'There will be in every battalion of light infantry regiments a company called the 'mounted company' or 'mobile company' or 'partisan company,' or some other name of this sort.'

'This company will always be the third in the battalion, counting the grenadier company as the first. It will be composed of well-built and vigorous men, of the smallest height. No non-commissioned officer or soldier should be more than four feet eleven inches tall and the officers should not exceed five feet.'

'It will be armed with a lighter fusil than the dragoon's fusil and will be drilled in firing. Officers and non-commissioned officers will be armed with rifled carbines.'

'The men of these companies will be practiced in following the cavalry at a trot, holding sometimes the boot of the rider and sometimes the mane of the horse, and in mounting briskly and jumping behind the rider, so that he thus can be rapidly be transported by the cavalry.'

'These companies will always be complete and maintained on a war footing...They will be taken from among those men exempted from the conscription because they are too short.'

Napoleon to Berthier, 22 December 1803, Correspondence IX, number 7415, page 167.

The light infantry battalions were authorized to form their voltigeur companies in March 1804. The line infantry battalions in September 1805. Some regiments had already formed 'light companies' sometimes referred to as eclaireurs, between 1796 and 1801. Apparently, Coignet, Teste, as well as Thiebault all mentioned their existence.