The uniforms worn by armies in the Napoleonic era may have been the most meticulously crafted, dazzlingly splendid military dress in the entire history of military attire.
The French army made Europe tremble not only through force of arms; the style of its uniforms influenced all of Europe as well. Even ordinary soldiers looked as though they were dressed for a ball. Such clothing was flashy and impractical, offering little protection, but young men looked exceptionally handsome in it, instantly outshining nobles in ornate silk coats and wigs.
Lydia in Pride and Prejudice fell for Wickham because he wore a uniform. As long as a uniform looked good enough, foolish young lads would volunteer to enlist just for the chance to wear one.
If a soldier was incompetent, that was merely his own incompetence. But if a legion's commander was incompetent, the entire legion would become incompetent. Napoleon said that a soldier who did not wish to become a general was not a good soldier. The French army of Napoleon's era seemed reborn, its morale soaring as it swept away the listlessness of the previous regime and regained the bearing of Europe's former hegemon.
His marshal of hussars had said that if a hussar fought for a year without dying in battle, he was not a hussar but a useless waste.
The hussar marshal who had uttered that "famous saying" was the dark-haired young man who had just sneered—Joachim Murat. He was renowned for his extraordinary talent for commanding cavalry and his exceptional courage.
Cavalry was a man's romance. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, hussars were popular throughout Central Europe, with Hungary and Poland being especially famous for them. Their main weapon was the sabre. After Napoleon's Egyptian expedition, he introduced the curved swords used by Mamluk cavalry