Horse has to be a maximum 4 feet and 9 inches, and a minimum 4 feet and 6 inches tall.Īrt. To be enlisted into the Chevauleger Corps one has to be a landowner or the son of a landowner, be more than 18 years old, and less than 40, and come with his own horse, uniform, caparison and other equipment according to the regulations men, who can not afford immediately deliver a horse, uniform, caparison and equipment, will be paid in advance. Regimental Staff will consist of one colonel, two French majors of the Guard, four squadron commanders, one quartermaster-treasurer, one French instructor-captain from the Guard, two French adjutant-majors from the Guard, four sub-adjutant-majors from among the Poles, who formerly were on duty in Legions in France, one standard-bearer, four surgeons, two of them 1st class and two 2nd or 3rd, one sub-instructor in the rank of sergeant major, one staff trumpeter, two trumpeter-corporals, one tailor, one breecher, one shoemaker, one gunsmith, one saddlemaker, one armourer, two blacksmiths.Īrt. Each company will consist of one captain, two lieutenants, two sub-lieutenants, one sergeant major, six sergeants, one corporal-quartermaster, ten corporals, ninety-six cavalrymen, three trumpeters, two blacksmiths.Īrt.
Regiment will consist of four squadrons, each of two companies.Īrt. Polish Light Cavalry ( Chevaux-légers) Regiment of the Guard will be formed.Īrt. We, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French and King of Italy, have determined as follow:Īrt. The Polish 1st Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard, under the command of Wincenty Krasiński, was created by a decree of Napoleon's, and signed on 9 April 1807 in Finckenstein (now Kamieniec Suski in northeast Poland):įrom our field quarters in Finkenstein on the 6th day of April 1807. There was an Old Guard Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval from 1804 the Company (later Squadron) of Mamelukes first raised in Egypt in 1799, also attached to the Old Guard, similar to the First (1807) and Second (1810) Régiments de Chevaux-lanciers, known respectively as the Polish Blue and Dutch Red Lancers of the Guard and three regiments of Eclaireurs raised in 1814, four more Gardes d'Honneur (from 1813) and the Légion de Gendarmerie d'Elite, going back to 1804. On at least three occasions, light-horsemen of the Regiment saved Napoleon's life.
The Regiment, as part of Napoleon's Imperial Guard, fought in many battles, distinguishing itself at Wagram, Beresina, Hanau and especially Somosierra. The 1st Polish Light Cavalry Regiment of the Imperial Guard ( Polish: 1 Pułk Lekkokonny Gwardii Cesarskiej French: 1er Régiment des chevaux-légers de la Garde Impériale) was a formation of Polish light cavalry that served Emperor Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars.