Army of the Hundred Days

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Imperial emblem

The French Army of the Hundred Days (Fr .: Armée de Cent Jours) represented the collection of military units that Napoleon Bonaparte raised after his return from his exile in Elba to defeat the British, Dutch, German, Russian and Austrian in the summer campaign of 1815 To oppose troops of the opposing coalition.

The contingent

Soldiers of the so-called Elba Army on their return to Paris

Upon his return from the island of Elba, Nanpoleon Bonaparte began to reorganize the army during the reign of the Hundred Days . He called back those on leave and those discharged and ordered the recruiting. This was followed by the formation of the National Guard with 200 battalions totaling 120,000 men. In addition, 6,000 artillerymen were deployed to protect the coasts and the establishment of 20 regiments of marine infantry was ordered. The cavalry was reinforced by 12,000 horses, but this was at the expense of the national gendarmerie . In ten weeks Napoleon had brought together 290,000 combat troops and 220,000 auxiliary troops.

Napoleon deployed soldiers to garrison fortresses and fortified camps and on March 28, 1815, ordered seven so-called "Corps d'observation" (surveillance corps ) to be set up at the borders and a reserve corps :

  • the "1 er corps d'observation", set up in Lille using parts of the "16 e division militaire" under the command of Général Jean-Baptiste Drouet d'Erlon
  • the “2 e corps d'observation”, in Maubeuge and Valenciennes , put together under the command of Général Honoré-Charles Reille
  • the "3 e corps d'observation", assembled in Mézières under the provisional command of Général Anne Charles Lebrun from the troops in the Camp de Châlons and the "2 e division militaire"
  • the "4 e corps d'observation", assembled in Thionville under the command of Général Étienne Maurice Gérard from troops of the "3 e " and "4 e division militaire"
  • the “5 e corps d'observation”, composed of the troops stationed in Alsace under the command of Maréchal Suchet
  • the “6 e corps d'observation”, compiled in Chambéry from the “7 e ” and “8 e division militaire” under the command of Général Joseph-Marie Dessaix
  • the “7 e corps d'observation” on the Pyrenees border, commanded by Général Bertrand Clausel
  • the “8 e corps de réserve” in Paris under the command of Général Georges Mouton , comte de Lobau

A reorganization was ordered on April 30, 1815, four armies were formed, and three independent "Corps d'observation" remained:

  • the Armée du Nord with the “16 e ” and “2 e division militaire”, divided into five corps (“1 er ”, “2 e ”, “3 e ” and “6 e corps d'infanterie”) Reserve cavalry corps with three divisions - a total of 124,000 men
  • the Armée de Moselle with the "3 e " and "4 e division militaire" as well as the "4 e corps d'observation", supported by a reserve corps of the national guard
  • the Armée du Rhin , composed of the “5 e corps d'observation” and a reserve corps of the National Guard
  • The 1 er corps d'observation du Jura was set up in the area of ​​the 6 e division militaire to monitor the border between Belfort and Geneva . It was under the command of Général Claude-Jacques Lecourbe .
  • The Armée des Alpes with the "7 e corps" was set up under the command of Emmanuel de Grouchy to be used against the Louis-Antoine de Bourbon, duc d'Angoulême . Then renamed “Corps d'observation des Pyrenées” with the “7 e ” and “19 e division militaire” and a reserve corps of the national guard
  • the “2 e corps d'observation” with the “8 e division militaire”, stationed in the Var département
  • the “3 e corps d'observation” to defend the Pyrenees

Napoleon arranged for a 9th Corps to be set up under the command of Maréchal d'Empire Guillaume-Marie-Anne Brune in Provence , where the population was far less in agreement with the return of the emperor than in the rest of France. He organized 150 batteries , the "Corps francs" ( Freikorps ) and the partisans . The regiments got their nicknames back like Invincible ("Invincible"), Terrible ("Terrible") or Incomparable ("Incomparable"). The line's army now consisted of 200,000 men, the "National Guard" provided 3,130 battalions, 1,500 of which were companies of hunters and grenadiers - a total of 180,000 men. These were under the direction of the Minister of War.

In May 1815 France had 105 infantry regiments with an average personnel strength of 900 men. Of these regiments, however, only two-thirds were operational, which is why the infantry actually consisted of only 80,000 men.

The pioneer troop consisted of three regiments with a crew strength of 2,000 men each, the artillery consisted of eight regiments of foot artillery and four regiments of mounted artillery , the latter having over 100 cannons. The battalions of Trains consisted only of a squad, also had a few draft horses available.

The cavalry was in poor shape and only 57 regiments could be activated:

Of the entire cavalry, 14,000 men could not be made mounted. Only 17,000 additional horses were available for all regiments.

With all available means could be raised in June 1815:

  • Infantry: 225,000 men, including 120,000 combat troops
  • Cavalry: 50,000 riders, including 30,000 combat troops
  • Artillery: 600 to 700 guns

Equipment and armament

Maréchal Ney at Waterloo
Standard of the cuirassiers in the simplified form from 1815

Despite the losses in recent years, there were enough weapons available. 150,000 brand new rifles and repaired parts for a further 300,000 rifles were stored in the warehouses. A large number of arms factories in Paris produced up to 1,500 rifles per day, up to July 1st a total of 3,000 to 4,000 rifles per day was required, for which all arms factories of the German Empire had to double their production. On April 1, 1815, with a view to the intended campaign to Belgium, Napoleon had already issued several orders to his Minister of War Louis-Nicolas Davout to increase arms production and to replenish the stores.

The uniforms were in poor condition; there was no longer any cloth in the magazines to make new ones.

After King Louis XVIII. In 1814, when the Napoleonic flags were to be burned, it was only possible to produce the new flags in a very simplified form because of the shortage of time and lack of material. The newly made flag eagles were also of poor quality.

The commanders and generals

The whereabouts of the marshals

During the Restoration , some of the marshals remained active, others withdrew from military service. No one had followed the emperor to Elba . After his return, Napoleon was faced with the challenge of reactivating his former comrades or chilling those who were not comfortable. Of the marshals appointed between 1804 and 1813, three had died and two were now sovereign rulers ( Bernadotte and Joachim Murat ) - the latter, however, were traitors in the eyes of Napoleon. With the appointment of Emmanuel de Grouchy on April 17, 1815, there were a total of twenty marshals. The faithful to Louis XVIII. holding Louis-Alexandre Berthier , Auguste-Frédéric-Louis Viesse de Marmont and Claude-Victor Perrin were the king at Ghent followed into exile.

Napoleon gave new posts to eight of the marshals:

The other nine marshals were deported to various posts because they had fallen out of favor. The following were removed from the list of French pairs: Charles Pierre François Augereau , Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr and Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon , and François-Christophe Kellermann , François-Joseph Lefebvre , André Masséna and Bon- Adrien-Jeannot de Moncey . The marshals Étienne Macdonald and Charles Nicolas Oudinot received no more tasks because they did not want to take another oath of allegiance to the emperor.

The new commanders

As a trial, the emperor placed a Général de division at the head of the army corps, some of whom had recommended themselves for this post during the previous campaigns in 1813 and 1814: Charles Matthieu Isidore Decaen , Jean-Baptiste Drouet d'Erlon , Bertrand Clausel , Dominique Joseph Vandamme , Étienne-Maurice Gérard , Jean Maximilien Lamarque , Claude-Jacques Lecourbe , Georges Mouton de Lobau , Jean Rapp and Honoré-Charles Reille .

National defense

The evictions of conscripts in the border departments in the north and east were carried out rigorously. The forts were well equipped and the access roads were guarded. France saw itself in a position to face the attackers and dared to defy allied Europe. The main centers of resistance were Paris and Lyon. The Paris garrison had 400 field guns and 300 large-caliber fortress guns, Lyons 100 field guns and 100 large-caliber fortress guns.

L'armée du Nord at the Battle of Ligny , June 16, 1815 (painting by Ernest Crofts, 1875)

literature

  • Oleg Sokolov: L'Armée de Napoléon (with a foreword by Jean Tulard ). Commios, Saint-Germain-en-Laye 2003, ISBN 2-9518364-1-4 .
  • Émile Marco de Saint-Hilaire: Histoire anecdotique, politique et militaire de la Garde impériale. Eugène Penaud, Paris 1847 ( digitized on Gallica ).
  • Henry Lachouque: Waterloo. 1815. Éditions Stock, Paris 1972.
  • Yves Martin: Les Aigles en Espagne. La garde de Paris. In: Tradition. No. 275, September / October 2014, pp. 14-17.
  • Jean-Claude Lorblanchès: Les soldiers de Napoléon en Espagne et au Portugal. 1807-1814. L'Harmattan, Paris 2007, ISBN 978-2-296-02477-9 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Alain Pigeard: Les légions polonaises d'Italie et du Danube. In: Tradition. No. 8 (hors-série): Napoléon et les troupes polonaises 1797–1815: De l'Armée d'Italie à la Grande Armée. January 1, 1999.
  • Alain Pigeard: La Conscription au temps de Napoléon 1798-1814. Bernard Giovanangeli, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-909034-45-3 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  • Georges Six: Les généraux de la Révolution et de l'Empire. Bernard Giovanangeli, 2002, ISBN 2-909034-29-1 . (New edition: 2003, ISBN 2-7028-8517-9 )
  • René Chartrand, Francis Back (Ill.): Napoleon's Overseas Army (= Men-at-Arms , No. 211). Osprey Publishing, Oxford 1989, ISBN 0-85045-900-1 .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Decree of March 28, 1815, published in Bulletin des lois No. 12. In: Bulletin des lois. 6th series. Imprimerie royale, Paris 1815, p. 91 ( digitized on Gallica ).
  2. ^ Henry Lachouque: Napoléon à Waterloo. J. Peyronnet, Paris 1965, p. 13 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  3. ^ Henry Houssaye: 1815. Volume 1: La Première Restauration, le retour de l'île d'Elbe, les Cent-Jours. Perrin, Paris 1900 / Librairie Académique Didier, Paris 1902, pp. 434–435 ( digitized on Gallica );
    Correspondance militaire de Napoléon I er . Volume 28. E. Plon, Paris 1869, pp. 36-37 (Letter No. 21723), pp. 55-57 (Letter No. 21747) ( digitized version ).
  4. ^ "Division militaire" was a common term at that time without any special meaning.
  5. ^ Correspondance militaire de Napoléon I er . Volume 9. E. Plon, Paris 1877, p. 299 ff. ( Digitized version )
  6. ^ Correspondance militaire de Napoléon I er . Volume 9. E. Plon, Paris 1877, pp. 298-299 ( digitized version ).
  7. ^ Henry Houssaye: 1815. Volume 2: "Waterloo." Perrin, Paris 1899, pp. 46–56 ( digitized version ; full text English translation in the Internet Archive ).
  8. ↑ Chief of the General Staff

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