Uniforms of the French Army under Napoleon I (1800 - 1815) - Foreign Troops - Regiment de la Tour d' Auvergne

The Regiment de la Tour d' Auvergne was established on 30.09.1805, in Wissembourg in Alsace.

From 03.08.1811 it bore the designation 1st Foreign Regiment.

It was organized into 27 companies, of which 3 were voltigeur and 3 carabinier companies. The companies were distributed across three battalions.

Its strength numbered slightly over 3,000 men.

The staff consisted of: "1 Colonel, 1 Major, 3 Chefs de Bataillon, 1 Quartier-maître trésorier, 3 Adjudants-majors, 1 Chirurgien-major, 1 Chirurgien aide-major, 1 Chirurgien sous-aide-major, 3 Adjudants sous-officiers, 1 Tambour-major, 8 Musiciens dont 1 Chef, 1 Caporal-tambour, 4 Maîtres ouvriers (tailleur, guêtrier, cordonnier, armurier)".

Each company consisted of: "1 Capitaine, 1 Lieutenant, 1 Sous-lieutenant, 1 Sergent-major, 4 Sergents, 1 Caporal fourrier, 8 Caporaux, 2 Tambour, et 104 hommes".

From its formation it was commanded by Colonel Gottfried von La Tour d`Auvergne, from 1809 by Drummond von Melfort, from 1812 by Danlion and from 1813 again by Drummond von Melfort.

The unit was counted among the light infantry.

The principal theater of operations is given as the "Campagnes de Naples et d`Italie - 1806 - 14 -".

The unit was heterogeneously composed, i.e., it did not consist entirely or predominantly of particular nationalities.

According to Eugène Fieffé (Fremdtruppen, Vol. II, p. 242), Hungarians, Bohemians, Prussians, Swedes, Russians, Austrians, Poles, Hanoverians, Saxons, Bavarians, Swiss, Belgians, etc., served in the Regiment de la Tour d' Auvergne.

The uniform had a green base color with white facings.

A spencer with half-length skirts was worn; according to Fieffé the waistcoat and trousers were also green. The waistcoat — insofar as visible under the original coat with the pointed lapels — is, however, sometimes depicted differently, i.e., white or beige.

The collar was yellow on the voltigeurs and otherwise red, each with white facings.

The sleeve cuffs were either red with a green — white-faced — patch with three white buttons, or green with a red — white-faced — patch with three white buttons.

The voltigeurs had yellow and the carabiniers red epaulettes.

The buttons bore the inscription: Fremd-Regiment and showed the Roman numeral I in the center.

The headgear was a shako; the carabiniers wore grenadier caps (with red hanging cloth).

The shako ornament changed: initially the yellow lozenge with the crowned imperial eagle and below it a hunting horn; later the usual shako decoration with the (Latin) I.

Pierre Albert Leroux also shows the original shako with a French cockade attached at the side and a green hanging. The tuft is green below and yellow above. Rigo (U 35) shows this shako model at the front with a white diamond-shaped ornament with a hunting horn.

While the tuft on the grenadier cap was red and on the shako of the voltigeurs green below and yellow above, for the other companies it was green below and red above.

The officers wore hats (bicorne), sideways or fore-and-aft, later also shakos with white or silver fittings and hanging cloth, but at the front with green-red tuft.

From 1813 the base color appears to have changed. Knötel d. J. shows for that time a grenadier of the 1st Foreign Regiment in a (light) blue spencer with a red collar, red epaulettes and blue cuffs with red patch. The blue lapels — front and straight down — have red facings. The trousers are also depicted as (light) blue.