Uniforms
The uniforms of the "Gendarmes à cheval" corresponded to those of the Grenadiers à cheval de la Garde with the following differences:
- The waistcoat, trousers, and gloves were made of beige deerskin, the uniform skirt was studded with white metal buttons.
- A white aiguillette was worn on the left shoulder.
- The bearskin hat with a leather peak and metal chinstrap had a lid made of red fabric and decorated with a white grenade. On the left side there was a red feather trim (white when parades).
- The bandolier made of yellow buffalo leather was decorated with white stripes.
- The saddlecloth and the coat bag were blue and decorated with white borders.
- Cuirassier boots were used as boots.
The saber was the same as that of the “Grenadiers à cheval de la Garde”. The “Fusil modèle 1777” rifle with bayonet was only used for service on foot in the residences. It was similar to that of the infantry, but of the reduced size that was common for the cavalry.
The troops were equipped with black horses .
The "Gendarmes à pied" (gendarmes on foot) wore black gaiters instead of boots . The bearskin hat had no hangings and the epaulettes had no fringes. The main armament consisted of the infantry rifle "Fusil modèle 1777" with bayonet.
literature
- Denys Prache: Les soldats de Napoléon (= Le grenier des merveilles ). Hatier, Paris 1983, ISBN 978-2-218-06647-4 .
Liliane and Fred Funcken: L'uniforme et les armes des soldats du Premier Empire (de la garde impériale aux troupes alliées, suédoises, autrichiennes et russes. ) Volume 2. Casterman, Tournai 1969, ISBN 2-203-14306-1 .
- Alain Pigeard: La Garde impériale (1804-1815) (= Bibliothèque napoléonienne ). Tallandier, 2005, ISBN 978-2-847341-77-5 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- Philip Haythornthwaite: La Garde impériale (= Grandes Armées. No. I. Armées et batailles. No. 1). Osprey Publishing, Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-2-84349-178-8 .
- G. Charmy: Splendeurs des uniformes de Napoléon. La Garde impériale à cheval. Charles Hérissey, 2003, ISBN 978-2-914417-10-5 .
- Eugène Louis Bucquoy: La Garde impériale: troupes à cheval (= La Gendarmerie d'élite des Gardes consulaire et impériale. Part 2). Jacques Grancher, Paris 1977.
- Jean Tranié, Juan-Carlos Carmigniani: Napoléon (1813 - La campagne d'Allemagne). Pygmalion / Gérard Watelet, Paris 1987, ISBN 978-2-85704-237-2 .
- Jacques-Olivier Boudon: Police et Gendarmerie dans l'Empire Napoléonien (= Collection de l'Institut Napoléon ). Éditions SPM, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-901952-99-2 ( full text in the Google book search).
- Emmanuel Martin: La gendarmerie française en Espagne et en Portugal (campagnes de 1807 à 1814). Léautey, Paris 1898 ( digitized on Gallica ).