True Size of Napoleon's Army - The Infantry [c. 1808] 3D DOCUMENTARY

You can't stop me. I spend 30,000 men a month. Such was Napoleon's ominous proclamation to his rivals. It was said at a time when France, alone among its contemporaries, mustered millions of men to fight vast wars that raged across Europe and beyond, while the revolution had been the first to unlock the mass mobilization of the French population, it would be Napoleon who molded them into an efficient weapon that he wielded with devastating effects on both a strategic and tactical level. This concept was epitomized in the formation of the Great Arm and its flexible combined arms core system capable of conducting independent operations across a massive front, but to understand these systems we must bring them to life from the organization of the smallest section to the brigade. larger, their formations in battle and beyond this is the

true

size

of Napoleon's

army

.

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infantry

unit from the AI. Give me a big comparison about its historical origin, function and purpose with a good summary at the end.

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size

, it will be beneficial for us.

The first basis of our understanding with a simplified explanation at the highest level was the Imperial French Army, which consisted of the entire Land Force Branch of the Empire, this Behemoth, was divided into several commands and organizations, the largest of them was the Great arm led by Napoleon himself, although it evolved over time. The Great Arm can be roughly modeled as containing the Imperial Guard, the Cavalry Reserve and approximately six

army

cores, these were innovative new organizations intended to act as many armies with reduced administrative and logistical needs, capable of conducting independent operations for a greater strategic flexibility, each was a combined arms force of approximately 25,000 men.

Here we have shown their two to four

infantry

divisions, the Cavalry. division of the Artillery Brigade, as well as its engineer groups and support groups, since the Infantry is the largest, we will first delve into its ranks. Here is a roadmap of your organizational structure. If you want to pause the video, do so now. but without further delay, let's start with the first building block on the lowest level. French soldiers live together in groups called ordinaries, usually 14 to 16 people and led by a corporal. This group would share a common large tent or two smaller tents on rare occasions.

Tents were available most of the time, although men camped in makeshift shelters of straw and wood or under the stars or were housed in houses along the March line. In the camp they also shared a common soup pot in which the men contributed their rations to share. meals, the corporal would be in charge of purchasing supplies and hiring laundresses. Four squads would form a section with a total of about 60 men. Four corporals and maybe half a dozen tents in combat. However, these four squadrons would be reorganized into three lines. Within this battle line, each soldier was assigned a French step or 0.65 M for adequate spacing.

The first rank would fire from a kneeling position, while those in the second rank would fire while standing above them, while the third rank would stand nearby to receive the spent muskets and reload them. and bring them back to the front; alternatively the third rank could be detached and sent ahead of the force as skirmishers, when casualties were high the men of this third rank would be dragged to the front to maintain the width of the unit in 18133 the French army. he was so exhausted that Napoleon would even issue an order adopting the two-file battle line as the standard, but the extent to which it was adopted in the midst of a tough campaign is not well understood.

The organization would then come together to form two sections. a company of approximately 120 soldiers and eight corporals, this unit would be led by a captain along with an additional command staff consisting of a lieutenant, a lieutenant, a sergeant major, four sergeants, a fua and two drummers, most of these Officers would have had a non-combatant servant called a domestico, resulting in around 5 to 10 individuals per company, in addition, lieutenants and captains were allowed horses if they were over 50 years old, although not many lived that long in the Wars of the Empire To account for this, our model will assume two spare horses for shelter, we will also assume that our company has around 18 t0 between men and officers within the French army.

A company was an administrative unit whose command staff would be expected to see to the proper maintenance of its men. For example, the FER managed the acquisition and distribution of its units' supplies. As such, we might expect such officers to have been educated men. from the upper levels of society, this was certainly the case with most armies of the time, whose commissions were often purchased by the wealthy classes; However, the French had removed this system after the Revolution and by the time of the Napoleonic Wars, promotions were largely based on merit, so among these ranks we would really expect to see a more representative portion of society. in this point.

We should also note that the men in each of these administrative companies would also function as a combat unit known as a platoon for the sake of this video, although we will continue to refer to them as companies to limit confusion in battle. This Force arranged its men in three lines with the first section on the right flank and the second section on the left flank, the four corporals of each section were in each corner of each formation to help guide the base troops, while Both the captain led the entire company from his own row on the far right, however, since such units were approximately 30 m wide, the rest of the Command Staff would be spread out along its width to two troop steps to maintain proper alignment.

The flags helped the men visually stay in good order, while the drums audibly kept them in sync at the next organizational level. The companies would be united into a battalion, this was the most common tactical unit on the Napoleonic battlefield, as such it could come in many shapes and sizes, and both the type and number of companies in a battalion varied over time with respect to to type, they were light and line infantry, each with its own subtype. Loosely graded according to height, for example, the light troops were divided into the vault team, the appier hunter and the carabinieri, while the regular troops were divided into the fussier and the grenadier, broadly speaking, the light troops acted as skirmishers.

While regular troops fought on the main battle line, however, in practice they received virtually the same training and often saw their roles overlapping in combat. In

1808

, we could find the following battalions in common use: a French light infantry battalion with one company of voltiger and four companies. of chasu and a company of caribiner a battalion of French line infantry with a company of voltiger four companies of fuselier and a company of grenadiers for our purposes now we will take a closer look at one of these typical battalions of line infantry here we see it six companies for a total of approximately 720 soldiers and 114 officers whose organization we previously defined, they are joined by a Command Staff led by a mounted Chef Deon and his assistants, the major agitator and two agitator non-commissioned officers, once again, each of these men will have had their own domestic, which we assume is total.

Approximately five of these non-combatants, the unit also had its own flag bearer who proudly displayed the identity of his unit in terms of support. Each battalion would have an ammunition wagon and a ration wagon, each manned by a pair of drivers, as well as four pack horses. carry various luggage, but perhaps most importantly would be four women known as the canier, considered absolutely necessary to the functioning of the army and mandated by a consular decree to sell food and drink to the troops while taking care of the many other daily needs of the army. army. men such as washing and repairing clothes to ensure good order these women had to have a leave of absence from the army and were usually married to soldiers in the unit.

Zooming out to consider our entire battalion, we see that it has approximately 720 soldiers, 120 officers, 60 support. personnel 16 horses two chariots and around 110 tents in combat a battalion could adopt the following formations column in line and square let's quickly review each of them a battalion of six companies in line formation appeared as follows the elites fly and The grenadier companies protect the flanks while the four fuselage companies occupy the center. Each one maintains approximately two steps apart to avoid collisions. Meanwhile, battalion officers are dispersed along the formation's 200M front. In the center, the Bannerman proudly waves the flag intended to serve as a visual and psychological anchor for the force.

It is protected by the men of the fanon guard, about 15 m behind them is the beton chef who has the best view of the entire unit. In addition to him are the drummers formed by each company that flank him about 20 m on each side. There are the agitators and Sue's Major Agitators who supervise each Wing at the ends of the line are one of the sergeants of each flank company who acts as General of the GID when the order comes to advance, they and the first rank of the guard of the Fan will come forward. The entire battalion established the alignment of the men and indicated to the commander that he can now give the final marching order;

However, it is extremely difficult to keep such long lines of men in good order, even in the best of conditions, which is why they were often formed in columns for faster movement. A column could take many forms depending on the situation, variables. They included the front and depth of the formation. Generally speaking, the smaller the front, the faster and more mobile the force, for example, march columns normally adopted a formation of three. -man to get into the available road, however, this came at the cost of forward-facing firepower and greater vulnerability to artillery fire, so in the combat attack the columns traded depth for front.

In this case, we have also chosen a battalion with a front of two companions. Confusingly known as division and a half interval depth, here we see the four fuselage companies that make up the two front divisions, while the elite voltar and grenadier companies that make up the rear division, measuring 70 M in width and 70 in depth. M. De Pon and the drummers probably bring Pi to the rear while his biggest shakers and shakers Sue oversee the first and last division. This formation was often a favorite of commanders on the attack. His forehead held aUseful balance of speed and firepower while spacing your mid-range.

He left a gap large enough to reduce the damage from artillery fire, but a gap small enough that men from the rear could be recruited quickly to evolve the formation. In most cases, this meant switching from column to line just before joining battle against others. infantry, however, the column could easily transform into a square to repel the cavalry. This would be done by having the two companies of the middle division wield on each side, hence the depth of the middle interval which left a company sized space for such situations with all three sides of the column.

Box thus formed, the latter division simply had to advance to complete their defenses over the entire square formation that measured approximately 70m wide and 40m deep. From here the men could present a dense wall of bristling bayonets to deter all but to the bravest horses and riders. From charging while firing at any mounted or foot troops that dared to approach, the process of forming this square was said to have taken only 30 seconds on the parade ground, even if the battlefield conditions caused some delay, it was certainly a quick maneuver, so we see how the battalion, the main tactical infantry unit of the French army, could be handled efficiently by its commanders, but such groups did not act alone and Napoleon's infantry was often found grouped in even units. larger for both administrative and combat purposes.

In

1808

, a French regiment consisted of five battalions, four of which were war battalions and the last was a Depo battalion whose purpose was to stay behind to collect equipment and train new recruits before taking them to the front, so a regiment It was rarely gathered in one place and even the four war battalions were often scattered in the chaos of a campaign. Given these realities, we will actually model a regiment's most likely battlefield strength assuming it deploys with only two of its five battalions using our figures above. about 1,440 soldiers 240 officers 120 support staff 32 horses four wagons and 220 tents, to this was added a regimental headquarters and a small baggage train, let's take a closer look at each of these a regimental headquarters field of a regiment of approximately 25 people including its colonel paym Eagle bearers musicians and surgeons the colonel commanded the regiment or as many battalions of the regiment that was present the pay master naturally distributed the pay the eagle bearers carried the regiment imperial banners that had Having been personally distributed by Napoleon himself in imitation of the ancient Roman practice of legionary eagles these standards were held with great honor and pride by the 1st Battalion of a regiment, the Eagle Bearer himself was a lieutenant who was flanked by two sergeants with halir and supported by a fua from each of the six companies of the first battalion.

Nearby were the regiment's musicians, led by their drum major, the drum corporal, and the band. with seven musicians meanwhile a surgeon major directed the medical services of the regiment with four assistant surgeons and five assistant assistants regarding the baggage train the regiment had a shoe car a baggage car and at least one car for medical staff in combat everyone could a woman Satler with her own cart served as a means of transport for the wounded at the regiment headquarters meanwhile the colonel of the regiment had his own support elements in the form of two servants three riding horses three pack horses a cart with two draft horses and two drivers among the staff of the field headquarters and the baggage train we can assume about 10 additional tents, so in total a regiment had about 1,440 soldiers 260 officers 130 support personnel 44 horses eight chariots and 230 tents at the next organizational level was the Brigade, although unlike our previous units this force was purely a tactical group with no administrative function during a campaign, various regiments were grouped together as deemed necessary for the mission in question, so their strength typically varied between 2,000 and a half and 5,500 men for our purposes.

We will model a brigade with three of our previously defined regiments for a total of six battalions using our previous figures, it had around 4,320 soldiers, 780 officers, 350 support personnel, 132 horses, 24 chariots and 690 tents. Beyond this, brigades had minimal headquarters and support staff due to Therefore, we will assume that their new elements consist only of a brigadier general, his aid, as well as some servants, horses, and carts. This increased our strength for the Brigade insignificantly, ultimately it was a massive force roughly equivalent in size. For a Roman legion, any larger force would begin to severely test the command and control capabilities of the time, so in the French armies of the Napoleonic Wars a brigade was the largest pure infantry unit when deployed to During the battle, it was normally done with each of the battalions forming their own attack column to avoid being shot at, these often sought cover or even stayed face down until the time came to advance when the order to attack was received, the To avoid entanglements and cannon fire, only at the last minute, would French doctrine dictate that they deploy in a line unleashing fire across a 630 M front or Will they simply pierce the enemy with a bayonet charge?

Such were the efficient aggressive tactics that won Napoleon his wars, but this is only part of the story. We have yet to cover cavalry and artillery units, let alone the large combined arms groups that formed the infamous core of the French army, join us next time as we continue to explore the

true

size of Napoleon's army. You can see script trailers and download all our art by becoming a member of the channel or joining our patreon. A huge thank you to our current fans and to the researchers, writers and artists for making this episode possible. We couldn't have done it without this team and this community.

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