HISTORY OF THE PSKOV DRAGOONS 1796-1812 AND PSKOV CUIRASSIERS 1812-1815
[Extracted, edited and translated into English by P.G.A. Phillips from Prince S.P. Chrusov’s History of
Her Majesty’s 4th (Pskov) Leib-Dragoons, published in 1886].
This article about the Pskov Dragoons Napoleonic involvement comes from Prince S.P. Chrusov’s History of Her Majesty’s 4th (Pskov) Leib-Dragoons, published in 1886. The regiment was raised in 1706, but the translator has dealt with their service from the start of the reign of Tsar Paul I in 1796. The dragoons deployed to the border with Prussia in 1805 and thus avoided the Austerlitz debacle, saw combat in East Prussia in 1806 and 1807, served in Austrian Galicia in 1809, and fought as part of II Cavalry Corps in Barclay de Tolly’s First Army throughout 1812, being re-equipped as Cuirassiers in December 1812 (wearing captured French cuirasses – Carabinier brass for officers and polished steel for lower ranks). Thereafter, all the way from Grodno to Paris in 1813-1814. They also repeated the long march to Paris in 1815.
The image above depicts an episode from Foreign Campaigns of Russian Army of 1813-1814. It depicts the meeting of officers of the Russian Guards cavalry with the residents of one of the European cities. It depicts (left – right) officer of the Life Guards Hussar Regiment, chief- and staff officers of the Life Guards Horse Regiment, chief-officers of the Life Guards Uhlan and Chevalier Guard Regiments. In the background can be seen the lower ranks of the Life Guards Hussar and one of the Army Cuirassier Regiments.
Artist – Bogdan Willewalde (1819 – 1903), Wikimedia Commons.
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