For six weeks in 1857, 25,000 men from the French Imperial Guard, renowned for their victory in the decisive battle of the Crimean War two years earlier, conducted exercises under the command of Napoleon III to inaugurate a vast military camp at Châlons-sur-Marne. Gustave Le Gray was commissioned to photograph the camp, the inaugural events, and the officers. Far from the chaos of real battle and the unfamiliarity of foreign terrain, this regiment of cavalry silhouetted in the early morning mist could easily be mistaken for a battalion of toy soldiers.