Unit of the Week - French Chasseurs-a-cheval

Prior to the Revolution, the cavalry arm of the French army had largely been recruited from the nobility. The revolution, of course, saw "the people" turn on the nobility, and those few who weren't executed on the guillotine were chased abroad. Horses too, were in short supply, as the French military had traditionally imported its horses from Germany. In the early days of the Revolution, France had few friends among the German states, and supply was therefore poor.

So, in the early stages of the Revolutionary Wars, French cavalry was less plentiful and of a lower quality than in previous years.

Initially, squadrons of chasseurs-a-cheval were raised, providing at least some light cavalry support for the revolutionary armies, forced to defend "La Balle France" against the (still royalist) superpowers of Europe, who hoped to crush the flame of revolution before it spread to their lands. These were horsemen essentially light cavalry, designed for scouting and reconnaissance, and support duties rather than heavy duty fighting.

When they did find themselves in the midst of close quarter fighting, French light cavalry discharged both pistols before turning to their swords. (Heavy cavalry didn’t bother with pistols, charging directly with the sword).

A French cavalry regiment comprised four squadrons each of 120 men (which translates to six figures in my army, which is scaled to one figure represents 20 men). In the picture above , we see "Le Petit General" himself, Napoleon Bonaparte, leading a squadron of chasseurs-a-cheval on patrol.

While in Italy, after almost being killed when the patrolling chasseurs-a-cheval that he was accompanying found themselves in the middle of Austrian positions by mistake, Napoleon Bonaparte formed a Guard Cavalry with Chasseurs-a-Cheval-de-la- Guarde comprising comprising five squadrons of Chasseurs. A sixth squadron, one of Marmelukes, was added following the Egyptian campaign of 1798-1802.

What was left of the old “heavy cavalry” of the Royalist era was reorganised in 1799 into regiments of carabinier (which tended to be elite troops) and cuirassiers.

The light cavalry (hussars, chasseurs-a-cheval and lancers) were primarily intended for reconnaissance, screening, raiding, pursuit and “field security”, although hussars were known to make massed charges on the battlefield. Hussars were a direct copy of the famous Hungarian hussars, just as (later) lancers were a copy of the Polish lancer.

Prior to 1800, the French had regarded dragoons as primarily heavy cavalry, and used them as such. Finding that he had insufficient horses to mount all his cavalry, Napoleon ordered at least some of his dragoons to be trained as the dismounted light cavalry role we know them as today.

The successful 1805-1807 campaigns against Austria and Prussia brought some relief in terms of provision of mounts. But dragoons were now officially a part of the “light cavalry”.