Mounted Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard
The Mounted Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard was a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively. They were the senior Old Guard cavalry regiment of the Imperial Guard and from 1806 were brigaded together with the Dragoons of the Imperial Guard.
"Heads up, gentlemen, these are bullets, not turds". Colonel Louis Lepic harangues the Grenadiers à Cheval as they are forming for a charge under intense fire at the Battle of Eylau in 1807. Painting by Édouard Detaille at the Chantilly Museum.
A Horse Grenadier
Charge of the Grenadiers à cheval at Marengo, 1800.
Grenadier à cheval officer (front)
The Old Guard were the veteran elements of the Emperor Napoleon's Imperial Guard. As such it was the most prestigious formation in Napoleon's Grande Armée. French soldiers often referred to Napoleon's Old Guard as "the Immortals".
Wearing their distinctive bearskin caps, Napoleon's Old Guard was the most celebrated and most feared elite military formation of its day.
Horse Grenadiers of the Old Guard during the Battle of Eylau by Édouard Detaille
Napoleon saying goodbye to the Old Guard at the Palace of Fontainebleau, after his first abdication (1814)
Grenadier of the old guard or Grognard (1813)
