French Carabiniers à Cheval at the Charge (NAP0084)

French carabiniers: the armour arrived after the lesson

Brass helmets with scarlet crests, white coats, sky-blue shabraques, and cuirasses that are not steel but brass-faced — which dates the picture more precisely than any caption could. The carabiniers looked like this only after 1810. Before that they charged in a coat, with no armour at all.

Two regiments, and the oldest in the army

Where the cuirassiers had a dozen regiments, there were only ever two of carabiniers, and they took precedence over everything else in the heavy cavalry. Entry required years of service and a size that ruled most men out. Being a small corps of picked men is a strength in a charge and a weakness everywhere else: a formation that cannot be replaced has to be spent carefully.

Wagram is why they are wearing this

At Wagram in 1809 the carabiniers charged unarmoured against infantry with muskets and lost heavily. The response was administrative and quick: armour was ordered for both regiments, and the plates were faced with brass — not because brass stops more than steel, but because it does not rust and because the corps kept its distinction. Plate NAP0234 shows Wagram itself.

What brass over iron actually means

The cuirass is iron with a thin sheet of brass over it: the protection is the iron, the brass is upkeep and identity. It is one of the clearest instances in this catalogue of an army solving a practical problem without giving up on being recognisable, which is a constant of the period — and the same calculation appears, differently, in plate NAP0042.

The helmet with the red crest

The distinctive helmet came in with the armour, and it is the reason the carabiniers are the easiest French heavy cavalry to identify in any painting. If you can see brass and a scarlet caterpillar crest, you are looking at one of two regiments, after 1810 — the plate dates itself.