4th Hussar Regiment (France)
It was created as the hussards Colonel Général on 31 July 1783 for the Duke of Chartres, by taking one squadron from each of the Bercheny, Chamborant, Conflans and Esterhazy regiments of hussars.
The hussars also played a prominent role as cavalry in the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), serving in campaigns in Austria (1804 & 1809), Prussia (1805 -1806), Poland (1806), Spain (1809 - 1813), Germany (1812), France (1814 - 1815), and Belgium (1815) before being disbanded by the Bourbon Restoration.
At the Battle of Salalieh in August 1798, brigade commander Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle fought "like a demon" and solidified his reputation as a maverick rider upon returning to France and receiving Weapons of Honour.
At the ceremony (in a remark often mistakenly attributed to Napoleon), Lasalle quipped "Any hussar who isn't dead at age 30 is a layabout.
This garment was extensively adorned with braiding (often gold or silver for officers) and several rows of multiple buttons.
On active service the hussar normally wore reinforced breeches which had leather on the inside of the leg to prevent them from wearing due to the extensive time spent in the saddle.
The French hussar of the Napoleonic period was armed with a brass-hilted sabre, a carbine, and sometimes with a brace of pistols, although these were often unavailable.
He rose through the ranks of the hussars in the wars of Belgium and the Rhineland (1794–1798) fighting against the forces of Austria and Prussia before receiving his marshal's baton in 1804 after the Emperor Napoleon's coronation.
In 1814, just before the fall of the First French Empire, it was renamed the régiment des hussards de Monsieur, though it resumed the title of 4th Hussar Regiment during the Hundred Days before being disbanded on the Bourbon Restoration which followed.
In 1816 the régiment des hussards du Nord was formed and in 1825 this unit took the title 4th Hussar Regiment.
In World War I, the regiment would be based in Verdun, and suffered heavy casualties from impeding German attacks.
After the liberation of France and parts of Belgium by the Western Allies, on 15 February 1945 a new 4th Hussar Regiment was formed by splitting-off elements of COABC 405.
• In the Crimean Wars, the regiment took part in the Battle of Kanghil (1855) and won fame, capturing multiple Russian artillery pieces.
