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Jumble - Houston Chronicle


Napoleon had to await better ground to take on the Russians. http://www.napolun.com/mirror/napole..._uniforms.html Legend has it that he also wanted his troops to start wearing the indigo after seeing the bloody white uniforms which were at the general slaughter around every glade that occurred at the Battle of Eylau.

1806 as a result of the British naval blockade there was a shortage of indigo used for dyeing cloth and so Napoleon ordered the introduction of a white uniform for his line infantry. According to Decree of April 25th 1806 the following regiments of line infantry were assigned white coats: 3rd, 4th, 8th, 12th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 21st, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 27th, 28th, 32nd, 33rd, 34th and 36th Line. (Journal Militaire Vol I 1806, pp 176-178)
The next decree mentioned all line regiments.

Napoleon expressed his disapproval and only 18 of the 112 regiments were issued with these. This is said that it happened after he saw bloodstained white uniforms at Eylau. But to me this reason sounds a little bit strange. The battle at Eylau was fought on a snowy, winter day and soldier wore the warm long greatcoat. If he was wounded the greatcoat, and not the white jacket, was "marked". Secondly, white uniforms didn't bother the Austrians, they wore them all the time. It didn't bother the Saxon soldiers neither. I guess the white color reminded Napoleon the old regime of previous century and therefore he disapproved it.

In 1807 the importing of indigo resumed and the dark blue coats were reinstated.