Ebook Waterloo

Of the three foreign regiments which existed under Louis XVIII. The Emperor preserved the second (isenberg) and the third (irish), presenting together 875 bayonets; the first (la Tour d'4uvergne), which had remained faithful to the Duke of Angouleme during the short campaign in the Midi, was disbanded The Emperor would have liked to have kept the four Swiss regiments, but the opposition manifested by the officers to taking the tricolor cockade necessitated the disbanding of these troops. Napoleon busied himself with organizing five new foreign regiments: one of Poles, quickly raised to 800 men, thanks to the soldiers of the ex — legion of the Vistula, who, although disbanded in 1814, had not yet returned to Poland; one of Swiss, into which entered 502 men of the four regiments suppressed on April 2nd one of Italians, one of Germans, and one of dutch-belgians. These three last were to be formed with deserters from the armies of Frimont, Blucher, and the Prince of Orange. At the beginning of June the dutch-belgian regiment counted 378 bayonets. Finally there were raised in the Gironde a battalion of negroes and a few companies of Spanish refugees.