Did you know there was a museum of the Chasseurs a pied at Vincennes? The Chasseurs as far as I know were briefly called Chasseurs de Vincennes before going to Africa and then being renamed Chasseurs d'Afrique for a while.
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Hi Ralph
ReplyDeleteThey were called
1839 - tirailleurs de Vincennes
1840- chasseurs à pied or chasseurs de Vincennes, maybe sometimes Chasseurs d'Afrique.
1842- chasseurs d'Orléans
From 1848- chasseurs à pied again.
For a while (at least until 1871) all terms were used as equivalents, except may be chasseurs d'orléans as the link to the July Monarchy was too strong.
There is a "musée des traditions chasseurs" in Vincennes, it is a museum largely aimed at keeping the traditions of the bataillions alive, there are uniforms, documents, etc.
Now there are only 4 batallions left ( out of a maximum of 78 in WW1).
It used to be shown online in a lot of detail, but no longer. Of course when I saw it I took all the pictures I wanted...
In this museum they have moved all the shrines that used to be in Algeria at the site of the battle of Sidi-Brahim, which is a bit the chasseurs' "Alamo".
For a full story of the chasseurs the best reference up to 1890 is this one:
Les chasseurs à Pied, Lieutenant Richard
http://www.archive.org/details/leschasseurespi00richgoog
Incorrectly spelt as " chasseures" in the internet archive.