In one of his best known pictures, Filipp Chirka showed an episode during the battle of Polotsk on August 6 (August 18, old style), 1812. The battle involved Russia’s 1st Detached Infantry Corps headed by Cavalry General Peter Wittgenstein and Napoleon’s 1st and 6th Army Corps under General Gouvion Saint-Cyr.

When the French were pressing the Russian troops in the evening, the Consolidated Cuirassier Regiment launched a brilliant assault. The cuirassiers, that is heavy cavalry, included the Horse Regiment of the Life Guards. The horse guards wore a regular cuirassier uniform: a white jacket and a leather helmet with a copper frontlet and a horse-hair plume. In action, an iron cuirasse covered with black oil paint and varnish would be worn on top of the jacket to protect the rider’s chest and back.

To be honest, the artist made a little offence against historical facts in his picture: by the date of the Polotsk battle, the horse-guards had not yet received cuirasses, which were delivered only a few weeks later.

The assault by the Consolidated Cuirassier Regiment sent the French flying in panic. The left-hand side of the picture shows an elite company of a horse-mounted chasseur regiment retreating on the road to Polotsk. It can be recognized by the dark green uniforms with red epaulettes. One of the chasseurs is an officer attempting to slip his pursuers; his officer’s rank is suggested by the silver epaulettes.

One more distinctive feature of elite companies in light cavalry regiments of the Great Army is bear fur caps. On a march, such caps, just like regular shakoes, would be covered for protection against dirt and damage.

Among the retreating horse chasseurs, there is an artillery team of horses. A horse guard is making a backsword thrust into the rider’s back, who is a Bavarian artillery soldier judging by the uniform. Actually, the artist, who painted the picture decades after the event, was not quite accurate — Bavarian artillerymen wore helmets, not shakoes.

Alexander Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky, a lieutenant general and military historian, was complimentary about guards cuirassiers’ performance at Polotsk: