Bear with me please as this is a little convoluted. I was looking at Bruce Weigle's orders of battle for the Armee du Nord in 1870-71. By January 1871 three battalions of a unit known as the Voltigeurs du Nord are shown as part of Robin's command. I am also reading Douglas Fermer's translation of Leonce Patry's The Reality of War. The cover shows a group of French infantry fending off some Prussian Uhlans in the snow, so clearly the later part of the republican phase of the war. Some of the French group are members of a regiment de marche, one is a Turco and the remainder are wearing the style of bonnet de police associated with the voltigeurs of the Imperial Guard. . My question is are these a depiction of the Voltigeurs du Nord? Weigle gives them a relatively high rating (7 out of 9, compared to 5 for most Franc Tireurs units), so are some of these men escaped voltigeurs of the IG or depot troops of the IG (some of whom were involved in the fighting at Le Bourget)? I would be interested to know if anyone can shed some light on this.
Can't help, sorry.
Le Manchu, Cameronian or Mollinary would be my bet for an answer!
Try an enquiry on imagesdesoldats.com. There many prints dealing with Franc Tireurs, if that is what this unit is, and they may be able to tell you if they are included on one of their plates. The plates are about 10euros.
Hi Leman,
Before you posted, I had no idea who these guys were at all ....... but the internet is a fabulous thing. A bit of googling brought me to a site
https://www.cairn.info
Once you get there, you are looking for Revue du nord 364, 'L'example des mobilises du Nord durant la guerre de 1870-71' par Jonathan Vouters.
in French, and my schoolboy translation is broadly as follows. "Elite units (everything is relative considering the amateurism of the others) were also a part of the Garde National Mobilsees du Nord. Three battalions named Voltigeurs were established. The first consisted of Volunteers only, its officers and NCOs (simply "cadre" in the French) were nominated, not elected. Many of the volunteers were escapees from the armies at Metz and Sedan. The battalion was thus the only "professional" one in the GNM of the Armee du Nord. The other two consisted of the best trained and best equipped of the rest."
Hope this helps somewhat.
Mollinary
Thanks Andrew, it does seem to suggest that these escapees may well have been former IG Voltigeurs. I cannot think of any other reason for the artist to depict the old IG Voltigeur bonnet de police being worn by members of the Army du Nord. I'll check out that site. I did google up quite a few plates of Franc Tireurs uniforms but no matches came up. Not surprising if they were in fact a Garde Nationale or Garde Mobile unit.
I th8nk I have just found the illustration to which you are referring, it looks to me more like grenadiers of the guard rather than Voltigeurs. The mystery continues. I would be inclined to ignore the 'accuracy' of the painter, bear in mind that the most famous painting of the 'Maison de la Derniere Cartouche' shows pretty well everyone in the French army, apart from the Marines who actually fought there!
Mollinary
Does your book attribute the cover picture to an artist and title?
Mollinary
No, unfortunately there is no artist credited nor an actual title. Unfortunately it has been given the title 'Uhlans attacking zouaves' even though there isn't a single zouave in the picture. It is in the realist style of de Neuville and Detaille and is from a private collection. Whoever labelled it didn't know anything about French troops at the time, and indeed the word zouave is rendered as zoave. It is a C19th painting so I am assuming the artist had some idea of the troops involved. However, the picture didn't really attract my attention until I came across this 'elite' unit, the Voltigeurs du Nord.
The image is also used for the cover of Larsen & Yallop's "The Cavalry Lance" and was reproduced as a poster and a mug and sold on Zazzle though I can't find it there now.
Um ...Yeah ... doesn't help much :)
(https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/513gJW%2BV4uL._SX369_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg)
Good spot! Do they not say inside the cover what the picture is, and who painted it?
Mollinary
Quote from: mollinary on 21 January 2018, 03:14:32 PM
Good spot! Do they not say inside the cover what the picture is, and who painted it?
Mollinary
No idea, I'm afraid. Bookmarked the book for some long forgotten project but never bought it. Though, if someone else here did, the image may jog a memory.
I found the reference. According to the inside page the cover is by Christian Sell, but it is only titled "Prussian Uhlans attack French Infantry in the Franco Prussian War" which hardly narrows it down much!
Mollinary
Here goes. Trying to post a link which shows one of these bonnets de police for sale.
www.bertrand-malvaux.com/fr/p/18595/bonnet-de-police
It is described as a Model 1860 for fusiliers of the line infantry.
Mollinary
Maybe you could question this guys about this Voltigeurs du Nord :
Armée du Nord 1 (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1025148437613455&id=552805214847782)
Armée du Nord 2 (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1026973447430954&id=552805214847782)
Armée du Nord 3 (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1028808020580830&id=552805214847782)
Armée du Nord 4 (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1031924736935825&id=552805214847782)
Armée du Nord 5 (https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1042316952563270&id=552805214847782)
Many thanks for that, which made for some interesting reading. I tried posting a question about this unit on their facebook page but it did not accept it.