HISTORICAL MINIATURES BY GEORGE GRASSE

HISTOREX NCO

Image credit is Historex NCO Color Card 661

Note:  Kit HX3013 will make one of the following figures which are listed separately below - Officer, Standard Bearer, Trumpeter, or Trooper in full dress uniform.

CONVERSION KITS - each includes extra arms and legs and builds one of the following: 

ITEM

HX3013

Image credit is Historex NCO Color Card 667 - 678

The Gendarmes d'Elite of the Imperial Guard were selected soldiers of exceptional qualities taken from the National Gendarmerie.  They were the mounted guards of Napoleon's palace where ever it  be: in residence or in the field.  They were detached to escort various elements of the headquarters including vehicles and staff officers.  Other soldiers Napoleon used were the foot guards of the Grenadiers and Chasseurs and, as a personal bodyguard, the mounted Chasseurs a cheval all of the Imperial Guard.

CONVERSION KITS - the HX3014 kit includes extra arms and legs and all parts to build one officer, or standard bearer, or NCO, or trooper, or trumpeter, mounted on a horse in either the 1801-1804 or 1804-1815 uniform.  They are listed separately as HX3014 below but are all the same kit.  The other two series, under the prefix 678, represent the early Empire Gendarmes d'Elite in foot service under two different uniforms: 1801-1804 (bicorne or chapeau) and 1804-1806 (peaked bearskin or bonnet).

ITEM

HX3014

ITEM

678103

678104

HXH048 (HISTOREX 30H048)

SOLDAT DU DRAGONS DE LA GARDE EN TENUE DE CAMPAGNE

$37.00 / $27.00

Image credit is Historex NCO Color Card 634 - 612

Note: Series 642 represents the Garde Chasseurs a cheval mounted in service dress wearing the long surtout 1804-1815.

CONVERSION KITS - each includes extra arms and legs 

ITEM

Image credit is Historex NCO Color Card 681 - 682

CONVERSION KITS - each includes extra arms and legs 

ITEM

HXH068 (HISTOREX 30H068)

2e REGIMENT DE CHEVAU-LEGERS LANCIERS "HOLLANDAISE" DE LA GARDE TROMPETTE 1813

$37.00 / $27.00

Image credit is Knotel, D. J. , Napoleonic Uniforms, Volume 2, John R. Elting

Note:  In another attempt at the enticement of wealthy young men from the gentry and middle class into the military, Napoleon formed another corps of cavalry attached to the Imperial Guard.   There were four regiments created on 3 April 1813 termed "Gardes d'Honneur" and, judging from their nickname of "the hostages", were somehow compelled to join.  As a sort of reward, they were attached to the Imperial Guard but the Old Guard referred to them as the "garde douleur" meaning the "woeful guard". 

The four regiments were quite large supposedly having as many as ten squadrons each of two companies each of about 60+ men.  They were each commanded by a well-known, highly regarded general officer, not unusual for an Imperial Guard unit.  They were clothed exactly alike and the only way to distinguish one regiment from another was the color at the tip of the plume.  The following information shows for each regiment the guard cavalry regiment to which they were attached, the general officer commanding, and their distinguishing plume color.

The 1st Regiment was attached to the Guard Chasseurs a cheval, was commanded by General Pully, and had a red-tipped plume.  The 2nd Regiment was attached to the Guard Dragoons, was commanded by General Comte Lepic, and had a blue-tipped plume.  The 3rd Regiment was attached to the Guard Grenadiers a cheval, was commanded by General Comte de Segur, and had a yellow-tipped plume.  The 4th Regiment was attached to the Guard Chevau-Legers Lanciers, was commanded by General St. Sulpice, and had a white-tipped plume.

CONVERSION KITS - each includes extra arms .  Figures are in full dress,  mounted, with slung pelisse. 

ITEM

675005

Image credit is Historex NCO Color Car 742

From Napoleonic Uniforms, Volume 2, Imperial Guard section, plate 152, John Elting says, "Napoleon never included them (the Lancers of Berg) in his ranking of Guard regiments".  They are not listed as a guard regiment in Digby Smith's Napoleon's Regiments.   Were they in the Guard or just attached to the Guard?

Joachim Murat became Duke of the Grand Duchy of Cleve-Berg in 1806.  As a member of the Confederation of the Rhine, the Duchy was levied to furnish an mixed-armed force of 5,000 men.  He immediately set about creating units which included a Regiment of Hussars, first in a succession of names that eventually resulted in late 1809 of a lance-armed regiment termed the Chevau-Legers Lanciers de Berg.

They were thus equipped because their first deployment was attached to the Provisional Guard Division Napoleon sent to Spain.  Emir Bukhari in his Osprey Men-at-Arms booklet, Napoleon's Guard Cavalry, says (on page 26) that this regiment was admitted to the Guard.  They fought well in Spain during the period 1810-1811 but curiously, when the Provisional Guard Division was returned to France in 1811, Elting says that, except for a small cadre that was sent back as a nucleus for a 2nd Lancers of Berg, the regiment remained behind in Spain.  When Napoleon's campaign of 1813 collapsed, so did the Confederation of the Rhine.  By then, Murat was King of Naples and the two Berg lancer regiments transferred to Prussian service.

CONVERSION KITS - each kit includes extra arms.  Figures are in full dress, mounted.  There were uniform changes in 1812 so two sets of kits are offered.

ITEM

742204