Reggimento Guardia alla Cittą di Venezia
City of Venice Guard Regiment

Uniform Guide

History

This unit was first formed on 27th January 1808 as a single battalion, the Guardia Sedentaria di Venezia, in response to a command from Napoleon not to station Frenchmen in the malarial swamps around Venice, but locally recruited and acclimatised Italians. A second battalion was announced on 9th November 1810 raising the unit to regimental status. The regiment acted as a garrison for the city whose name it bore. They fought with honour against the Anglo-Austrian forces during the marine blockade of 1813/14.

Organisation

Each battalion followed the standard infantry organisation, with four compnies of fucilieri, one of granatieri and one of volteggiatori. A regimental artillery company was added in 1811.

Uniform

The regiment wore the following uniform:

Headgear
All companies wore a French style shako with a white metal chinscales and plate, which was embossed with a "GV" cipher. The shako bore a green, red and white cockade and a pom-pom that was green over white for cacciatori, green or yellow for volteggiatori and red for granatieri. For undress wear, a green bonnet-de-police fatigue cap was worn, piped in red.
Coat
The coat was a dark green habit-coat of the line infantry pattern. The collar and cuffs and turnbacks were red, as was the piping on the square lapels and cuff flaps, shoulder straps and pocket.
Breeches
Breeches and waistcoat were white worn with black gaiters with white metal buttons.

Sources

I am also indebted to Marcello Marconi of Verona for information he provided about this unit.