Eylau

French Cavalry
Men & Horses
Myth & Glory
The Charge
Russian Army
The Weather
Bibliography
Photographs

The Men and The Horses

The average Dragoon trooper carried approximately 10 kilos of equipment on his person, these included helmet, uniform, sword and scabbard, cartridge-pouch with 10-20 cartridges, sheep or deer hide breeches or linen overalls (None of the latter is mentioned in any sources until 1812 for the cuirassiers, but may have been 'improvised 'by some troopers while on campaign [Bukhari pp20]), knee-high leather boots which were worn with a woollen insert around the knee to stop rubbing, cross belts and sword belt; he would also have worn whatever he could underneath his tunic for warmth. The Cuirassiers uniform and equipment was much the same as the Dragoon, with the exception of their wearing the front and back cuirass from which they took their name. These items of body Armour added a further 8 kilos to the wearer, when straps and fixings were added.

As well as the above equipment, each trooper had the following: a saddle of leather with bridle and stirrups: a black leather crupper: martingale: leather pistol holsters: portmanteau with straps that held a cloak or cape on the top: sheepskin half-shabraque or saddlecloth with holster covers: stable and parade halters and pistols or musket. Any additions to the trooper's comforts, as well as his need to carry rations for himself and his charger during campaign would further increase the weight on the horse.

The problem of shoeing horses under the conditions that prevailed in the weeks leading up to the battle of Eylau has been alluded to before in this article, but it is worth considering other aspects of this problem when dealing with the battle. I quote here an extract from Colonel Girois, who commanded the artillery of the 3rd French Cavalry Corps in the 1812 Russian campaign as an example, 'We now encountered a new difficulty: the slippery surface of the hardened snow offered no purchase to the horse's feet. We had reserves of ice-nails all right, but we had not yet used them for shoeing the horses. Even this would not have sufficed, because after several hours march their diamond-sharp heads were worn and they became absolutely useless, as we discovered later. Iron crampons are much better, but we should have needed more time and resources than we had to shoe our horses in this way' (Quoted in [Brett-James pp220]). 

Not only the fact of the horses needing such things as 'ice-nails and crampons' should be taken into account, but also the method by which these were supplied and transported. For all the horses of the cavalry and artillery, the ancillary support wagons plus officers and staff, the French army would have required approximately 500,000 ice-nails and crampons, they would also require 50 field forges working flat-out at shoeing 50 horses each per day for a week, a prospect I find hard to accept; therefore I consider that most of the French cavalry remained with normal horseshoes together with all the hardship that this entailed.