The Crimean War is perhaps best known in Britain for two things: the Charge of the Light Brigade and the work of Florence Nightingale. Considerable ink has been spent discussing them, though little attention has been paid to Britain’s Allies in that conflict, notably France, Turkey and Piedmont. It was the French Army that bore the brunt of the fighting at the Battle of Inkerman, having to fight on two fronts against Russians attacking their Siege Works and also assisting the British Army, and in the two assaults on Sevastopol in June and September 1855. The French and Piedmontese won a decisive victory at Traktir Bridge against superior Russian forces in August 1855 and the French cavalry (Dragoons, Hussars and Chasseurs d’Afrique) routed a much stronger Russian cavalry force in late September 1855, after the fall of Sevastopol. The French army also sent a Division to fight the Russians in the Baltic.
This book charts the history and development of French Infantry from 1815 to 1855, how it was organised, how it fought and how it was trained, and perhaps give some impression of what life was like in the ranks of the French Army in the Crimean War.