The Young Guard was the collective name for Imperial Guard units raised after 1809, to distinguish them from the Old Guard and Middle Guard. Its cadre was raised from the Old Guard, but most of its recruits were instead the strongest and best educated conscripts from that era.
It was created by decree on 16 January 1809 with the creation of two tirailleur regiments, one attached to the Guard grenadiers and one to the Guard chasseurs. [1]
During the Allied invasion of France the Young Guard consisted of 16 tirailleur regiments, 16 voltigeur regiments, a flanker-grenadier regiment, a flanker-chasseur regiment and the Guard pupil regiment. It had a theoretical strength of 90,000 but an actual one of only around 38,000. [2]
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