Chevalier Guard
Encyclopedia
The Chevalier Guard regiment was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n heavy cavalry guard regiment, created in 1800 by the reformation of the Chevalier Guard corps, itself created in 1764 by Catherine the Great. As other Russian heavy cavalry guard regiments (the Life-Guards Horse Regiment, His Majesty's Life-Guards Cuirassier Regiment, and Her Majesty's Life-Guards Cuirassier Regiment), the Chevalier Guards were equipped as cuirassiers (with some differences in uniform and equipment from army cuirassiers and other guard cuirassier regiments).

Campaigns

  • 1805 - The regiment first saw combat in the Battle of Austerlitz
    Battle of Austerlitz
    The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...

    , in which it fought bravely, covering the retreat of units from the Preobrazhensky
    Preobrazhensky
    Preobrazhensky , Preobrazhenskaya , or Preobrazhenskoye , lit. "of the Transfiguration", may refer to:People*Alexander Preobrazhensky, Russian pedagogue...

     and Semyonovsky
    Semyonovsky
    Semyonovsky , Semyonovskaya , or Semyonovskoye may refer to:*Semyonovsky District, former district of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, Russia...

     regiments of the Russian guard infantry. The Chevalier Guards were countercharged and defeated by the French Horse Grenadiers
    Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale
    The Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale constituted a heavy cavalry regiment in the Consular, then Imperial Guard during the French Consulate and First French Empire respectively...

     of the Old Guard
    Old Guard
    The Old Guard were the elite veteran elements of theEmperor Napoleon's Imperial Guard. As such it was the most prestigious formation in Napoleon's Grande Armée....

    , who inflicted heavy casualties among the Russians.
  • 1807 - Battle of Heilsberg
    Battle of Heilsberg
    The Battle of Heilsberg took place on 10 June 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars.-Overview:On 24 May 1807, the Siege of Danzig ended when Prussian General Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth capitulated to French Marshal Francois Joseph Lefebvre. With Gdansk secured, Napoleon was now free to turn...

  • 1812 - The regiment distinguished itself during the Patriotic War
    Patriotic War
    Patriotic War may refer to one of the following wars.*Patriotic War of 1812, Napoleon's invasion of Russia*Great Patriotic War, the war between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II...

     of 1812. The Chevalier Guards lost their colonel early in the Battle of Borodino
    Battle of Borodino
    The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...

     but, in concert with the Life Guard Horse Regiment, effectively stopped the decisive charge of Saxon cuirassier regiments and defeated French Horse Carabiniers.
  • 1813 - Lützen
    Battle of Lützen (1813)
    In the Battle of Lützen , Napoleon I of France lured a combined Prussian and Russian force into a trap, halting the advances of the Sixth Coalition after his devastating losses in Russia. The Russian commander, Prince Peter Wittgenstein, attempting to undo Napoleon's capture of Leipzig, attacked...

    , Kulm
    Battle of Kulm
    The Battle of Kulm was a battle near the town Kulm and the village Přestanov in northern Bohemia. It was fought on 29–30 August 1813, during the War of the Sixth Coalition...

    , Leipzig
    Battle of Leipzig
    The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...

  • 1831 - Polish campaign
    November Uprising
    The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...

  • 1914 - First World War

The regiment was disbanded in 1918.

Many famous men served as Chevalier Guards, Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin, Denis Davydov
Denis Davydov
Denis Vasilyevich Davydov was a Russian soldier-poet of the Napoleonic Wars who invented a specific genre – hussar poetry noted for its hedonism and bravado – and spectacularly designed his own life to illustrate such poetry.-Biography:...

, Mikhail Skobelev
Mikhail Skobelev
Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev was a Russian general famous for his conquest of Central Asia and heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. Dressed in white uniform and mounted on a white horse, and always in the thickest of the fray, he was known and adored by his soldiers as the "White...

, Aleksandr Rodzyanko
Aleksandr Rodzyanko
Aleksandr Pavlovich Rodzyanko , was a lieutenant-general and a corps commander of the White Army during the Russian Civil War.-Biography:...

, Pavlo Skoropadskyi and Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim
Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim was the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War, Commander-in-Chief of Finland's Defence Forces during World War II, Marshal of Finland, and a Finnish statesman. He was Regent of Finland and the sixth President of Finland...

 among them.

External links

  • Russian Imperial Guard
    Russian Imperial Guard
    The Russian Imperial Guard, officially known as the Leib Guard were military units serving as personal guards of the Emperor of Russia. Peter the Great founded the first such units following the Prussian practice in the 1690s, to replace the politically-motivated Streltsy.- Organization :The final...

  • Russian Imperial Guard During the Napoleonic Wars
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