Joachim Murat - happy birthday

 Salvete Omnes,

yesterday but in 1767AD France's most dashing cavalry commander Joachim Murat, marshal of France and king of Naples, was born in France to his parents, Pierre and Jeanne nee Loubières. From one dashing raid or charge to another had gone the years of his own Napoleonic epic.
Trying to carve his own realm he had abandoned Napoleon and eventually Joachim Murat was shot by a firing squad in Calabria, Kingdom of Naples, in 1815AD.

I gathered some period and later historic imagery to recall  this dashing and flamboyant horseman's life and deeds. 

Ave, Murat.

battle at Abukir, 1799

.

Murat was married to Caroline Bonaparte, also born on March 25,  and they had 4 children, and their family line still lives on in France and the US. His descendants included a horseman and  cavalry general Louis Napoléon Achille Charles Murat (his great-grandson, born to a Mingrelian princess and French father in 1872 and died 1943), who was an officer in the Russian Imperial army and fought against the Germans in World War I and later on the side of the White Russians against the Bolsheviks etc.

Valete

Lasalle - images from Polona PNL

 Salvete Omnes,

keeping up with the Lasalle theme and his death anniversary at Wagram 1809, more images from  Polish National Library - Polona

Lasalle in his famous pantalons - later called the pantalons a la Lasalle

per books about Lasalle, I know no books in English, and one interesting article from Campaigns Magazine, n. 14, (January-February 1978, J. Krajewski publisher, in  Los Angeles, California) written by David Johnson and titled The Life and Death of Charles Lasalle.

Two French biographies of Lasalle- 
1. Marcel Dupont (he was a cavalry officer during the World War I), Le Général Lasalle, Éditions Berger-Levrault (1929), - translated into Polish in 1931 by Wieniawa-Dlugoszowski

2.François Guy Hourtoulle, Le Général Comte Charles Lasalle, 1775–1809, (1979) - with plates by Jack Girbal. 

Valete

General Lasalle

 Salvete Omnes,

    on this day today but in AD 1809 at the battle of Wagram the French and especially their cavalry lost one of their most talented and dashing commanders and horsemen, Antoine Charles Louise de Lasalle - warrior and bagatyr of the old steppe legends.

 General Lasalle (10th May 1775- 6th July1809) was supposed to say that no French hussar ought to live past his 30th birthday. He himself being a general was 34y.o.a. when he died at Wagram. 

 - pacem aeternam ...

 

 

Have you read Arthur Conan Doyle's Napoleonic novel about brigadier Gerard and his adventures? 

Valete

French Africa & Horses in photographs

Salvete Omnes,

I have not read many books on the sub-Saharan horsemen and their horses.
I have seen picture of modern parades in Chad, Nigeria, Mali and other countries.
So in many ways this collection of pictures taken during the French colonial empire in Africa is quite interesting.
The pictures were taken by a French photographer François-Edmond Fortier who lived and worked in French colonies, eventually passing away in Dakar, then French colony of Senegal.
Below I selected some images of horses, horsemen etc(these are titled already):



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

perhaps I will dig out more sources from the travel books and reports written by the European travelers of the XIX century regarding the sub-Saharan horses. The vast archives of google books and archive world library are quite promising.
valete

Mr. Baucher - 3rd ed images

Salvete Omnes,
our world spinning around us rather fast, so back to the more tranquil steam age of XIX century and equitation literature - I was looking at the Baucher's various editions and would like to share with you several plates from the French 3rd edition - huge AD 1867 edition from archive.org world library along with some period artwork showing the French cavalry of the 2nd Empire

title page - 3rd edition

English translation

 French cavalry uniform - field and parade -  of the period is shown in these plates, cavalrymen performing various exerices described in the book
I especially like the lancers  of the guard (Napoleon III - 2nd Empire) -

officer of lancers by François Hippolyte Lalaisse

lancers

lancers

kepi or the headgear of the French soldier (cavalry and infantry alike) adopted in the US and Imperial Russian armies

Iam not sure what the first rider is perhaps the Artillerie a Cheval or the Guides & the 2nd rider is  a Chasseurs a cheval 

 François Hippolyte Lalaisse - officer of the chasseurs a cheval

enjoy