Chasseur d'Orléans 1845. Musée de l'Emperi Salon de Provence.

 See Chasseurs of 1845 recreated here

See here and here. Also an article on Sidi Brahim here

Sidi Brahim 1845

Following André Fonteyne’s post about Chasseur à pied uniforms in the 1840s, here is an article about Sidi Brahim that appeared some years ago in the French magazine Tradition. It contains some fine uniform illustrations by Pierre Benigni, not only of the chasseurs, but also of the 2^nd Hussars, whose 2^nd squadron took part in this disastrous but heroic action.

More chasseur à pied uniforms

Soldier- model 1845 "tunique", one recently for sale on Ebay but most likely a copy , a nice one, though.




Soldier-model 1860 jacket or "basquine", at the Musée de l'Infanterie.

Another one at the Musée Napoléonien de Fontainebleau ( a postcard from the early 1900s):

Musée d'Infanterie- Montpellier- chasseurs à pied 1845

One of the best museums illustrating the French Infantry is the "Musée de l'Infanterie" in Montpellier. They have recently put detailed pictures of their display rooms on-line.

For the period we are mostly interested in, here is the link for the infantry:

http://www.musee-infanterie.com/beta/vitrine/48-vitrine-n-23-bis

For the Chasseurs à pied:

http://www.musee-infanterie.com/beta/vitrine/46-vitrine-n-21

Some of the uniforms and/or pieces of equipment are copies, made in 1930, notably the ones shown in this post, which represent the uniforms worn by the 8th battallion chasseurs d'Orléans at Sidi-Brahim, where many of them were massacred by the Algerian tribesmen led by Abd-El-Kader.

" escrime à la baionnette"

Some Chasseur images from André... thanks!


They are " escrime à la baionnette" from the 1845 "Ordonnance sur les exercices et les manoeuvres des chasseurs d'Orléans".

Also from the same manual, the graph showing a chasseur bataillon in full battle order, with the positions of the clairons, officers, etc.

M1845 Clairon d'Ordonnance

Thanks to Andre (Chasseurs a Pied) on the comments bit of the piece on bugle calls I found this excellent European sutler of Civil War leatherware and more - he does for 85 Euros this reproduction bugle based on the French ordonnance of the period. It's in the 'new items and specials' - there is also other CW bugles there and apparently he also sells cds. Presumably it's the same instrument as in this picture.

Early Spahis

Uniformes des spahis avant 1845

Lalaisse François-Hippolyte (1812-1884) (d'après), Villain Georges-René (1854-1930)
More images of these Algerian soldiers here

Chasseur 1845

French Chasseur à pied, c. 1845; ink sketch

c. 1845
Bellangé, Hippolyte (artist)

Bellangé seems to be a very good source for French military of the early to mid 19thc - I'll feature some more but search his name on Anne S K Brown if you want to see more.

Chasseur and Cantiniere 1845

Cantinière et chasseur d'un bataillon de chasseurs à pied en Algérie, vers 1845

Moreau Edouard (1825-1878)

French military women

Of course it wasn't just Zouave regiments that had women in military-style clothing - it was across the board in the French army though they tended to be comparatively sombre - (left)Armée française, cantinière entre 1860 et 1870 (right) Cantinière et chasseur d'un bataillon de chasseurs à pied en Algérie, vers 1845 Moreau Edouard (1825-1878)