Franco-Prussian War French Imperial Guard Grenadiers

I have started work on some French Imperial Guard for the Franco-Prussian War.

When he established the Second Empire in December 1852, Louis Napoleon decided to reestablish the Imperial Guard, in the fashion of the Guard of his uncle's First Empire.

Formally established by decree on 1 May 1854, it was originally formed as a mixed division consisting of two infantry brigades (two regiments of grenadiers and two of voltigeurs with three battalions each), and one battalion of chasseurs à pied; a cavalry brigade (a regiment each of cuirassiers and guides); a regiment of foot gendarmerie, a regiment of horse artillery, and an engineer company. Additional decrees of 1855 and 1865 changed the structure to a full corps of two infantry divisions with two brigades each, and one cavalry division with three brigades through the addition of new unit types (zouaves, chasseurs à cheval, lancers, dragoons and carabiniers, and the creation of a third grenadier regiment, two new voltigeur regiments, and a foot artillery regiment.  

Commanded successively by Régnaud de Saint-Jean-d'Angély, Bazaine, then Bourbaki and was intended for deployment as an elite force in campaign as much as it was for ceremonial purposes. Each unit of the Guard had a sumptuous uniform unique to itself and Napoleon took a personal interest in the clothing, weaponry, quality of horses, training, billeting, and general well-being of its  regiments.

My Guard is going to be a representative force about half the strength of the original. I will form a brigade consisting of a regiment of Grenadiers (three battalions) and the Guard Zouave Regiment (two battalions - there were only two battalions), and a brigade of consisting of two regiments of voltigeurs (each of three battalions). Later, when I can find suitable figures, I will do some cavalry and artillery. I am starting with a battalion of grenadiers, because I like grenadiers. 

The 1st and 2nd Guard Grenadier Regiments were formed in time to see service in the Crimea and played an important role in the capture of the outer works of Sevastopol in June 1855, and in the final assault on the city in September. In that campaign the two regiments suffered 250 battle casualties, but three times that number from disease. All three regiments went to Italy in 1859 where they suffered 879 casualties at Magenta and a further 528 when they stormed the heights at Solferino.

In 1870 the Guard joined the Army of the Rhine at Metz in time to join the retreat towards Verdun. At Rezonville, on 16 August, the Grenadiers were a part of Picard's Division that was brought forward at around 1:00 PM to stabilise the line as 2nd Corps fell back in the face of the Prussian 3rd and 4th Divisions. Along with the Guard Zouaves they formed south of Rezonville and remained there all afternoon.  It would be easy to think that from the two images below (from the Rezonville Panorama) that they had a relative easy day, but not so. For most of the afternoon they faced the Prussian 3rd Division and were under relentless artillery fire from the massed German batteries. At day's end they counted 1,477 casualties across the three regiments

They were not engaged at Gravelotte-St Privat two days later and then spent the next two months besieged in Metz. In the attempted sorties at Noisseville and Bellevue they suffered a further 650 casualties. A total of 5,250 grenadiers surrendered when Metz fell in late-October and they saw out the rest of the war as POWs in Germany. The grenadiers, along with the rest of the Guard, were disbanded on 28 October 1870.

Unlike the Crimean and Italian campaigns, the grenadiers took the field in 1870 without their bearskins. In late-July, when he should have been focusing on his plan of campaign, Napoleon became sidetracked with  minutiae and made only three decisions of note. First, in the summer heat the he felt troops need not encumber themselves with blankets and ordered that they could be left in the depots. Second, the line infantry could dispense with the regulation shako and wear the kepi (not that it was really his decision since the troops refused to wear the shako and tens of thousands them littered the railway platforms across the length and  breadth of France). Third, the Guard Grenadiers and Voltigeurs would leave their bearskins and shakos, respectively, at barracks in Paris and were approved to wear the kepi, but there were not enough kepis in stock to supply all seven regiments so they were permitted to wear the bonnet de police in the field. Later, during the siege of Metz sufficient kepis were available and the bonnet de police was gradually replaced.

Here is my first battalion of grenadiers.

The figures are all 3D printed and have amazing detail. The only negative is that with the rank and file figures in the advancing pose the white boutonnières on the front of the tunic, which gives them a very distinctive look, is largely concealed and quite difficult to get at with the brush. The voltigeurs, that are on the painting table now, are in the marching pose and their yellow boutonnières stand out much better.