Isenburg Regiment (Grande Armée)

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The Régiment d 'Isenburg was a French régiment étranger (foreign regiment) that Carl Fürst zu Isenburg and Büdingen (also Karl zu Isenburg) set up on November 1, 1805 and which fought for France until all foreign regiments were dissolved on November 25, 1812. Napoleon I had appointed the Prince of Isenburg-Birstein , who had ruled since February 3, 1803 and who joined the French army in 1804, as a general in 1805. On his behalf, Carl zu Isenburg built the regiment in Mainz. This took part in battles in Italy and Spain. The prince retired from active military service in 1809, but remained a French general until December 1813.

Auxiliary troops, foreign regiments, foreign legion

Foreign troops were not uncommon in the 18th and 19th centuries either. Foreign military units fought for the ancient Greeks and Romans. Even in the Middle Ages and modern times, this was neither dishonorable (for those involved), nor were these troops treated differently than local units in the event of a defeat. It was not until the national movements of the 19th century that we should look at it differently. The Foreign Legion was then founded in France (1831). In the 20th century it was hardly any different (in the Second World War, for example, numerous foreign volunteer associations fought on the side of Germany in the Wehrmacht, the Waffen-SS, etc., depending on the number, over a hundred non-German military associations were named).

Before the French Revolution , numerous foreign associations fought for France. In the German territories conquered by France after the Revolution and incorporated into the French Republic and later into the Napoleonic Empire, the military units found were "reshaped" and given new (French) names. Even after that, these associations regularly only accepted (former) Germans.

2nd Imperial French Foreign Regiment

Voltigeur (Light Infantry), 1808, from Wikimedia Commons

The foreign regiments, however, were different: The first of these regiments was the La Tour d'Auvergne regiment , established in Weissenburg in 1805 (called the 1st Imperial French Foreign Regiment in 1810). When it was built it numbered more than 3000 men (Bohemians, Prussians, Bavaria, Saxony, Hanoverians, Austrians, Swiss, etc.) - The second regiment was Isenburg ( Isembourg ); it was named: “2. Imperial French foreign regiment ”. The advertising took place from Mainz. In the officer positions, the prince received more applications than there were vacancies. The need for team ranks was also quickly covered, because the prince was allowed to advertise among the prisoners of the Grande Armée. These were mainly prisoners of the Austrian army ( Mack Army , which surrendered without a fight near Ulm on October 17, 1805 , approx. 33,000 prisoners, 60 cannons, 40 flags, 18 generals). After just one and a half months, the regiment was complete (3 battalions , 27 companies , 4 years of service)

Carl Friedrich Ludwig Moritz von Isenburg-Birstein
(* 1766 † 1820)
from Wikimedia Commons

The first colonel was Carl, Prince of Isenburg-Birstein , who had previously been in the Imperial Austrian service for ten years (1784–1794). Accompanied by his brother Wolf Ernst, Prince Carl led the regiment to Toul , completed it to three battalions and equipped it. In order to counter the increasing desertion , the regiment was moved from the French border (Rhine) to Toul. The ruling Prince of Isenburg, as its boss and commander, had traveled from Paris to Toul, and from there was following the march to the south of France: Avignon, Montpellier. The Münchner Staats-Zeitung distributed this report on June 26, 1806, to deny previous false reports in which it was alleged that the regiment had been seen in Rome with Carl zu Isenburg. She further reported that the regiment consisted of recruited Germans and Russians, Austrian and Russian prisoners of war from various ethnic groups. Prince Carl relinquished command in Montpellier because he was supposed to recruit another foreign regiment for France in Leipzig after a new assignment.

Both the country team composition and the tendency to desertion seem to have been correct, because the Munich state newspaper reported on June 3, 1806 of an incident in northern France. On May 15, 1806, the Mayor of Buissoncourt learned that a number of armed strangers had gathered in the forest of his town. Two neighboring maires and armed citizens of his place finally arrested a dozen of these men using force and turned them over to the gendarmerie. Those arrested were taken to Nancy prison. They were Russians who had been in service with the Isenburg Regiment and had passed .

Gaeta 1764

The association moved on to Naples (via Toulon , Cannes, Nice to Genoa, from there via Parma, Modena, Bologna, Rimini, Ancona to the fortress of Gaeta , where it took part in first combat operations). In the period that followed, the regiment was used against insurgents in Calabria, repeatedly wiped out (destroyed), but always replenished.

In 1809 the regiment was in action in the Kingdom of Naples against Great Britain , whereupon this had to give up the previously occupied island of Capri .

The list of all regiments fighting for France from 1810 reads: VI. Foreign troops: 1 Latour d'Auvergne regiment (5 battalions) in Naples, 1 Isenburg regiment (5 battalions) in Naples, 1 Prussia regiment (4 battalions) on the Po, 1 Spanish Joseph Napoleon regiment (5 battalions) in Avignon; 4 depot battalions from other foreigners.

The Isenburg and Latour d'Auvergne regiments were back in Italy in August 1812, when the Grande Armée was already on the march to Moscow, to reinforce the army of the Kingdom of Naples . The headquarters changed between Civitavecchia , Rome, Naples and Castellammare .

Use and combat

11 battles (with wounded or fallen):
1807 - Calabria, 1808 - Capri, 1809 - Mitoya, 1810 - Otranto, Carascal, Lerida and Viterbo, 1811 - Castelmare, 1812 - Gaeta, 1813 - Marinella and Mühlbach

Commanders

Regimental commanders

  • November 1, 1805 to January 6, 1807: Carl Fürst zu Isenburg ( Charles-Frederic-Louis-Maurice Prince d'Isembourg ) (1766–1820), Colonel, from December 12, 1806 Brigadier-General (General-de-Brigade)
  • January 6, 1807 to January 12, 1808: William (Guillaume) O'Meara (1764–1828), then wing adjutant to Marshal Jean Lannes
  • October 12, 1808 to September 7, 1811: Philipp Jakob Stieler (from 1816 Phillipe-Jacques Stieler de Landoville , Baron de Landoville) (1772–1847), then commander of another regiment
  • 1811: Jean Etienne Barre (1769–1845), Colonel en second au régiment d'Isembourg, 23 janvier 1811
  • January 28, 1812 until dissolution in 1813: Adrien Francois Meijer (1769–1845), Colonel en Second and Colonel en Premier in 1813
  • (1813 - Godefroy Marsilien Ignace Jean von Bentzel?)
Military service certificate for a veteran of the Isenburg regiment

Dissolution and disarmament of all foreign regiments

On November 25, 1812, all foreign regiments were disarmed and disbanded on the orders of Napoleon, which dragged on for some Allied troops in Spain until the end of 1812. The Isenburg Regiment appeared on January 2, 1815, when it was merged with the Latour Regiment. Both were finally dissolved in Verdun in 1815.

"Prussian" regiment in French service

The Isenburg Regiment should not be confused with the “Prussia” regiment in French service, which was also established by the Prince of Isenburg in November 1806. This regiment was later called the 4th Imperial French Foreign Regiment .

On November 26, 1813, the prince applied to join the anti-Napoleonic alliance and declared his membership in the Confederation of the Rhine and his French employment relationships terminated.

literature

  • Martin Bethke: The Principality of Isenburg in the Rhine Confederation . In Zeitschrift für Heereskunde - Scientific organ for the cultural history of the armed forces, their clothing, armament and equipment, for Heeresmuseum messages and collector's messages, German Society for Heereskunde e. V., Berlin (West) 1982, pp. 94-99 with seven illustrations
  • Eugène Fieffé: History of the foreign troops in the service of France: from their formation up to our days as well as all those regiments that were raised in the conquered countries under the First Republic and the Empire (Original: histoire des troupes etrangeres au service de France . 2 vol., Paris 1854, German by F. Symon de Carneville), Volume II, Deschler'sche Buchdruckerei, Munich 1860
  • Johann Conrad Friederich: Memories or Forty Years from the Life of a Dead, also called the German Casanova , first volume, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1978, 624 pages (novel)
  • L. ( = Ludwig ) Hörmann: The German troops in the service of France - A historical sketch - II. After the French Revolution. In V. ( = Valentin ) Streffleur's Austrian military magazine, second volume, fourth volume, Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1861
  • August Woringer: History of the Princely Isenburg Military 1806–1816 . In: Journal of the Association for Hessian History and Regional Studies, Volume 64, Kassel 1953, pp. 79–118

Individual evidence

  1. ^ L. (= Ludwig) Hörmann The German troops in the service of France - A historical sketch, II. After the French Revolution. in: V. (= Valentin von) Streffleurs Austrian military magazine, second volume, fourth volume, Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1861, p. 123 [129]
  2. ↑ Emplacement des troupes de l'Empire français a l'Epoque du September 1, 1810. Imperial Printing House, Paris 1810, German: Complete list of all French, auxiliary and foreign regiments and corps in French service as well as their current positions, the location of their depots , ... the names of the colonels, majors, the active battalion chiefs and the quartermaster
  3. ↑ Johann Konrad Friederich Memories or Forty Years from the Life of a Dead, also called the German Casanova , first volume, Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig and Weimar 1978, p. 263
  4. ↑ March 10, 1806 is given as the day of the oath of the flag in Toul.
  5. ↑ Königlich-Baierische Münchner Staats-Zeitung of Thursday, June 26th 1806, 7th year, Königl. Baier. Münchener Zeitung-Comptoir, Munich 1806, p. 605
  6. ↑ Royal Bavarian State Newspaper of Munich, Tuesday, June 3, 1806, p. 530
  7. ↑ Johann Konrad Friederich ( pseudonym ), a Frankfurt patrician son, reports on the details of the march in his fictional memoirs Memories or Forty Years from the Life of a Dead, also called the German Casanova Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 1978, in the first volume, p. 257– 531
  8. ↑ Eugène Fieffe history of foreign troops in the service of France: from its creation to the present day as well as all those regiments which were dug in the conquered countries under the First Republic and the Empire of German de F. (= Georges François) Symon Carnesville , Volume II, Deschler'sche Buchdruckerei, Munich 1860, p. 341
  9. ↑ Emplacement des troupes de l'Empire français a l'Epoque du September 1, 1810. Imperial Printing House , Paris 1810, German: Complete list of all French, auxiliary and foreign regiments and corps in French service
  10. ^ Statistical overview of the French military power and their auxiliary troops; as well as their distribution and status on September 1, 1810 in FJ Bertuch (= Friedrich Justin) (Ed.) General geographical ephemeris, Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, Weimar 1810, p. 217 [220]
  11. ^ Adolphe Thiers History of the Consulate and the Empire. Fourteenth volume, Alphones Dürr, Brussels and Leipzig 1856, p. 246
  12. ↑ Bernd Müller The Principality of Isenburg in the Rhenish Bund - From Territory to the State , Princely Isenburg and Büdingische Rentkammer, Büdingen 1978, p. 115 f.
  13. ↑ Guy C. Dempsey: Napoleon's Mercenaries - Foreign Units in the French Army - Under the Consulate and Empire, 1799-1814 , Greenhill Books, London, 2002 pp. 251 ff., ISBN 1-85367-488-5
  14. ^ Austrian observer of December 7, 1813 (No. 341) p. 1759