Throughout the War of the Sixth Coalition the regiment would fight in this format, with each of the four Old Guard squadrons being formed of 2 companies, 124 officers and men each.

Following the battle, Bessières received high praise for his actions from the First Consul, who said to the general: "Under your command, the Guard covered itself with glory; it could not have performed better under the given circumstances."

As war broke out with Russia and Austria, the horse grenadiers, now a part of the Imperial Guard, crossed the Rhine into Germany on October 1, 1805.

Due to his seniority, Walther was also second-in-command of the entire Guard cavalry and exercised this command whenever Marshal Bessières was not available for service.

[6] The rigors of the Polish winter, the bad roads and the extreme poverty of certain regions brought about considerable misery for both sides and rendered proper reconnaissance virtually impossible.

Here, the Grande Armée gave battle, despite being seriously outnumbered[7] and with the expected reinforcements failing to materialise, Napoleon's position was looking increasingly perilous.

Commanding the horse grenadiers was Colonel Lepic who superbly led two squadrons of the regiment, as they stormed through the first and second Russian lines, stopping only in front of the enemy reserves.

A few squadrons of the regiment saw brief but decisive action as they came up in support of general Merle's infantry attack, which repulsed the Spaniards onto Medina and beyond, winning the battle.

They were present at the Battle of Aspern-Essling, under the intense fire of the numerous Austrian artillery, and saw the struggle of their army to contain a vastly superior opponent.

When Napoleon himself had his boot torn by a canister ball, general Frédéric Henri Walther, commander of the Guard cavalry, threatened the Emperor that he would have his grenadiers take him behind the lines by force if he refused to do so willingly.

Six weeks later, Napoleon crossed the Danube again, this time managing to bring out a considerable force, attacking the Austrians on the Marchfeld plain.

[6] However, on the second day, July 6, 1809, the grenadiers, with the rest of the Guard cavalry, were assigned to support general Jacques MacDonald's massive attack column.

Masséna had been busy besieging general Wellington in Lisbon, but he was not able to pierce the fortified Lines of Torres Vedras and subsequently retreated to Almeida.

Time was at the essence and Masséna promptly sent his young aide-de-camp, Charles Oudinot, to find Lepic and the Guard cavalry, with orders to charge immediately, but Oudinot was soon back to his commander, saying that he was not able to fetch the Guard cavalry, because Lepic only recognized Bessières as commander and that he would not draw his sword without his order.

[13] During the great fire of Moscow, the Grenadiers-à-Cheval were used to police the city, due to their reputation of discipline and high moral standards.

By mid-October, the entire Grande Armée began to move out of the ruined city and the retreat towards the Duchy of Warsaw would offer only secondary actions to the Grenadiers-à-Cheval, with the mission of ensuring the protection of the Imperial Headquarters.

The skirmishes, the cold and the deprivations during the retreat took their toll on the regiment and by the time of the Battle of Berezina the combined Grenadiers-à-Cheval and Chasseurs-à-Cheval were able to field no more than 500 combat-worthy men on horseback, with several hundred dismounted.

[12] According to author Stephen de Chappedelaine, General Frédéric Henri Walther managed to bring his horse grenadiers out of Russia with few losses.

Napoleon reviewed them at Erfurt on April 27; only three days later the Grenadiers-à-Cheval received news of the death of their beloved leader, Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bessières, who had been killed in action by a stray Russian cannonball, next to the village of Rippach.

As the Bavarians under Karl Philipp von Wrede were trying to block the retreat of the Grande Armée towards France, Napoleon was forced to commit his élite troops, personally haranguing the Grenadiers-à-Cheval as they were preparing to go into action.

The Guard cavalry, under Nansouty, was thus called into action more often than ever, combating valiantly and often playing an instrumental role in Napoleon's attempts to frustrate Coalition plans.

Together with other regiments of the Guards, the Grenadiers fought against overwhelming enemy numbers at La Rothière and nine days later broke several Russian infantry squares from General Zakhar Olsufiev's force.

During this battle, the commander (major) of the Grenadiers, General Lévesque de Laferrière was wounded by a bullet and had a leg torn off and also lost one of its best officers, Captain Kister.

The charges of the Grenadiers were impetuous but losses were heavy: they lost major Jean-Baptiste-Auguste-Marie Jamin, killed by British canister shot near a Coalition square, two lieutenants (Tuefferd and Moreau) and sixteen other officers wounded.