Rousselot gives us Chasseurs on parade in Paris.

Chasseurs a cheval officers on parade

Chasseurs a Cheval on parade

Two officers of Napoleon’s guard Chasseurs a Chavel, his personal light cavalry guard regiment, on parade. They wear grande tenue de service, their full-dress service uniform. This regiment dresses in hussar style, wearing the dolman jacket, then a second jacket, the pelisse, over it. Unless it’s cold, Chasseurs usually wore the pelisse hung over the shoulder.

Most hussar regiments wore a dolman, pelisse, and trousers of the same color. The Chasseurs de la Garde wore green for the dolman and trousers, with a red pelisse. This combination made them stand out, both on parade and campaign. Mind you, “monocolor” hussars, like Napoleon’s 3rd Hussars and their beautiful grey uniforms, stand out wonderfully. The Chasseurs, however, were more than just Bonaparte’s favorite regiment. They were his Guides, his bodyguards. They accompanied him everywhere.

Captain and Major

Here we see a Chasseur Captain on the left, shaking hands with a Major on the right. The Captain is a likely a Company commander (Troop/Company/Squadron). He respectfully greets the Major, who is possibly his chef d’escadron, the squadron commander. There would be two or three companies in the squadron. Notice the plume in the Major’s colback (the big hat) is white, while the Captain’s plume is the green/red that matches the troopers in the background.

We see the rich gold lace and chevrons of rank on the Major’s pelisse, along with his elaborately-embroidered sabertache attached to his sword belt. Both officers wear their formal parade swords. On campaign, they would likely switch these out for more serviceable weapons.

The saddle blankets of the officers are leopard skins, much more elaborate than the basic saddles and tack of the troopers.

Writing Ideas

The first thing that struck me here was, this is the opening scene of a parade/review story. There are so many incredible stories of Bonaparte’s reviews at the Tuileries Palace in Paris. They were huge, and easy to write from the perspective of a chef d’escardon of the Guard Chasseurs. Filling in the backstory could be a story in itself.

Get to it, writers!

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