In the 18th and 19th centuries, military strategy was based on manoeuvres such as encirclement, pursuit and flanking, as well as a combination of shock and firepower. While bombardment can rightly be attributed to the infantry and artillery, attack was mainly the task of the cavalry, and heavy cavalry in particular. It was precisely this principle, which Napoleon applied in his tactical combinations, that led to the creation of 14 cuirassier regiments within the Grande Armée. Here is the history of these cuirassier regiments from the Ancien Régime to the Third Republic, a new edition of a work that appeared in the Revue de cavalerie at the time. In his Précis, first published in 1890, Commander de Juzancourt (1845-1896) begins by giving an overview of the history of the cuirassier regiments of the First Empire, going back to their origins in the cavalry corps established under Louis XIII and Louis XIV. Based on the changes and innovations during the Revolution and the First Empire, he then traces the history of these regiments through the people until their dissolution in 1815. From the Second Restoration onwards, however, new cuirassier regiments were formed that had no direct connection to the previous ones. The Précis then recounts the history of the regiments newly formed in 1816 and later, linking them to their predecessors from 1815 on the basis of their rank.
