Admitting to an Addiction...Again...

In January 2018 I declared an addiction - to hussars - when I completed my 22nd hussar unit...I am a hussar-aholic. I now need to declare another addiction...cuirassiers - since this is the first of four French cuirassier regiments for the Franco-Prussian War and the 22nd cuirassier unit across all my collections. Soon that total will rise to 25. Mind you, I should probably declare that I have even more dragoons...almost as many as the other two types combined...but I have broken that addiction (I think)...actually that is probably not true because I will be buying two regiments of French FPW dragoons if the Perrys ever release them.

La Charge des Cuirassiers à Reichshoffen, by Aimé Morot, 1887

French cuirassiers have a special place in the history of the Franco-Prussian War (and my heart) because of the way they were callously sacrificed at Froeschwiller on 6 August 1870. I have written at length on this subject before (here).  This (and my fascination with cavalry) is why I just had to add these cuirassiers to my collection. 

There were eleven regiments of cuirassiers in French service in 1870; ten line regiments and the Guard Cuirassiers - actually it would be quite reasonable to add the Guard Carabiniers to the list and make it twelve regiments. The line regiments were spread between the line and reserve divisions, with four regiments forming Bonnemains' Division from the cavalry reserve, two in Forton's Division of the Reserve and two regiments included in each of the cavalry divisions of the 1st and 6th Corps. 

Their relatively simple uniform makes them rather striking.