Aigle de drapeau

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The oath of the army after the award of the eagle on December 4, 1804 , oil painting by Jacques Louis David , 1810
Aigle de drapeau with the Fourragère des Croix de guerre

The aigle de drapeau ( French flag eagle ) was a standard that Napoleon Bonaparte introduced in 1804 for each regiment of the Grande Armée in addition to the troop flag . The standard, which went under with the end of the First Empire , was Napoleon III. Revived in the Second Empire in 1854 until it disappeared as a result of its deposition in 1870.

construction

The eagle was modeled on the Roman legionary eagle ( Aquila ) and consisted of a 1.85 kg eagle made of gilded bronze on a blue pole. Under the eagle there was a sign with the number of the regiment or, in the case of the Imperial Guard, the Garde impériale .

history

After Napoleon Bonaparte had crowned himself Emperor of the French in 1804 , he took over traditions of the ancient Roman military, such as the Aquila , the imperial eagle , at the top of the troop flags. Their loss meant a particular shame for the unit, as the eagles were donated by Napoléon personally.

On February 18, 1808, Napoleon issued the following order:

“The regimental eagle is the object of admiration, love, and sacrifice of the soldiers, because it is that of their honor, and must have its place where most of the battalions are. He is to be entrusted to a porter who has taken part in the campaigns in Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Friedland and who, through his honorary position, is earning the degree, privilege and pay of a Premier Lieutenant. With the designation of the second and third eagle bearer with the rank of sergeant and pay of a sergeant, two old, capable soldiers are placed at the side of the former who could not move up to officers due to a lack of scientific training. "

Usually the eagle-bearer was also in possession of the cross of the Legion of Honor , which was accompanied by an annual pension of 250 francs.

Aigles de drapeau captured in battles by opposing troops

1805

Numerous eagles were lost in the course of the coalition wars. This happened for the first time in the Battle of Austerlitz , when the Russian cavalry under Konstantin Romanov captured the eagle of the 4th e régiment d'infanterie and defended it on their retreat.

1807 in East Prussia

The Prittwitz Hussars capture the Aigle de drapeau of the 55th French Line Infantry Regiment
February 7, 1807
On the first day of the Battle of Eylau , the 1st Petersburg Dragoons Regiment captured the eagle of the 18th e régiment d'infanterie .
February 8
On the second day of the Battle of Eylau, a Russian cavalry division under General Friedrich Nikolaus Georg von Korff (1773–1823) captured the eagle of the 10th Light Infantry Regiment. On the same day, the Prussian Towarczys regiment captured the eagle of the 51 e régiment d'infanterie . After the battle, four more eagles were found on the battlefield and sent to St. Petersburg .
June 10, 1807
In the battle of heilsberg two squads captured the Hussars. 9 "of Prittwitz" under the guidance of Majors Cosel of the eagle of 55 e régiment d'infantry . Two more eagles captured the allied Russians.
June 14, 1807
In the battle of Friedland , the Russian cavalry captured the eagle of the 15th e régiment d'infanterie in their last attack on the French right wing .

1809 in Italy, Tyrol and Austria

April 12th and 13th, 1809
In the attack near Hall by the Tyroleans under Major Martin Teimer von Wildau and in the surrender near Innsbruck, the French lost an eagle.
April 15, 1809
In the battle of Pordenone, the French had to hand over the eagle of the 35 e régiment d'infanterie .
April 16, 1809
In the battle of Sacile the victorious Austrians fell into the hands of three regiments of the line.
April 20, 1809
During the conquest of Regensburg eagle was 65 e régiment d'infantry captured.
May 3, 1809
In the battle near Ebersberg the Austrians took three eagles.
May 21 and 22
In the Battle of Aspern the victorious Austrians were the eagles of the 5 e régiment de cuirassiers , 7 e régiment de cuirassiers and 11 e régiment de cuirassiers , the eagle of the 27th Light Infantry Regiment and the 84 e régiment d'infantry in the Hands.
July 8, 1809
In the battle of Wagram , Lieutenant Mathias Dittmayer von Rußfelden from the Argenteau Infantry Regiment took the eagle of the 106 e régiment d'infanterie .

1809–1812 on the Iberian Peninsula

October 18, 1809
In the battle of Tamames, the victorious Spaniards captured the first French eagle in the Spanish War of Independence .
August 20, 1810
When the Portuguese under Francisco da Silveira Pinto da Fonseca Teixeira (1763-1821) attacked the border fortress Puebla de Sanabria and the French garrison capitulated, the division commanded by General Jean Mathieu Seras had to surrender its eagle.
March 5, 1811
In the Battle of Barrosa against Cádiz which lost 8 e régiment d'infantry his eagle at the Royal Irish Fusiliers (87th Regiment of Foot).
March 15, 1811
When Marshal André Masséna and his troops were driven out of Portugal, the 27 e régiment d'infanterie and the 69 e régiment d'infanterie lost their eagles in the fighting at Foz d'Aronce . They were found by the English in the river la Ceyra.
August 27, 1811
In a battle of retreat in the Kingdom of Leon, the Spaniards under General Francisco Javier Abadía took the eagle of the 6th e régiment d'infanterie in the Dorsenne division .
July 22, 1812
In the Battle of Salamanca , the lost 22 e régiment d'infantry and 101 e régiment d'infantry at Arapiles their eagle.
August 14, 1812
After the occupation of Madrid by the English, the eagles of two French line regiments fell into the hands of two French regiments of the line when the fort El Retiro and the supplies of all kinds were handed over.

1813–1815 ( Wars of Liberation )

0August 5, 1813
At the meeting near Grünwiese before the battle for Dresden , the Russian cavalry captured an eagle.
August 26, 1813
In the battle of the Katzbach two French regiments lost their eagles, one of which the Prussian 12th Infantry Regiment took in a bayonet attack .
August 29, 1813
When General Jacques-Pierre-Louis Puthod surrendered in the battle near Plagwitz not far from Löwenberg in Silesia , the 147 e régiment d'infanterie and 149 e régiment d'infanterie had to surrender their eagles, one of them to the Russian 28th Jäger Battalion.
August 30, 1813
In the Battle of Kulm Austrian infantry captured the two eagles of the 13th Light Infantry Regiment and 60 e régiment d'infantry .
September 17, 1813
In the battle near Arbesau , the Austrians took another eagle.
October 16, 1813
In the Battle of the Nations near Leipzig , the Mecklenburg-Strelitz Hussar Regiment captured the eagle of the Marins de la Garde impériale near Möckern .
October 19, 1813
In a storm on the eagle of Leipzig 143 is e d'infantry captured régiment
0December 2, 1813
When the Prussian troops crossed the Rhine near Neuss and liberated the city, the 14th Infantry Regiment captured the eagle of the 150 e régiment d'infanterie.
January 13, 1814
As the Prussian IV. Army Corps under Tauentzien still occupied French Wittenberg stormed, it captured the eagle of the 123 e régiment d'infantry.
March 27, 1814
In a battle near Coulommiers , the infantry regiment "von Horn" captured an eagle from the 12th Voltigeur Regiment of the Young Guard .
March 30, 1814
The Prussian 2nd Hussar Regiment captured an eagle off Paris .
April 17, 1814
When the Glogau fortress was handed over, General Jean Grégoire Laplane also gave the Prussian troops the eagle of the 151 e régiment d'infanterie.
June 18, 1815
On the battlefield of Belle Alliance , the English cavalry under General William Ponsonby captured the eagle of the 45 e régiment d'infanterie (by the Royal Scots Grays is now on display at Edinburgh Castle ) and that of the 105 e régiment d'infanterie (by the 1st The Royal Dragoons ), the Prussians conquer the eagle of the 25th e régiment d'infanterie
June 29, 1815
At the storming of the fortress town of Charleville by troops of the newly established North German Confederation Corps , captured Hessian troops an eagle.

The number of eagles lost in the Russian campaign in 1812 is not clear , as many were hidden on the way back. An unknown number of eagles was also lost in the Battle of Leipzig .

During the first restoration from April 1814 to February 1815, the eagles were destroyed. In his reign of the Hundred Days , Napoléon had new eagles made, but the quality did not come close to the first. Two of these were then lost at Waterloo . The rest were then destroyed in the renewed restoration, so that today only a few eagles are preserved.

The British Army has given special awards to units that have captured these eagles. The traditional successors of these regiments still wear a special badge today.

According to Georg Alt, the following eagles were also found in the garrison church in Berlin in 1816:

  • Adler of 10 e d'régiment infantry
  • Eagle with flag of the National Guard of the Department de la Marne
  • Eagle with flag of the National Guard of the Department de la Moselle
  • Eagle without number conquered at Möckern

Fictitious

In the series The Sniper , the main character Lieutenant Sharpe acquires particular fame by conquering an aigle de drapeau.

literature

  • Jaromir Hirtenfeld (ed.): The French eagles . In: Militair-Zeitung , Vienna, vol. 13 (1860), no. 64 of August 11, 1860, pp. 507-508 ( p. 507 ).
  • Georg Alt, The Royal Prussian Standing Army , Volume 1, S.43f List of eagles conquered during the Wars of Liberation

Footnotes

  1. ↑ For the reintroduction in 1854 see Liliane and Fred Funcken : Historische Uniforms. 19th century. 1850–1900: France, Great Britain, Germany, Austria, Russia. Infantry, cavalry, technical troops, artillery . Prisma-Verlag, Gütersloh [1985], ISBN 3-570-11461-9 , p. 32 f.
  2. ↑ The French eagles . In: Militair-Zeitung , Vienna, vol. 13 (1860), no. 64 of August 11, 1860, pp. 507–508; there the following losses and others.

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