I Corps (Grande Armée)
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The I Corps of the ''
Grande Armée The (; ) was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1808 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empi ...
'' was a French military unit that existed during the
Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
. Though disbanded in 1814, following the Treaty of Fontainebleau, it was reformed in April 1815 following the return of Napoléon during the
Hundred Days The Hundred Days ( ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition (), marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII o ...
. During the Hundred Days, the corps formed part of the quickly re-formed
Army of the North The Army of the North (), contemporaneously called Army of Peru (), was one of the armies deployed by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata in the Spanish American wars of independence. Its objective was freeing the Argentine Northwest a ...
.


Campaigns

During the mobilisation by Napoléon in 1803, and the subsequent ordnance reforming the army, the new "Army of Hanover or ''Armée de Hanovre''" was formed in French-occupied Hanover. This new army was the size of a corps, but under this reorganisation this meant the corps was to be deemed an army (for psychological reasons). On 17 June 1805
Jean Baptiste Bernadotte Charles XIV John (; 26 January 1763 – 8 March 1844) was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 until his death in 1844 and the first monarch of the Bernadotte dynasty. In Norway, he is known as Charles III John () and before he became royalty in ...
was made Governor of Hanover, and on 29 August 1805 took control of the new I Corps, and remained in this role for another seven years.


War of the Third Coalition

When the
War of the Third Coalition The War of the Third Coalition () was a European conflict lasting from 1805 to 1806 and was the first conflict of the Napoleonic Wars. During the war, First French Empire, France and French client republic, its client states under Napoleon I an ...
was declared, the Army of Hanover was separate from the new Army of Hanover (responsible for the defence of Hanover) and the I Corps. This new corps was formed as part of what later became the famed
Grande Armée The (; ) was the primary field army of the French Imperial Army (1804–1815), French Imperial Army during the Napoleonic Wars. Commanded by Napoleon, from 1804 to 1808 it won a series of military victories that allowed the First French Empi ...
. On 29 August 1805 the I Corps arrived in Würzburg, and tasked with providing support to the
Bavarian Army The Bavarian Army () was the army of the Electorate of Bavaria, Electorate (1682–1806) and then Kingdom of Bavaria, Kingdom (1806–1918) of Bavaria. It existed from 1682 as the standing army of Bavaria until the merger of the military sovereig ...
(now a French ally). During the famed
Ulm campaign The Ulm campaign was a series of French and Bavarian military maneuvers and battles to outflank and capture an Austrian army in 1805 during the War of the Third Coalition. It took place in the vicinity of and inside the Swabian city of Ulm. ...
, the I Corps formed part of the far left flank, preventing the possible retreat of the Austrians under General Karl Mack von Leiberich. As Russian General
Mikhail Kutuzov Prince Mikhail Illarionovich Golenishchev-Kutuzov-Smolensky (; – ) was a Field Marshal of the Russian Empire. He served as a military officer and a diplomat under the reign of three Romanov monarchs: Empress Catherine II, and Emperors Paul ...
arrived in Eastern Austria/Bavaria, the reality of the situation caused a general retreat towards Moravia, and the I Corps was tasked with ensuring they wouldn't escape. This plan however failed, and it was because of this move that the
Battle of Austerlitz The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV French Republican calendar, FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important military engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near t ...
in-fact went ahead, because of Kutuzov's successful retreat. Below is the order of battle of the corps on the eve of the Grande Armée's crossing of the Rhine into (what is now) Germany.


War of the Fourth Coalition

The corps took part in the battles of
Schleiz Schleiz () is a town in the Districts of Germany, district of Saale-Orla-Kreis in Thuringia, Germany. The former municipality Crispendorf was merged into Schleiz in January 2019, and Burgk in December 2019. Location Schleiz is in the Thuring ...
, Halle, and
Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...
in 1806, and Mohrungen and Spanden in 1807. After Bernadotte was wounded at Spanden, General Claude Victor-Perrin led the I Corps at Friedland where his tactics earned him a marshal's baton.


Order of battle, 1808


Russian campaign

The corps was reorganised into a strength of five infantry divisions for the invasion of Russia in 1812 and Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout was appointed to lead it. At the crossing of the Niemen River in 1812, the size of I Corps was around 79,000 men, but six weeks later, about 60,000 men remained. By the end of the Russian campaign, only 2,235 men remained. Under Davout, the I Army Corps left Minsk on 12 July 1812 to cut off Pyotr Bagration from Barclay de Tolly. It fought at Battle of Smolensk (1812), Borodino,
Vyazma Vyazma () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Vyazemsky District, Smolensk Oblast, Vyazemsky District in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Vyazma River, about halfway between Smolensk, the ...
, and Krasnoi before dissolving as an effective unit during the retreat from Moscow.


War of the Sixth Coalition

In 1813, the I Corps was reconstituted and placed under the command of General Dominique Vandamme. The corps was destroyed at Kulm, with the remnants surrendering together with XIV Corps following the siege of Dresden in November 1813.


Order of battle, 1813


Order of battle, 1814


War of the Seventh Coalition

The corps was rebuilt in 1815 during the Hundred Days, and was assigned to General Jean-Baptiste Drouet, under whom it fought at the
Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
.


Order of battle, 1815


Notes


References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:I Corps (Grande Armee) GAI01 Military units and formations established in 1805 Military units and formations disestablished in 1813 Military units and formations established in 1815 Military units and formations disestablished in 1815