French Cavalry: Battle of Waterloo

[Jon Metters]

Hello Everybody,

I am making a diorama of a British Square (The 73rd Foot) during the French Cavalry Charges at the Battle of Waterloo - and I would like to make it as historically accurate as possible. This will be done in 1/72 scale and have as many as 100 British and 75+ French Cavalry.

My questions:

How mixed up was the Cavalry late in the day at Waterloo - say 5pm? Do you think I could mix in all types of mounted French troops with my Cuirassiers and still be historically accurate? I would love to show Ney rallying a mixed bag of Cuirassiers, Lancers, Carabiners, Grenadiers, Hussars, Chasseurs. That would give me the liberty to choose only the poses I thought were really cool - and have a visually interesting scene.

Ideally I would like to have the bulk of them be Cuirassiers, with little 2 and 3 men groupings of the other Cavalry types scattered among them.

Please share your thoughts!

Best,

Jon Metters

 

[geaugan]

This may help.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17YqczWI2R8&feature=related

 

[Steve]

Jon, your idea is fine in a historical sense. By the time the French cavalry had attacked the squares three or four times unit cohesion began to suffer and by the last charges they were, as you wondered about, all mixed together in a huge mob of horsemen. And you are also correct about the cuirassiers contributing the most regiments to the attacks. Having seen your work before this will be a treat.--

 

[RFL]

Sounds like a great idea, but you should note that the only Hussar Regiment present at Waterloo was the 7th.

It was part of the Division Jacquinot, which was the Corps Cavalry of D`Erlon`s I Corps.

This is a decent French OOB at Waterloo, which might be useful for the facing colors of the various Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments.

http://www.britishbattles.com/waterloo/waterloo-french-order.htm

 

[Jon Metters]

Thank you to everybody. VERY helpful.

Best,

Jon Metters

 

[1969]

Judging by your other projects this should be very good.

Steve

 

[Luis R.]

Some notes on the uniforms of the French cavalry at Waterloo:

-Very few of the 11th Cuirassiers were issued a cuirass for the campaign.
-It is now believed Carabiniers wore light blue coats as campaign dress, instead of the regulation white ones

Some changes introduced by the monarchy before Napoleon's return were kept:
- Grenadiers-à-Chéval of the Imperial Guard were to be cuirassed, so they wore cuirassier-style coats, but no cuirasses.
-Many Gendarmes d'Elite of the Guard kept the crested helmets they got when they were converted into Gendarmes des Chasses du Roi.

 

[Colin_Fraser]

I am working on a similar scene using 28mm Perry wargame figures....just the cavalry charging.....no British. I will portray Ney with his 2 ADCS charging up slope followed by about 15 plastic multi-pose heavies. I too thought about mixing several regiments but dropped the idea as I don't think it would be accurate. I don't think the regiments would have mixed themselves up all that much and, if they had, I don't think they would have been capable of re-launching multiple charges against steady infanty in square. Artistic license is fine but my personal opinion is that historical accuracy would require keeping the regiments as separate as possible. Perhaps some mixing would have occurred at the edges.....or among units that were operationally tied (e.g Guard Chasseurs and Mameluke squadron or Grenadiers a Cheval and Gendarmes).

Colin