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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.
French Cuirassier and Carabiniers are the best uniforms IMHO. All hussars are a close second. Nice looking figures.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, but thd hussars if this era aren't as impressive as earlier times.
Delete"My name is Mark, and I am a......wargamer. It's been three years since my last cavalry unit!" They do look good Mark but I don't think the tin vests will help much against breech loading Krupp artillery!
ReplyDeleteOddly, it was the terrain every big as much, if not more, than the firepower that did the damage at Froeschwiler
DeleteAddiction? Hardly! Who wouldn’t want these fine troopers in their army? Beautiful work, Mark.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathan...36 troopers more to go!
DeleteOh my! Excellent work Mark!
ReplyDeleteThank you Michal!
DeleteGreat work, they look superb Mark, French Curassiers from whatever period are so iconic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Donnie. You are right and the blue jackets and red pants make them extra special.
DeleteNothing wrong with a Cavalry addiction. I'm a bit odd in that I quite enjoy painting horses
ReplyDeleteFor me horses, more correctly the horse furniture, is the part I dislike the most, but the finished result is always pleasing.
DeleteCoincidentally, the Youtube algorithm sent me to a short on Aimé Morot a couple of days ago. He had escaped my notice before but he clearly also had a thing for the cuirassiers, painting (or certainly commissioned to) a number of works depicting their exploits.
ReplyDeleteYes he did three paintings if them that I know of: two from Froeschwiller (Reichshoffen) and one from Rezonville. He was an admirer of the work of Eadweard Muybridge (yes the spelling is correct) who famously captured photographic images of galloping horses. Morot used Muybridge’s studies to capture the realistic actions the horses. That attention to detail can be seen in all three cuirassier paintings.
DeleteThey're great but nothing competes with hussars!
ReplyDeleteStephen
Lancers are pretty cool too...I have them across multiple collections too.
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