HIstorical Note on Andrea's Old Guard Grenadier, 1812

We meet our Grenadier mere seconds after he dropped the hammer of his musket on an approaching Cossack cavalryman. His grim determination to reserve ammunition on the legendary French retreat from Moscow means that he probably held his fire until his quarry was nearly on top of him. Facing oncoming cavalry charges would have been nothing new to our Old Guard Grenadier, a title reserved for only the most battle-hardened warriors in Napoleon’s Grande Armee as not only was he a member of the prestigious Old Guard but he belonged to one of the venerable Grenadier companies; the biggest, strongest and most combat hardened warriors in any fighting force at the time. The Russian campaign up to this point had been,for Napoleon, disastrous to say the least. His forces had fought their way into Moscow and in mid-October were forced by loose and distended supply lines and a fear of the oncoming Russian winter to withdraw in the face of a well-stocked, competently led Russian army which had, up until that point avoided major conflict with the Grande Armee leaving it largely intact and battle ready. This specific warrior would possibly have been assigned to Marshal Ney’s gallant rearguard action. Ney's fight was a rather nasty running battle; initially with the intention of allowing the main body of Napoleon’s forces to escape Russia but eventually would have deteriorated into a pell-mell struggle for survival as the soldiers struggled to maintain cohesion and fighting capability with dwindling rations, ammunition, mounting cold and the constant and deadly harassment carried out by the Russian Cossack Cavalry. While researching French line and Grenadier uniform colours for this figure I came across a fantastic etching of two French soldiers in combat. One, the possible inspiration for the figure, an Old Guard soldier taking aim and instructing the shorter, Young Guard soldier on the manual of arms.

sources: Picture, Griffith, Paddy, “French Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792-1815.” (Osprey Publishing, Botley, Oxford, 2007), 51 Historical Background Riehn, Richard k., "1812: Napoleon's Russian Campaign." (R.R. Donnelly & Sons Company, Sloan St., Crawfordsville, 1990.) Hical, James