My copy (and I presume your's) of Joineau's book is a translation from the original French version. The French term for these medical troops was "infirmier" which my modern Collins-Robert French dictionary translates as "male nurse". However I would suggest that in a military context the more correct translation would be "medical orderly" or "medical attendant".

John Elting's "Swords Around a Throne" decribes the various administrative units of the Grande Armee. Page 571 mentions battalions of Ouvriers d'Administration which contained masons, bakers, carpenters, butchers and metal workers. These are described as wearing an iron grey uniform, braided red. Pages 565 to 570 describe the Train des Equipages Militaires, which provided all the administrative drivers, and states that they wore a grey uniform with brown facings. Pages 284-285 describe the Compagnies d'infirmiers d'hopitaux (also called soldats d'ambulance) and states that these wore brown jackets faced red.

On Page 192 Elting describes the Imperial Guard's Bataillon d'Ouvriers d'Administation and states that this originally had 5 companies: Vivres-Pain (Bakers?), Forage, Vivres-Viande (Butchers?), Medical Services and Transportation. Uniform is not mentioned but both Joineau and Michael Head (French Napoleonic Artillery) state that they wore grey jackets with red trim. On page 197 Elting states that the original 5th company was expanded into a Bataillon du Train des Equippages de la Garde. This is stated in both Joineau and Head as wearing the standard grey jackets with brown facings of the Train des Equipages Mititaires but with red trim to distinguish them as Guard. Elting mentions (Page 197) that after this reorganisation the remaining four companies of the Imperial Guard's Bataillon d'Ouvriers d'Administation were consolidated into three companies.

I do not know why the Guard's Bataillon d'Ouvriers d'Administation would seem to have different components to that of the Line. I do wonder however, if the Guard Transport could be separated from the original Guard Bataillon d'Ouvriers d'Administation and given uniforms similar, but with guard distinctions, to the Train des Equipages Mititaires, whether a similar re-structuring (and possible re-uniforming to brown faced red) of the 4th company (infirmiers) might have taken place which would account for the reduction of the Bataillon d'Ouvriers d'Administation to three companies.

The standard Guard system was to have units representing all the elements of the Grande Armee even if at times the Guard unit was of only company strength (ie company of Guard Genie wearing engineer uniform with Guard helmets, company of Guard Pontonier wearing standard pontonier uniform with Old Guard Artillery bearskins, company of Gendarmerie d'Elite wearing standard Gendarmerie uniform with bearskins). I do not understand why a similar system was not adopted for infirmier.

I also suggest that Jouneau is not infallible. On page 54-55 of his book there is an illustration of a two-wheeled mobile ambulance. This is shown as being pulled by a pair of horses, linked to the ambulance with a standard French central pole. Michael Head's book (on page 17) has a line drawing of a plan and elevation of that same vehicle, I believe taken from Larrey's original sketches. The drawing and description show that the two-wheeled ambulance had a pair of shafts and was pulled by a pair of horses in tandem (ie behind each other, not side by side) with the leading one being ridden by a driver of the Train des Equipages.

Rod