The Uniforms of the French Army under Napoleon I (1800 - 1815) - Foreign Troops - The Battalion of the Prince of Neuchâtel

The principality of Neuchâtel, which belonged to Prussia (today the Canton of Neuchâtel in Switzerland), officially came under France in 1806 (Paris Treaty of 15.02.1806).

The sovereign court of the Neuchâtel estates had in 1707 elected the King of Prussia Frederick I as the new ruler of the principality.

It was subsequently ruled in personal union by the Prussian kings from 1707 to 1806 and again from 1814 to 1857.

On 02.12.1805 Napoleon I ceded the principality to his old comrade-in-arms Louis Alexandre Berthier (* 20.11.1753 in Versailles; † 01.06.1815 in Bamberg).

He was appointed Marshal of the Empire on 19.05.1804 and in March 1806 was admitted into the Napoleonic nobility (noblesse impériale) with the title prince souverain de Neuchâtel et de Valangin.

On 11.05.1807 the French Emperor ordered the formation of an infantry battalion in the above-mentioned principality.

It consisted of a battalion staff (8 men) and 6 companies. These were to each comprise 160 men. Planned were one grenadier, four fusilier and one voltigeur company.

As recruits only inhabitants of the principality, Swiss and Valaisans were to be admitted.

The small principality had great difficulty assembling the required personnel.

In September 1808 the newly formed battalion marched to Besançon.

On 27.08.1808 Napoleon I had ordered the additional formation of an artillery company. According to Roland Petitmermet it should consist of

a captain,

a lieutenant and an engineer officer,

a sub-lieutenant and a train officer,

a sergeant major,

four sergeants (two of whom belonged to the artillery and one each to the engineers and the train),

a quartermaster sergeant,

eight corporals (four of whom belonged to the artillery and two each to the engineers and the train)

and 64 soldiers

and a drummer.

The latter were 32 artillerymen and 16 engineer and 16 train soldiers.

The total strength was therefore 83 men.

The artillery company was under the command of Captain Frédéris de Perrot.

Jack-Cassin-Scott (Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars, p. 161) summarizes the battalion’s combat service as follows: "The battalion took part in the 1809 campaign against Austria and was then transferred to Spain, where its main task was to protect the French supply lines from the Spanish guerrillas. In this wearing campaign the merciless Don Julian Sachnez was its opponent, so that no quarter was given by either side. In 1812 the battalion was withdrawn from Spain and assigned to the Grande Armée for the Russian campaign. Due to enemy action, disease and cold the battalion was gradually worn down and lost its artillery at Krasnoe. When it left for the campaign it had a strength of 1,027 men, of whom only 13 officers and 7 non-commissioned officers returned to the regimental depot at Besançon. After reconstitution the battalion was present at Lützen, Bautzen, Dresden, Leipzig and Hanau and suffered such heavy losses that only one company remained. The remnants defended the depot at Besançon until 17.04.1814, although Napoleon had already abdicated on 06.04.1814. What remained of the battalion was disbanded on 01.06.1814."

The uniforms of the infantry of the Battalion of the Prince of Neuchâtel followed the dress of the French infantry, albeit in a conspicuous yellow base color with red facings.

As headgear a black felt shako was used. The bindings, the V-shaped cords and the top were made of leather.

The shako was adorned with the (French) cockade and a lozenge-shaped brass front plate. In some depictions a shield-shaped coat of arms plate is shown as ornamentation.

The pompon was white, as was the hanging (fall).

The scale chains were also white or silver.

For the coat the well-known habite-veste with straight lapels and short skirts was worn.

As this yellow spencer was fastened at the front, a waistcoat was not required.

Collar, lapels, cuffs, pocket flaps and coat lining were scarlet red.

The curved vertical piping on the skirt pockets was red. In the red pocket flaps there is a five-pointed (yellow) star.

The white buttons bore the inscription: Bataillon de Neuchâtel.

The epaulettes were white.

The trousers were white, the gaiters black.

The gray coat was rolled and carried over the knapsack as calfskin.

The armament followed the equipment of the French line infantry.

The grenadiers’ shako was decorated with a red ball pompon and tufts. The hanging was also red. On the spencer red fringe epaulettes were worn.

In the red pocket flaps there are red flaming grenades.

The voltigeurs had a green ball pompon and a green tuft on the shako. The hanging was green. The cuff flaps were yellow. The green epaulettes on the spencer had a yellow crescent.

In the red pocket flaps there are green hunting horns.

On the officers’ shako the top finds a wide binding of silver braid. The hanging was also silver, as were the epaulettes.

For marching the officers wore a yellow surtout, i.e. a single-breasted frock coat.

The sappers were distinguished by a black bearskin cap. It had no front plate but a red hanging, tassel and tuft.

On the upper sleeves of the spencer red crossed axes were attached. Red epaulettes (with a white crescent) were worn with them.

The sappers’ equipment also included a white leather apron and white leather gloves. Two crossed bandoliers were worn as well.

These were decorated with silver crossed axes and flaming grenades.

In the "Mittheilungen zur Geschichte der militärischen Tracht" as a supplement to Richard Knötel’s Great Uniformology there is in the 1894 volume a discussion about the uniform of the Neuchâtel Battalion. This interesting exchange is given here:

"Concerning our illustration of this troop we received the following letter from Mr. F. Koch in Rotterdam: "The depiction of the Neuchâtel Battalion prompts me to remark that the color of the uniform was canary yellow. This battalion, which fought in Spain and perished in Russia, was generally known by the nickname 'les canaries' or 'serins', in Spain 'jonquillos'. In the museum in Neuchâtel there is a coat and several uniform pieces of this troop, from which it is evident that the yellow of the uniform was of the same shade as that formerly worn by postmen in Saxony and the Dresden chaise carriers. Further details about the history of this battalion can be found in 'La principauté de Neuchâtel 1806 - 1814 et le bataillon de Neuchâtel par A. Bachelin, 1864'.

To these lines I would like to remark the following. I have reproduced the color as my source showed it. On the contemporary plates by Martinet the uniform is colored orange; Fieffé gives chamois. Thus it was difficult to determine the nuance, yet I would like to conclude from all this that the color was a bright yellow tending slightly towards orange. Decisive would be the original uniform pieces, if on the other hand yellow colours are usually very light-sensitive. If the originals show a very pale yellow, the assumption is not excluded that the color has somewhat faded. In any case we are very grateful to the sender for the suggestion and we believe that these pages will best serve their purpose if our esteemed subscribers, as we have already emphasized, very often send us such communications from their studies. Thus it will be possible to rescue much half-forgotten material and to spread little-known facts".

Again the Neuchâtel Battalion

Dear Sir!

It seems to me that the doubts raised about the correct reproduction of the uniform color of the Neuchâtel Battalion in No. 6 of your Uniformkunde can be simply dispelled by the following quote from: Napoléon’s Campaign in Saxony in 1813 by Otto Freiherr von Odeleben". The author, as a Saxon officer, was attached to Napoleon’s headquarters and had the daily opportunity to see Berthier and his lifeguard. He writes (p. 134): "As a special privilege the Emperor had granted him (Berthier) his own guard of natives of the Principality of Neuchâtel; these distinguished themselves by poor taste in clothing; for a light infantry in short crab-butter-colored coats with red cuffs will probably not march the earth again soon".

Thus "crab-butter-colored" was the shade of yellow in question here, and that is the same as Fieffé calls 'chamois' (a color tending slightly to reddish) and what justified Martinet in coloring the uniform orange on his plates. The nickname 'jonquillos' given to the troop in Spain also agrees with this, since 'jonquielle' is understood as a deep yellow narcissus tending somewhat to red (there is a cress species that blooms very similarly); whereas the other names 'canaris' and 'serins' fall away here by the difference of color as given by the words themselves. In popular speech we speak of a canary yellow, but not of a siskin yellow, rather of a siskin green. Our former postilions and postmen in Saxony did indeed look like real canaries in their bright yellow uniforms, but no one mocked them as 'siskins' for that reason. In any case the two nicknames referred to varieties of yellow to which the original color of the Neuchâtel uniforms was subject through fading and bleaching. And of this sort will probably also be the uniform still present today in the museum in Neuchâtel. So summa summarum: your uniform of the Neuchâtel Battalion, reproduced after a contemporary colored original etching, completely agrees in color with Odeleben’s account and is therefore the correct one. Dr. Windisch, Zwickau".

Still "Bataillon Neuenburg"

I found the color of the coat in the same nuance you used in Martinet and the great work by Alfred de Marbot. H. de Schaller in his Histoire des troupes suisses au service de France sous le règne de Napoléon I. also gives chamois, while the illustration of a Neuchâtel voltigeur shows a yellow coat. In 1876 a French local newspaper published an article titled: 'Histoire du Canari Abraham Nicole'. Here the uniform is described as follows: "The centre companies wore the yellow coat with short skirts, red lapels, collar and cuffs, white tight trousers, black gaiters (Hungarian, as the 'Old Ones' called them) and white epaulettes. The buttons, which were white, bore the inscription 'Bataillon de Neuchâtel' in the center, and on the rim the inscription 'Empire francais'.

The piping was yellow. The white leather equipment was worn crossed. The shako was wider at the top and had white hangings, tuft and eagle. The cockade was the French one. The non-commissioned officers had silver braids around the upper shako rim.

The grenadiers or carabiniers wore the same uniform: only the hangings, epaulettes, tuft and sabre tassel were red. In parade uniform they wore bearskin caps without a plate, tuft and hangings (?).

The voltigeurs had hangings, epaulettes, tuft and sabre tassel in green. The rank insignia of the non-commissioned officers of the grenadiers and voltigeurs were golden. (?)

The armament was the same as that of the French line infantry - musket with bayonet and sabre.

The gray coat was rolled and carried on the calfskin knapsack.

When the grenadiers appeared in bearskin caps, the shako was carried on the knapsack and the visor was folded up.

The mounted and unmounted officers had a coat with long skirts, silver epaulettes and a stand-up collar, black sabre suspension without buckle. In full dress they wore hats à la Henri IV or à la Wilhelm Tell, of black felt with a low crown and medium brim, turned up at the front and decorated with a cockade and three black ostrich feathers."

The uniforms of the artillery, pioneers and artillery train also corresponded to the French model. The base color was dark blue.

The artillery had yellow facings, i.e. a yellow collar, yellow cuff flaps with a dark-blue curved pocket flap and yellow piping (around the blue lapels). The buttons were white.

The epaulettes were red.

As headgear the black shako served with a lozenge of brass as ornament. The scale chains were yellow. The hanging was red, as were the pompon and the tuft.

The pioneers had blue collars and black cuff flaps with blue pocket flaps, as well as yellow lapels and yellow piping around the cuff flaps and pocket flaps.

The artillery train had yellow collars and gray cuff flaps.

The trousers were blue (with yellow side piping or cords). The train servants however had deerskin breeches and riding boots.

The gaiters were black.

The leather equipment was black.

The coat was gray.

In the Mittheilungen zur Geschichte der militärischen Tracht (1894, No. 8, p. 30) the provisions from the year 1808 regarding the artillery are quoted as follows:

On 27 August 1808 an imperial decree was issued containing the following provisions:

Art. 1

One company is attached to the Neuchâtel Battalion, which is composed as follows:

1 artillery captain, 1 engineer lieutenant, 1 sub-lieutenant from the artillery train.

1 adjutant non-commissioned officer, 1 sergeant major, 2 artillery sergeants, 1 sapper sergeant, 1 train sergeant, 1 quartermaster.

8 non-commissioned officers, of whom 4 from the artillery, 2 sappers, 2 from the train.

55 soldiers, of whom 22 gunners, 16 sappers, 16 from the train, 1 drummer.

Total 83 men.

Art. 4

Two cannons and two powder wagons (caliber 6), 2 infantry caissons and ammunition carts with tools are assigned to the Neuchâtel Battalion.