His efforts produced 200,000 soldiers and a masterful campaign that pushed the Austrians back beyond the Danube. His troops were not the well disciplined and drilled troops he had had in 1805, however, and his first attempt to cross the Danube near Vienna proved disastrous. The Battle of Aspern-Essling was a major military setback and blow to Napoleon's personal prestige. This setback was to have long-range implications for Napoleon because it was his first personal setback and it seriously shook his image of invincibility. It began to enter the minds of the military men of Europe that Napoleon could be successfully opposed on the battlefield.
Russia did participate in the 1809 campaign against the Austrians, but Russian troops did little more than occupy some of Austria's eastern provinces.
Napoleon finally crossed the Danube in a brilliant feat of military engineering and inflicted a crushing defeat on the Austrians at Wagram. This defeat, coupled with other setbacks, forced Francis to sue for an armistice. A treaty was signed three months later.
Napoleon grew more and more worried about the loyalty of Prussia, his nominal ally, and about the chances of a British landing on the Baltic coast. The British did eventually land, but not on the Baltic. After the conclusion of the principal operations against the Austrians, the British landed in the Scheldt estuary, part of Holland. The operation was an endless series of bungled opportunities and bad military judgment. The French were able to seal off the British incursion, and they allowed malaria to finish off the British invasion force. Seeing their operation was lost, the survivors were picked up by the British navy and taken home.
The instability of Prussia was impressed on Napoleon by a number of insurrections and mutinies such as von Schill's raid. Prussia was being swept up by the same military and nationalistic feelings that had pushed Austria into the 1809 campaign.
The Treaty of Vienna, signed on 14 October 1809, further humiliated Austria. It severed 3,500,000 of Austria's citizens from her and gave a large piece of Austrian territory to Bavaria, France's ally. Triest and the strategic coastal area along the eastern bank of the Adriatic Sea were ceded to France to form the Illyrian provinces of France. This last action sealed off southern Europe from British trade from the border of Turkey westward.
The treaty also transferred Galacia to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which shocked Alexander, since it was a flagrant violation of Napoleon's verbal assurances that this would never be done. Alexander redoubled his efforts to have Napoleon sign an agreement stating that the Kingdom of Poland would not be restored. This fear was the next major crack in the Franco-Russian alliance.
In 1809 the few remaining portions of independent Italy came under French control. Much of the territories occupied by the French were formally annexed into metropolitan France, as Napoleon began recreating Charlemagne's “Holy Roman Empire.” Napoleon's conflicts with the Pope grew, as such conflicts had with every European emperor before him. Napoleon proposed to the Pope that the college of cardinals not be recruited predominantly from Italy, but that a third of them come from the French Empire. Pius VII refused and retaliated by refusing to give his blessings to the bishop candidates proposed by Napoleon. In anticipation of the annexation of the Papal States, the Pope drew up a bull of excommunication against Napoleon. When Napoleon learned of this, he retaliated by arresting and imprisoning the Pope. Pius VII was imprisoned in Savona on the Riveria and proved a great embarrassment for Napoleon.
In 1810, Napoleon took action against his brother Louis, king of Holland. Because of Napoleon's long and deeply held belief that the Dutch were not assisting in the financing of his campaigns as much as he perceived they could, and because they had rather blatantly ignored the trade prohibitions with Britain, Napoleon deposed Louis and annexed Holland into metropolitan France.
Russia's bitterness over Poland continued to grow and new concerns grew about Napoleon's dealings with the Turks, with whom the Russians were now at war. Alexander began having serious doubts about Napoleon's designs and intentions for southeastern Europe. He had received reports about a proposed union of the Balkan states similar to the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon's collection of puppet German states.
Whatever Napoleon's intentions were, it became clear that it was never his intention to permit Russia to conquer Constantinople. This situation became more difficult as Napoleon began to insist on a more stringent enforcement in Russia of the articles of the Continental System. He urged the confiscation of neutral vessels in Russian ports, and the entire System, which was crippling Russia's economy, became even more unpopular.
Britain had been Russia's best market for wheat, timber, hemp, and tallow. The restrictions on trade were rapidly forcing Russia into desperate straits. The czar refused Napoleon's demands, alleging that Russia's prosperity depended on the trade and goodwill of the neutrals. It is probable that if Napoleon had made any concessions on the Balkan or Polish issues, Alexander would not have made an open issue of the Continental System. Alexander's refusal opened the Continent to British goods and served notice to the world of his decaying alliance with France.
On 31 December 1810 Alexander issued a decree which favored the entry of neutral ships into Russian ports and virtually excluded the imports of silks, wines, and brandy, which were principally exports of France.
During the next year and a half, both emperors engaged in massive preparations for the pending war. Many Prussian military men saw this growing rift and offered their professional services to Russia, who eagerly accepted them. Alexander's first plans were to carry the war into Germany as had been done in 1806, but the certainty of a hostile Warsaw in his rear made that impossible. These plans were dropped as soon as the Polish intentions became clear. This development pleased Napoleon greatly, for it eliminated the likelihood of a Prussian or Austrian uprising to support the Russians.
On 24 February 1812 Napoleon concluded a treaty with Prussia which provided him with a contingent of 209000 Prussian troops to join his growing Grande Armée. It also allowed the French to garrison the Silesian fortresses, and it permitted them to march through Prussian territory and to requisition supplies from Prussian territory.
A similar treaty was signed with Austria on 14 March 1812. That country agreed to provide 30,000 men on the understanding that Austria would recover part of the Ulyrian provinces and some of the territory ceded to Bavaria. Austria was also guaranteed that it would receive part of the Prussian province of Silesia, taken from Austria by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years War.
Though successful on those two counts, Napoleon did not succeed with Turkey or Sweden. In Sweden, Napoleon had to deal with Bernadotte, a former French general, who had been elected to the Swedish throne on the death of the previous king. There was little love lost between Napoleon and Bernadotte, who had been feuding since the French Revolution, when only fate had raised Napoleon to the French imperial throne and not Bernadotte,
Bernadotte was elected to his throne, and if his popularity fell, he could be easily ousted. This fact played both economic and military roles as the wars progressed. At the moment, application of the embargo of British commerce would hurt the Swedish economy and cause Berna-dotte' s popularity to fall. He could not chance that decrease in popular support.
In April 1812 Bernadotte concluded an alliance with Russia and pledged the support of a Swedish corps in northern Germany in event of war. In return he was promised a free hand in Norway, currently part of France's ally, Denmark.
In April a second political reverse was suffered by Napoleon when Russia and Turkey signed a treaty, ending their hostilities over Wallachia and Moldavia” The Peace of Bucharest, signed on 12 May 1812, provided that Turkey would recover Wallachia and Moldavia in exchange for Bessarabia. The sultan had won a lenient peace for his country, and the czar had regained the use of his army for the pending campaign.
Tensions grew and Alexander issued an ultimatum. He stated that he would negotiate with France only if the French were to withdraw from Prussia. Napoleon res
ponded by marching on the Vistula. The Grande Armée advanced into Polish Lithuania steadily from May until 23 June 1812, when the leading elements reached the Niemen River, separating the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Russia. There was no formal declaration of war. For three days after the first units swam and marched across the Niemen, a steady stream of French, Prussians, Austrians, Dutch, Belgians, Swiss, Italians, Neapolitans, Egyptians, Croatians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Poles, Bavarians, Hessians, Wurttembergers, Saxons, Westphalians, and members of a number of other small German states marched into Russia. The 1812 campaign had begun.
The French Infantry
The army's infantry is its most essential component. Even today, no army can take and hold any ground without the use of infantry. The French army in 1812 was no exception, and infantry made up by far the greatest portion of that army. This force of infantry was organized into companies, battalions, and regiments, all of which had undergone a number of evolutionary changes during the twenty years since the French Revolution.
The basic administrative unit of the French army was the company. In combat it received a different designation that will be discussed later. In 1812 the standard infantry company had a theoretical strength of 140 men: 3 officers, 14 noncommissioned officers, 2 drummers, and 121 soldiers. The strength of these companies could run as few as 40 or as many as 160.
There were two basic types of infantry: line and light (henceforth referred to by the French term “légère”). As a result of the Decree of 18 February 1808, each battalion was reformed with six companies. These battalions had two elite companies and four center companies. In a line battalion there were four fusilier companies, one grenadier company, and one voltigeur company. In the légère battalions these companies were known as chasseurs, carabiniers, and voltigeurs respectively.
The grenadier and carabinier companies were the senior companies in the battalion. The next most senior company was the voltigeur company. The seniority of the fusilier companies was based on the company number.
In addition to the six infantry companies, each battalion had a staff which directed the efforts of the companies. This staff was formed with three officers, one medical officer, and five noncommissioned officers.
The battalions were the building blocks of the regiment. The Decree of 18 February 1808 set the strength of a regiment at four field battalions and one depot battalion. The depot battalion had a slightly different organization, consisting of four fusilier or chasseur companies.
The four field battalions were intended for combat in the field. The depot battalions had entirely different functions. The depot battalion was numbered as the 5th Battalion in every regiment. The depot battalions were stationed in garrisons and forbidden to leave them except on the explicit orders of the emperor. Each depot battalion had four companies of fusiliers and a staff. The companies had the same organization as the companies in the field battalions, but the battalion staff, under the command of a major, consisted of five officers, three noncommissioned officers, and a student drummer.
Each company had different specific duties. The fourth company of the battalion rarely if ever left the depot. It was charged with training recruits and included in its ranks the regiment's artisans, the “enfants de troupe” (soldiers” sons carried on the battalion payroll), and any veteran soldiers awaiting retirement, discharge, or pensioning. The first and third companies were responsible for transporting newly trained recruits to the field battalions. As a precaution, to prevent the new men from deserting, several such companies would be formed into a “bataillon de marche” and several of these battalions would be converged into “regiments de marche.”'
The second company of the battalion was generally assigned to act as guards for naval vessels as well as for the garrisons to man them. In addition to the duties of the companies, the depots generally had a cadre of recruiting officers—-generally a captain, two lieutenants, and two sous-lieutenants.
An examination of the Order of Battle for I Corps of the Grande Armée in Appendix III will show that many of the regiments had five field battalions. This expansion was due to an effort on the part of Napoleon to fully utilize the number of recruits that were being drawn into his army. By 1813 at least one regiment had eight battalions.
This expansion began with the Decree of 23 April 1811, which directed the raising of a sixth battalion for the 12th, 17th, 21st, 30th, 33rd, 48th, 57th, 61st, 108th, and 111th Line Regiments. These battalions were formed around cadres drawn from the regiment's other battalions, new recruits, and detachments from the various penal regiments. A total of 750 men were to be drawn from these sources to complete these battalions. The sous-lieutenants were to come from the military school at St.-Cyr, the captains and lieutenants were to come from the Imperial Guard. These sixth battalions did not have elite companies. Instead they had a fifth and sixth fusilier company.
The results of the drafts of 1811 and 1812 were proving more successful than originally anticipated. Napoleon went on to consider raising a seventh battalion for many regiments. The history of these battalions was varied. None was organized or participated in the 1812 campaign. In 1813 many were torn apart to rebuild the first five field battalions, and others operated as a newly raised seventh battalion.
The National Guard
In addition to what might be called the “regular army,” there was a second-line formation known as the Garde Nationale. The Senatus-Consulte of 13 March 1812 ordered the formation of an active National Guard consisting of eighty-eight cohorts. The National Guard was organized in three “bans,” or call-ups. The first ban was composed of men aged twenty to twenty-six and belonging to the last six draft classes. The second ban was all men between twenty-six and forty who were still in good health. The last, or “arcière ban,” was composed of all fit men between forty and sixty.
Each of the eighty-eight cohorts was to be established with a strength of six fusilier companies, an artillery company, and a depot company. The staff was organized with a Chef du Cohort commanding two other officers and seven noncommissioned officers including four master artisans.
The six companies were organized in the same manner as those in the companies of a line infantry company. The cohort had no elite companies. Their officers and noncommissioned officers were drawn from the ranks of officers and soldiers that had been retired because of age or wounds that were now considered'not to be too debilitating. Generally, these men retained their ranks when drawn into the National Guard. As a result, these National Guard battalions had a very sound cadre.
Penal Regiments
There was a third infantry formation in this period: the penal regiment. The French army consisted mainly of conscripts, for the levée en masse had long supplanted the volunteer forces of 1792. Like all armies, the French army was plagued by desertion, as shown by a letter from the duke of Feltre, French minister of war to Napoleon, who described the situation in the 12th Military Division. Of the 840 men being transported to l'Ile de Ré, 88 men deserted between Surgères and Luisagnan. He reported another instance where a deserter was executed in front of his unit and, despite this, in the following month a further twenty-six men deserted.
In general, desertion was punishable by death. The Decree of 2 February 1811 superseded the Law of 21 Brumaire An V (12 November 1796) and all previous laws relating to desertion. It stated that the death penalty was mandatory for the leaders of desertion plots and under special circumstances was also applicable to the principal instigators. The Decree of 23 November 1811 had qualified the general death sentence, stating that those individuals who were pardoned for an earlier desertion and did not return to their units would be executed.
The Decree of 24 January 1811 had been issued to use the deserters that were being recovered. It directed the raising of the penal Regiments de Walcheren, de Belle-Isle, and de l'Ile de Ré. The Regiment de Belle-ìsle was a légère regiment, while the others were line regiments. None of their battalions had elite companies, though they were const
ituted in every other sense like those of the line infantry regiments. These regiments were assigned to form the garrisons of the islands whose names they bore. The Regiment de l'Ile de Ré also maintained garrisons on the islands of Oléron and Aix.
When these penal regiments were raised, the minister of war presented the nomination for the senior regimental officers, the colonel, major, quartermaster, and adjutant-majors, and the officers of the first battalion, to Napoleon for his approval. After the first battalion had a strength of 600 men, the nominations for each successive battalion were presented. The sergeants and corporals were drawn from the fusiliers and tirailleurs of the Imperial Guard in the hope that they might instill some military discipline in the deserters.
Each of the penal regiments drew its men from specific military divisions. The men going to the Regiment de Walcheren came from the 15th, 16th, 17th, 24th, 25th, 26th, 31st, and 32nd Military Divisions. Those of Belle-Isle came from the 11th, 12th, 19th, 20th, and 21st; and those of Mediterranée carne from the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 27th, 28th, 29th, and 30th Military Divisions.
The Decree of 11 March 1811 renamed the Regiment de la Mediterranée the ler Regiment de la Mediterranée and ordered that it be increased to the full four field and one depot battalion organization. It was to be trained and equipped as a légère regiment. The same decree also authorized the raising of the 2eme Regiment de la Mediterranée, which was to be constituted as a line infantry regiment. Neither regiment was to have elite companies, but the decree stated, “When these regiments have two years of service, our Minister of War shall receive our orders for the formation of one or more companies of elites.” These elite companies were eventually raised during the 1813 campaign.
The Decree of 12 March 1811 also addressed the penal regiments. The Regiment de Walcheren was ordered to raise a third battalion with Spanish prisoners of war. Each company was to have the standard 140 men. These men were to be volunteers, and if they served “well and faithfully for six years,” they would be given a full pardon and allowed to return to their homeland, Spain. This battalion was formed on the Rhine and outfitted in Strasbourg.
Napoleon's Invasion of Russia Page 3