5th BCP at the Batterie Gervais, Sébastopol

This painting by Alphonse De Neuville shows the 5eme bataillon de chasseurs à pied in one of the last assaults on Sébastopol by the allied army.The next one caused the fall of the city.

The chasseurs are armed with 1846 or 1853 carabines à tige, while their Russian opponents are armed with the Lüttich carbine, a copy of the British Brunswick rifle made by Malherbe in Liège Belgium. Both weapons were rifled and used a sword-bayonet, the Brunswick being more primitive in its rifling system than the carabine à tige.Except for the new Enfield and Minié rifles in the hands of the British troops, these were the best weapons in the hands of combatants in the Crimea, most of whom were still armed with smoothbores.

Carabines de chasseur

Lüttich carbine