Officers and soldiers. French Hussars, 1786-1815

Volume 3. From the 9th to the 14th regiment, 1804-1812, the hundred days, the restoration

In volume II of these works devoted to the Hussars of the Empire, our study stopped with the 8th Regiment. In this, the third and last volume, we review the next regiments, from the 9th to the 12th. We also look at those curious regiments, the 13th (Bacciochi) Hussars and the 14th Hussars, both of them recruited in Italy, not forgetting the Jerome Napoleon Hussars which were changed into the new 13th Hussars at the beginning of 1814.

There is a chapter devoted to the famous 1812 Regulations, Major Bardin's monumental work whose manuscript, beautifully illustrated by Carl Vernet, describes all the uniforms, equipment, harnessing and weapons used by the Imperial troops in the tiniest detail. Particular attention is paid to the regulations affecting the Hussars.

We then look at the uniforms worn by the first eight regiments during the 1813-15 period. We see that during this troubled period the 1812 Regulations were applied only partly since with the difficult Saxon and French campaigns the authorities had more important things to do than change uniforms.

Finally we round off our study with the six Hussar regiments of the First and Second Restoration.