1/72 French Foot Artillery 1810-1814 8028 Zvezda

As was the case with the infantry, the 1812 regulation uniforms did not get issued to the foot artillery in any quantity until 1813. The German campaign of 1813 was probably the first time the foot artillery wore the new uniforms in action.

The new habit had square lapels coming down to the waist and short tails. It was identical in cut to the new habit issued to the infantry. The collar was blue without piping. The lapels were blue piped in red. The turn-backs were red with blue cloth grenades sewn on them. The cuffs were red with blue cuff patches edged in red. There was also a line of red piping along the edge of the pockets on the turn-backs. The shoulder straps should have been blue edged in red. Rousselot mentions the regulation and then goes on to say that it was completely disregarded. My research confirms this. Traditionally, the gunners had worn red epaulettes. This tradition was so ingrained in the service that the provision of epaulettes for the gunners of the same type as was issued to grenadiers, does not seem to have become an issue.

The 1812 shako was completely black with no red lace as before. It had an artillery version of the eagle plate on the front in yellow metal and brass chin-scales. It was supposed to be topped by a flat woollen pom-pon in company colours, like the infantry, but this also went against the arm’s traditions. Most gunners were supplied with round tufted pom-pons in red. Shako covers were issued and used to cover the shako on campaign. The forage cap was in the ‘pokalem’ style. It was completely blue, edged in red and had the regimental number sewn in red cloth in the centre of the escutcheon.