Officer of the French 2nd Hussars (NAP0097)

Officer of the 2nd Hussars: the regiment in brown

Standing, one hand smoothing the moustache, the other on the sabre: blue shako with a red plume, braided cadenettes hanging either side of the face, brown dolman with silver lace, fur-trimmed pelisse, blue breeches with Hungarian knots, hussar boots. The gesture is not the illustrator’s invention — in the hussars, vanity was part of the service.

The only regiment dressed in brown

The colour is a clue to descent. The 2nd Hussars came from the old Chamborant regiment of the royal army, and kept its brown dolman while the others wore blue, green or red. The Revolution renumbered the regiments; it did not re-dress them — so an Imperial uniform can be older than the Republic it serves.

Moustaches and cadenettes

The plaits in front of the ears and the moustache were not personal taste: they were the custom of the arm, near enough to a regulation, and a clean-shaven hussar was an anomaly. The logic is military rather than decorative — a body of men that is recognisable at a distance and looks like nobody else holds together better under fire.

The pelisse is not only an ornament

That second fur-lined jacket slung across the left shoulder looks like an affectation. It protects the arm that is not holding the sabre, which is the one that takes cuts in a mêlée, and it doubles as a blanket — hussars slept outdoors far more often than under a roof.

What the uniform cost

Officers equipped themselves at their own expense, and the hussar uniform was the most expensive in the army: lace, fur, boots, an embroidered sabretache, all made to measure. Part of the reputation of the arm comes from exactly that — you did not join only because you liked risk, you had to be able to pay for the coat.

“Dead at thirty”

The line attributed to Lasalle — that a hussar who is not dead at thirty is good for nothing — should be quoted with the usual care: it circulates in several forms and nobody wrote it down at the time. It does record something true about how the arm saw itself. Lasalle himself was killed at Wagram at thirty-four.