The French Revolutionary Army (french: Armée révolutionnaire française) was the French
land force
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
that fought the
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted France against Britain, Austria, Prussia ...
from 1792 to 1804. These armies were characterised by their revolutionary fervour, their poor equipment and their great numbers. Although they experienced early disastrous defeats, the revolutionary armies successfully expelled foreign forces from French soil and then overran many neighboring countries, establishing
client republics. Leading generals included
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
,
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, 1st Count Jourdan (29 April 1762 – 23 November 1833), was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was made a Marshal of the Empire by Emperor Napoleon I in ...
,
André Masséna
André Masséna, Prince of Essling, Duke of Rivoli (born Andrea Massena; 6 May 1758 – 4 April 1817) was a French military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.Donald D. Horward, ed., trans, annotated, The Fre ...
and
Jean Victor Marie Moreau.
As a general description of French military forces during this period, it should not be confused with the "revolutionary armies" (''armées révolutionnaires'') which were paramilitary forces set up during the
Terror.
Formation
As the ''Ancien Regime'' gave way to a constitutional monarchy, and then to a republic, 1789–92, the entire structure of France was transformed to fall into line with the Revolutionary principles of "
Liberty, Equality and Fraternity". Reactionary Europe stood opposed, especially after the French king was executed. The signing of the
Declaration of Pillnitz
The Declaration of Pillnitz was a statement of five sentences issued on 27 August 1791 at Pillnitz Castle near Dresden (Saxony) by Frederick William II of Prussia and the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II who was Marie Antoinette's broth ...
between
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and King
Frederick William II of Prussia
Frederick William II (german: Friedrich Wilhelm II.; 25 September 1744 – 16 November 1797) was King of Prussia from 1786 until his death in 1797. He was in personal union the Prince-elector of Brandenburg and (via the Orange-Nassau inherita ...
and the subsequent French declaration of war meant that from its formation, the Republic of France was at war, and it required a potent military force to ensure its survival. As a result, one of the first major elements of the French state to be restructured was the army.
Almost all of the ''ancien regime'' officer class had been drawn from the aristocracy. During the period preceding the final overthrow of the Monarchy, large numbers of officers left their regiments and emigrated. Between 15 September and 1 December 1791 alone, 2,160 officers of the royal army fled France eventually to join the ''
émigré
An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French ''émigrer'', "to emigrate".
French Huguenots
Many French Huguenots fled France followin ...
'' army of
Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé
Louis Joseph de Bourbon (9 August 1736 – 13 May 1818) was Prince of Condé from 1740 to his death. A member of the House of Bourbon, he held the prestigious rank of '' Prince du Sang''.
Youth
Born on 9 August 1736 at Chantilly, Louis J ...
. Of those who stayed, many were either imprisoned or killed during the
Reign of Terror. The few remaining officers from the old guard were promoted swiftly; this meant that the majority of the Revolutionary officers were far younger than their Monarchist counterparts. The high-ranking aristocratic officers who remained, among them
Marquis de la Fayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States as Lafayette (, ), was a French aristocrat, freemason and military officer who fought in the American Revolutio ...
,
Comte de Rochambeau
Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807, was a French nobleman and general whose army played the decisive role in helping the United States defeat the British army at Yorktown in 1781 during the ...
and
Comte Nicolas Luckner, were soon accused of having monarchist sympathies and either executed or forced into exile.
Revolutionary fervour, along with calls to save the new regime, resulted in a large influx of enthusiastic, yet untrained and undisciplined, volunteers. These were the first ''
sans-culottes
The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . T ...
'', so called because they wore peasants' trousers rather than the
knee-breeches
Breeches ( ) are an article of clothing covering the body from the waist down, with separate coverings for each leg, usually stopping just below the knee, though in some cases reaching to the ankles. Formerly a standard item of Western men's cl ...
used by the other armies of the time. France's desperate military situation meant that these men were quickly inducted into the army. One reason for the success of the French Revolutionary Army is the "amalgamation" (''amalgame'') strategy organized by military strategist
Lazare Carnot, later
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
's
Minister of War
A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
. He assigned, to the same
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation.
In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscript ...
(but in different battalions), both young volunteers enthusiastic at the thought of dying for liberty and old veterans from the
former royal army.
The transformation of the Army was most apparent in the officer corps. Before the revolution, 90% of the officers had been aristocrats, compared to only 3% in 1794. Revolutionary fervor was high, and was closely monitored by the Committee of Public Safety, which assigned Representatives on Mission to keep watch on the army generals. Indeed, during the war, some generals deserted, and others were removed or executed. The government demanded that soldiers be loyal to the government in Paris, not to their generals.
''1791 Reglement''
Officially, the Revolutionary Armies were operating along the guidelines set down in the ''1791 Reglement'', a set of regulations created during the years before the Revolution. The ''1791 Reglement'' laid down several complex tactical maneuvers, maneuvers which demanded well trained
soldier
A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer.
Etymology
The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...
s,
officer
An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," f ...
s and
NCOs to perform correctly. The Revolutionary Army was lacking in all three of these areas, and as a result the early efforts to conform to the ''1791 Reglement'' were met with disaster. The untrained troops could not perform the complex maneuvers required, unit cohesion was lost and defeat was ensured.
Realizing that the army was not capable of conforming with the ''1791 Reglement'', commanders began experimenting with formations which required less training to perform. Many eminent French military thinkers had been clamoring for change decades before. In the period following the humiliating performance of the French Army during the
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...
, they began to experiment with new ideas.
Guibert Guibert is a given name and surname, and may refer to:
; Given name
*Guibert of Ravenna (or Wibert of Ravenna; c. 1029–1100), Italian Roman Catholic archbishop of Ravenna, elected Antipope Clement III
*Guibert of Gembloux (10th century), founder ...
wrote his epic ''Essai général de Tactique'',
Bourcet focused on staff procedures and
mountain warfare
Mountain warfare (also known as alpine warfare) is warfare in mountains or similarly rough terrain. Mountain ranges are of strategic importance since they often act as a natural border, and may also be the origin of a water source (for example, ...
, and
Mesnil-Durand spent his time advocating ''
l'ordre profond'', tactics of maneuvering and fighting in heavy
columnar formations, placing emphasis on the shock of
cold steel over firepower.
In the 1770s, some commanders, among them the brilliant
duc de Broglie
The House of Broglie (, also ; french: Maison de Broglie, or ) is a French noble family, originally Piedmontese, who migrated to France in the year 1643.
History
() was the name of an old Piedmontese noble family, from which were descended t ...
performed exercises testing these tactics. It was finally decided to launch a series of experiments to try out the new tactics, and comparing them to the standard
Fredrickian linear formation known as ''
l'ordre mince'' which was universally popular throughout
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. De Broglie decided that ''l'ordre profond'' worked best when it was supported by artillery and large numbers of skirmishers. Despite these exercises, ''l'ordre mince'' had strong and powerful supporters in the Royal
Armée Française, and it was this formation which went into the ''1791 Reglement'' as the standard.
Trial by fire
The French struck first, with an invasion of the
Austrian Netherlands
The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The pe ...
proposed by foreign minister
Charles François Dumouriez. This invasion soon turned into a debacle when it was found that the hastily trained Revolutionary forces were badly disorganized and disobedient: on one occasion, troops murdered their general to avoid a battle; on another, troops insisted on putting their commander's orders to a vote. The Revolutionary forces retreated from the Austrian Netherlands in disarray.
In August 1792, a large Austro-Prussian army commanded by the
Duke of Brunswick crossed the frontier and began its march on Paris with the declared intention of restoring full power to Louis XVI. Several Revolutionary armies were easily defeated by the professional Austrian,
Hessian,
Brunswick and
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...
n troops. The immediate result of this was the
storming of the
Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, f ...
by an armed Parisian mob and the overthrow of the king. Successive Revolutionary forces failed to halt Brunswick's advance, and by mid-September it appeared that Paris would fall to the invading monarchists. The
Convention ordered the remaining armies to be combined under the command of Dumouriez and
François Christophe Kellermann
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King o ...
. At the
Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792, the Revolutionary forces defeated Brunswick's advance guard, causing the invading army to begin a retreat all the way to the border. Much of the credit for the victory is owed to the French
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
, widely viewed as the best in Europe thanks to the technical improvements of
Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval.
The Battle of Valmy ensured that the Revolutionary armies were respected and no longer underestimated by their enemies. For the next ten years, these armies not only defended the fledgling
First French Republic, but, under the command of Generals such as
Moreau,
Jourdan Jourdan may refer to:
* Carolyn Jourdan, American author
*Claude Jourdan (1803–1873), French zoologist and paleontologist
* David W. Jourdan, businessman
*Jean-Baptiste Jourdan (1762–1833), French army commander
* Jourdan Bobbish (1994–2012), ...
,
Kléber,
Desaix and
Bonaparte, expanded the borders of the French republic.
Lazare Carnot
While the ''Cannonade of Valmy'' had saved the Republic from imminent destruction and caused its enemies to take pause, the
guillotining of Louis XVI in January 1793 and the convention's proclamation that it would '
export the revolution
Export of the revolution is actions by a victorious revolutionary government of one country to promote similar revolutions in unruled areas or other countries as a manifestation of revolutionary internationalism of certain kind, such as the Marxi ...
' hardened the resolve of France's enemies to destroy the Republic and reinstate a monarchy.
In early 1793, the
First Coalition
The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that succ ...
was formed, not only from Prussia and Austria, but also
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
,
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
, the
Dutch United Provinces
The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...
, Spain and Great Britain. The Republic was under attack on several fronts, and in the fiercely Catholic region of
La Vendée an armed
revolt had broken out.
The Revolutionary army was greatly overstretched, and it seemed that the fall of the republic was imminent.
In early 1793
Lazare Carnot, a prominent
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems.
Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change.
History
On ...
,
physicist
A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe.
Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
, and delegate to the Convention, was promoted to the
Committee of Public Safety. Displaying an exceptional talent for organization and for enforcing discipline, Carnot set about rearranging the disheveled Revolutionary Armies. Realizing that no amount of reforming and discipline was going to offset the massive numerical superiority enjoyed by France's enemies, Carnot ordered (24 February 1793 decree of the national Convention) each département to provide a quota of new recruits, a number totaling around 300,000. By mid-1793, the Revolutionary Army had increased around 645,000 men.
''Levée en masse''
On 23 August 1793, at Carnot's insistence, the Convention issued the following proclamation ordering a ''
levée en masse''
:"From this moment until such time as its enemies shall have been driven from the soil of the Republic all Frenchmen are in permanent requisition for the services of the armies. The young men shall fight; the married men shall forge arms and transport provisions; the women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; the children shall turn linen into lint; the old men shall betake themselves to the public squares in order to arouse the courage of the warriors and preach hatred of kings and the unity of the Republic"
All unmarried able bodied men aged between 18 and 25 were to report immediately for military service. Those married, as well as the remaining men, women and children, were to focus their efforts on arming and supplying the army.
This increased the size of the Revolutionary Armies dramatically, providing the armies in the field with the manpower to hold off the enemy attacks. Carnot was hailed by the government as the ''Organizer of Victory''. By September 1794, the Revolutionary Army had 1,500,000 men under arms. Carnot's ''levée en masse'' had provided so much manpower that it was not necessary to repeat it again until 1797.
Tactics
Seeing the failure of the ''1791 Reglement'', several early revolutionary commanders followed de Broglie's example and experimented with the pre-revolutionary ideas, gradually adapting them until they discovered a system that worked. The final standard used by the early Revolutionary Armies consisted of the following:
* Troops with exceptional morale or skill became
skirmishers
Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an i ...
, and were deployed in a screen in front of the Army. Their main fighting tactics were of a guerrilla-warfare nature. Both mounted and on foot, the large swarm of skirmishers would hide from enemies if possible, pepper their formations with fire and deploy ambushes. Unable to retaliate on the scattered skirmishers, the morale and unit cohesion of the better trained and equipped émigré and monarchist armies was gradually worn down. The incessant harassing fire usually resulted in a section of the enemy line wavering, and then the 'regular' formations of the Revolutionary Army would be sent into the attack.
* Troops with less skill and of more dubious quality, making up the 'regular' part of the army, were formed into
battalion columns. The battalion column required little training to perfect, and provided commanders with potent "battering ram-style" formations with which to hit the enemy lines after the skirmishers had done their work. The skirmish screen also provided protection for those troops
Infantry
Following the dissolution of the ''ancien regime'', the system of named regiments was abandoned. Instead, the new army was formed into a series of numbered ''demi-brigades''. Consisting of two or three
battalion
A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...
s, these formations were designated ''
demi-brigades'' in an attempt to avoid the feudal connotations of the term ''Regiment''. In mid-1793, the Revolutionary Army officially comprised 196 infantry ''demi-brigades''.
After the initial dismal performance of the ''
Fédéré
The term ''"fédérés"'' (sometimes translated to English as "federates") most commonly refers to the troops who volunteered for the French National Guard in the summer of 1792 during the French Revolution. The ''fédérés'' of 1792 effected ...
'' volunteer battalions, Carnot ordered that each ''demi-brigade'' was to consist of one regular (ex-Royal Army) and two ''fédéré'' battalions. These new formations, intended to combine the discipline and training of the old army with the enthusiasm of the new volunteers, were proven successful at
Valmy in September 1792. In 1794, the new ''demi-brigade'' was universally adopted.
The Revolutionary Army had been formed from a hodgepodge of different units, and as such did not have a uniform appearance. Veterans in their white uniforms and
tarleton helmet
Sir Banastre Tarleton, 1st Baronet, GCB (21 August 175415 January 1833) was a British general and politician. He is best known as the lieutenant colonel leading the British Legion at the end of the American Revolution. He later served in Portu ...
s from the ''ancien regime'' period served alongside national guardsmen in their blue jackets with white turnbacks piped red and ''fédérés'' dressed in civilian clothes with only the red
phrygian cap and the tricolour
cockade
A cockade is a knot of ribbons, or other circular- or oval-shaped symbol of distinctive colours which is usually worn on a hat or cap.
Eighteenth century
In the 18th and 19th centuries, coloured cockades were used in Europe to show the alleg ...
to identify them as soldiers. Poor supplies meant that uniforms which had worn out were replaced with civilian clothes, and so the Revolutionary Army lacked any semblance of uniformity, with the exception of the tricolour cockade which was worn by all soldiers. As the war progressed, several ''demi-brigades'' were issued specific coloured uniform jackets, and the Revolutionary
''Armée d'Orient'' which arrived in Egypt in 1798 was uniformed in purple, pink, green, red, orange and blue jackets.
Along with the problem of uniforms, many men of the Revolutionary Army lacked weapons and ammunition. Any weapons captured from the enemy were immediately absorbed into the ranks. After the
Battle of Montenotte
The Battle of Montenotte was fought on 12 April 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, between the French army under General Napoleon Bonaparte and an Austrian corps under Count Eugène-Guillaume Argenteau. The French won the battle, whi ...
in 1796, 1,000 French soldiers who had been sent into battle unarmed were afterwards equipped with captured Austrian muskets. As a result, uniformity was also lacking in weapons.
Besides the regular ''demi-brigades'',
light infantry
Light infantry refers to certain types of lightly equipped infantry throughout history. They have a more mobile or fluid function than other types of infantry, such as heavy infantry or line infantry. Historically, light infantry often fought ...
''demi-brigades'' also existed. These formations were formed from soldiers who had shown skill in marksmanship, and were used for skirmishing in front of the main force. As with the line ''demi-brigades'', the light ''demi-brigades'' lacked uniformity in either weapons or equipment.
Artillery
Supporting the skirmishers was the French
artillery
Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...
. The artillery had suffered least from the exodus of aristocratic officers during the early days of the Revolution, as it was commanded mostly by men drawn from the middle class. The man who would shape the era,
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
, himself was an artilleryman. The various technical improvements of Général
Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval in the years preceding the Revolution, and the subsequent efforts of
Baron du Teil and his brother
Chevalier Jean du Teil meant that the French artillery was the finest in Europe. The Revolutionary Artillery was responsible for several of the Republic's early victories; for example at
Valmy, on
13 Vendémiaire, and at
Lodi. The revolutionary cannon played a vital role in their success. The cannon continued to have a dominating role on the battlefield throughout the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
.
Cavalry
The cavalry was seriously affected by the Revolution. The majority of officers had been of aristocratic birth and had fled France during the final stages of the monarchy or to avoid the subsequent Terror. Many French cavalrymen joined the émigré army of the Prince du Conde. Two entire regiments, the ''Hussards du Saxe'' and the ''15éme Cavalerie (Royal Allemande)'' defected to the Austrians.
Lacking not only trained officers, but also mounts and equipment, the Revolutionary Cavalry became the worst equipped arm of the Revolutionary Army. By Mid 1793, the paper organisation of the Revolutionary Army included twenty six heavy cavalry regiments, two regiments of carabiniers, twenty dragoon regiments, eighteen regiments of ''chasseurs à cheval'' and ten hussar regiments. In reality, it was seldom that any of these regiments reached even half strength. However, unlike the infantry, where all battalions of the old Royal Army were merged with freshly raised volunteers to form new ''demi-brigades'', the cavalry retained their regimental identities throughout the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. As one example, the ''Regiment de Chasseurs d'Alsace'' (raised in 1651) was renamed the ''1er Regiment de Chasseurs'' in 1791 but otherwise remained unchanged until it was finally disbanded after Waterloo.
Aerostatic corps
The French Aerostatic Corps (''compagnie d'aérostiers'') was the first French
air force
An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
, founded in 1794 to use
balloons, primarily for
reconnaissance
In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities.
Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...
. The first military use of the balloon occurred on 2 June 1794, when it was used for reconnaissance during an enemy bombardment. On 22 June, the corps received orders to move the balloon to the
plain of Fleurus, in front of the Austrian troops at
Charleroi.
[Charles Coulston Gillispie, ''Science and Polity in France: The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Years'', pp. 372–373]
Notable generals and commanders
Image:1801 Antoine-Jean Gros - Bonaparte on the Bridge at Arcole.jpg, Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
Image:Charles Pierre François Augereau (1792).jpg, Pierre Augereau
Charles Pierre François Augereau, 1st Duke of Castiglione (21 October 1757 – 12 June 1816) was a French military commander and a Marshal of the Empire who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. After serving in ...
Jean-Baptiste-Jules Bernadotte, lieutenent au 36e régiment de ligne en 1792 (1764-1844).jpg, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
sv, Karl Johan Baptist Julius
, spouse =
, issue = Oscar I of Sweden
, house = Bernadotte
, father = Henri Bernadotte
, mother = Jeanne de Saint-Jean
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Pau, ...
File:Général Jean Baptiste François Carteaux.jpg, Jean François Carteaux
Image:Louis charles desaix.jpg, Louis Charles Antoine Desaix
Louis Charles Antoine Desaix () (17 August 176814 June 1800) was a French general and military leader during the French Revolutionary Wars. According to the usage of the time, he took the name ''Louis Charles Antoine Desaix de Veygoux''. He was co ...
Image:Dugommier.png, Jacques François Dugommier
Jacques François Coquille named Dugommier (1 August 1738, Trois-Rivières, Guadeloupe – 18 November 1794, at the Battle of the Black Mountain) was a French general.
Biography
Early life
Jacques François Dugommier was born on 1 August 1 ...
File:Alexande Dumad -detail.PNG, Alexandre Dumas
Image:Charles-François Dumouriez.PNG, Charles François Dumouriez
File:Lazare Hoche, 1801.jpg, Lazare Hoche
Louis Lazare Hoche (; 24 June 1768 – 19 September 1797) was a French military leader of the French Revolutionary Wars. He won a victory over Royalist forces in Brittany. His surname is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe, on ...
Image:JEAN BAPTISTE JOURDAN (1762-1833).jpg, Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, 1st Count Jourdan (29 April 1762 – 23 November 1833), was a French military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was made a Marshal of the Empire by Emperor Napoleon I in ...
File:François Christophe Kellermann 2.png, François Christophe Kellermann
François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis.
People with the given name
* Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters"
* Francis II of France, King o ...
Image:General Jean Baptiste Kleber (Jean Guérin) - Nationalmuseum - 24145.tif, Jean Baptiste Kléber
Jean may refer to:
People
* Jean (female given name)
* Jean (male given name)
* Jean (surname)
Fictional characters
* Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character
* Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations
* Jea ...
Image:Étienne Jacques Joseph Macdonald (1792).jpg, Étienne-Jacques MacDonald
Image:Marshal Massena, duc de Rivoli, prince d'Essling.jpg, André Masséna
André Masséna, Prince of Essling, Duke of Rivoli (born Andrea Massena; 6 May 1758 – 4 April 1817) was a French military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.Donald D. Horward, ed., trans, annotated, The Fre ...
Image:Jean Victor Marie Moreau (1792).jpg, Jean Victor Marie Moreau
Image:Jean-Charles Pichegru2.jpg, Charles Pichegru
File:Court Custine Versailles.jpg, Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine
File:Jean Nicolas Houchard.png, Jean Nicolas Houchard
Jean Nicolas Houchard (24 January 1739 – 17 November 1793) was a French General of the French Revolution and the French Revolutionary Wars.
Biography
Born at Forbach in Lorraine, Houchard began his military career at the age of sixteen in th ...
Notable battles and campaigns
Active Armies 1792–1804
;Armies of 1792
*
Armée du Nord
The Army of the North or Armée du Nord is a name given to several historical units of the French Army. The first was one of the French Revolutionary Armies that fought with distinction against the First Coalition from 1792 to 1795. Others existe ...
*
Armée du Rhin
*
Armée des Alpes
*
Armée des Pyrénées
*
Armée des côtes The Army of the Coasts (''Armée des côtes'') was a French Revolutionary Army created in 1792 under the command of Anne François Augustin de La Bourdonnaye. In April 1793 it was split into the '' Army of the Coasts of Cherbourg'' and the ''Army of ...
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Armée du Centre
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Armée de réserve
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Armée du Var
;Armies after restructure of 1793
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Armée du Nord
The Army of the North or Armée du Nord is a name given to several historical units of the French Army. The first was one of the French Revolutionary Armies that fought with distinction against the First Coalition from 1792 to 1795. Others existe ...
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Armée des Ardennes
The Army of the Ardennes (''armée des Ardennes'') was a French Revolutionary Army formed on the first of October 1792 by splitting off the right wing of the Army of the North, commanded from July to August that year by La Fayette. From July to ...
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Armée de Moselle
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Armée du Rhin
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Armée des Alpes
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Armée d'Italie
The Army of Italy (french: Armée d'Italie) was a field army of the French Army stationed on the Italian border and used for operations in Italy itself. Though it existed in some form in the 16th century through to the present, it is best know ...
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Armée des côtes de Brest
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Armée des côtes de Cherbourg
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Armée des côtes de La Rochelle
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Armée des Pyrénées occidentales
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armée des Pyrénées orientales
On 1 October, the ''Armée de la Rochelle'' was redesignated as the
armée de l'Ouest
The Army of the West (''armée de l'Ouest'') was one of the French Revolutionary Armies that was sent to fight in the War in the Vendée in western France. The army was created on 2 October 1793 by merging the Army of the Coasts of La Rochelle ...
.
;Armies Formed for Specific Tasks
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Army of Sambre-et-Meuse
The Army of Sambre and Meuse (french: Armée de Sambre-et-Meuse) was one of the armies of the French Revolution. It was formed on 29 June 1794 by combining the Army of the Ardennes, the left wing of the Army of the Moselle and the right win ...
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Armée de Rhin-et-Moselle
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Armée de Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
Formed from the Army d'Italie for the occupation of Rome.
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Armée d'Angleterre
The Angleterre Hotel (russian: Англетер) is a modern, luxury business-class hotel on Voznesensky Prospekt at Saint Isaac's Square in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The hotel opened in 1991, replicating a historic hotel originally opened in 18 ...
Originally formed to fight the British in 1797, it was redesignated
Armée d'Orient and divided into
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Armée de Syrie
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Armée d'Égypte
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Saint-Domingue expedition
The Saint-Domingue expedition was a French military expedition sent by Napoleon Bonaparte, then First Consul, under his brother-in-law Charles Victor Emmanuel Leclerc in an attempt to regain French control of the Caribbean colony of Saint-Domin ...
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Armée de Réserve Formed in secret by Napoleon and led by him personally during the
Italian campaign of 1800, culminating in the
Battle of Marengo
The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. Near the end of the day, the French overcame General Mich ...
.
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Armée d'Allemagne
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Armée du Danube
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Armée de Hollande
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Armée des Grisons
* This army was formed for the invasion of England, and in 1805 it became
La Grande Armée
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
.
See also
*
Émigré armies of the French Revolutionary Wars
An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social self- exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate".
French Huguenots
Many French Huguenots fled Fra ...
Royalist French forces in opposition to the Revolutionary government of France.
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Social background of officers and other ranks in the French Army, 1750–1815
References
Further reading
*Bertaud, Jean-Paul. ''The Army of the French Revolution: From Citizen-soldier to Instrument of Power'' (Princeton University Press, 1988)
*
Chandler, David G. ''Campaigns of Napoleon'', 1216 pages. 1973. ; covers each battle
* Elting, John Robert. ''Swords Around the Throne: Napoleon's Grande Armée'', 784 pages. 1997.
* Forrest, Alan. ''Soldiers of the French Revolution'' (1989)
*Forrest, Alan. ''Conscripts and Deserters: The Army and French Society during Revolution and the Empire'' (1989
excerpt and text search* Griffith, Paddy. ''The Art of War of Revolutionary France, 1789–1802'' (1998
excerpt and text search* Hazen, Charles Downer – ''The French Revolution'' (2 vol 1932) 948 pages.
* Haythornthwaite, Philip J. ''Napoleon's Military Machine'' (1995
excerpt and text search* Lynn, John A. ''The Bayonets of the Republic: Motivation and Tactics in the Army of Revolutionary France, 1791–94'', (1984) 356 pages,
*
* Scott, Samuel F. "The Regeneration of the Line Army during the French Revolution." ''Journal of Modern History'' (1970) 42#3 pp 308–330
in JSTOR* Scott, Samuel F. ''From Yorktown to Valmy: The Transformation of the French Army in an Age of Revolution'' (1998
online{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415110028/https://www.questia.com/library/109697782/from-yorktown-to-valmy-the-transformation-of-the , date=2016-04-15
* Skocpol, Theda. "Social revolutions and mass military mobilization." ''World Politics'' (1988) 40#2 pp 147–168.
Primary sources
*''Royal, Republican, Imperial, a History of the French Army from 1792–1815: Vol 1 – Infantry – History of Line Infantry (1792–1815), Internal & Tactical Organization; Revolutionary National Guard, Volunteers Federes, & Compagnies Franches; and 1805 National Guard.'',
Nafziger, George. 98 pages. (https://archive.today/20121220114621/http://home.fuse.net/nafziger/NAFNAP.HTM)
*''Royal, Republican, Imperial, a History of the French Army from 1792–1815: Vol 2 – Infantry – National Guard after 1809; Garde de Paris, Gendarmerie, Police, & Colonial Regiments; Departmental Reserve Companies; and Infantry Uniforms.'', Nafziger, George. 104 pages. (https://archive.today/20121220114621/http://home.fuse.net/nafziger/NAFNAP.HTM)
*''Royal, Republican, Imperial, a History of the French Army from 1792–1815: Vol 3 – Cavalry – Line, National Guard, Irregular, & Coastal Artillery, Artillery & Supply Train, and Balloon Companies.'', Nafziger, George. 127 pages.
*''Royal, Republican, Imperial, a History of the French Army from 1792–1815: Vol 4 – Imperial Guard'', Nafziger, George. 141 pages. (https://archive.today/20121220114621/http://home.fuse.net/nafziger/NAFNAP.HTM)
Disbanded armies
French Revolution
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
Armies of Napoleonic Wars
Military history of France