French Musketeers and Cuirassiers?
Were the French Musketeers and the Cuirassiers the same, or different?
As an ex military from a mounted regiment: absolutely not!
Musketeers were infantry.
Cuirassiers were heavy cavalry.
Musketeers were armed with a musket, hence the name.
Cuirassiers were armed with a heavy sabre and wore a cuirass. At least a breastplate, but more often a full cuirass (protecting the front and the back). Almost always some kind of a helmet.
Musketeers were at first an elite regiment, protecting the royal family. Later on every infantryman carried a musket, but a shorter one. Musketeers disappeared after the French revolution. Cuirassiers remained in active service until the beginning of WW1. Today they still exist, but as ceremonial guard of the French republic.
Napoleon Cavalry French Cuirassiers/ cuirassiers français & fanfare garde republicaine
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Cavalry Vionville 2/1870 Photo Mugs Battle of VIONVILLE-Mars-La- Tour, also known as REZONVILLE ; the charge of the French cuirassiers …. |
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French Cuirassier Photo Mugs A trumpeter of the Cuirassiers of the Garde Imperiale, at the time of the French campaign in Italy. …. |
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Waterloo – Highlanders Photo Mugs Battle of WATERLOO The Highlanders form a square to withstand the cavalry charge of the French cuirassiers …. |
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1/72 French Cuirassiers 1807-15 New Tool $8.67 The cuirassiers were always the elite force of Napoleon?s army. Their crushing close-formation attacks were deservedly hailed as the decisive factor in Napoleon?s success! The French army under Napoleon was the first in Europe to concentrate its cavalry by type. The grouping of cuirassiers (heavy cavalry) into heavy divisions appears a distinctly French innovation, occurring around 1800 when the F… |
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6084 1/72 Napoleonic Wars French Cuirassiers $10.87 6084 1/72 NPLN WAR FRN CUIRAS… |
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Mini Art Plastics French Cuirassier – Napoleonic Wars $28.48 … |
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Officers and Soldiers of the French Cuirassiers 1801-1815 $13.16 The fourteenth work in the “Officers and Soldiers” collection is dedicated to the French Cuirassiers from the Consulate to the Second Restoration.Dating back to the Heavy Cavalry of the Ancient Re’gime, the first Cuirassier regiments were really created in France in 1801 during the Consulate. This new type of cavalry turned out to be one of the essential arms of Napoleon’s tactics.First twelve, th… |
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French Imperial Guard, Vol. 3: Cavalry, 1804-1815 (Officers and Soldiers) $13.02 The third volume in this successful series detailing the elite phalanx of Emperor Napole’on, puts an end to the study of the Guard cavalry. The troops depicted in Vol. 3 are the Mamelucks in their oriental dress, the famous Polish lancers, the red lancers (Dutch) and the guards of honor. (A fourth and last volume will subsequently describe the other mounted troops of the Imperial Guard : horse art… |
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A Dictionary of the Cuirassier Officers of the First Empire, 1804-1815 $30.00 From 1804 to 1815, more than 1400 officers served in the most powerful branch of the French Napoleonic cavalry, the cuirassiers. From the younger second lieutenant to the major general, all fought with gallantry in these elite regiments. The result of many years of seeking and investigations, this detailed work shows these officers ‘career, packed with portraits, records in battles and heraldry…. |