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

you cannot stop me I spend 30,000 men a month such was the ominous proclamation of Napoleon to his Rivals it was said at a time when France unique among its contemporaries raised millions of men to wage vast Wars which burned across Europe and Beyond yet 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 which he wielded to devastating effect both at the Strategic and tactical level this concept was epitomized by the formation of the grand arm and its system of flexible combined arms core capable of 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 largest Brigade their formations in battle and Beyond this is the true size of Napoleon's Army today's video was brought to you by Opera they offer a free desktop browser that makes navigating the internet so much easier faster 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approximately modeled as containing the Imperial Guard the Cavalry reserve and about six Army cores these were new Innovative organizations meant to act as many armies with reduced administrative and logistical needs capable of independent operations for greater strategic flexibility each was a combined arms force of about 25,000 men here we have shown its two to four infantry divisions the Cavalry division the Artillery Brigade as well as its engineer and support group [Music] groups given that the Infantry are the most numerous we will first delve into their ranks here is a road map of their organizational structure if you'd like to pause the video please do so now but without further delay let us begin with the first building block at the lowest level French soldiers live together in groups called ordinaire usually 14 to 16 strong and led by a Corporal this group would share a large common tent or two smaller tents on the rare occasion tents were available most of the time though the men bivak in improvised straw and wood shelters or under the stars or were boted on households along the line of March in Camp they also shared a common soup kettle into which the men would contribute their rations for shared meals the Corporal would handle the shopping for supplies as well as the hiring of washer women four squads would form a section with a total of about 60 Men Four corporals and perhaps a half dozen tents in combat however these four squads would be rearranged into three Lines within this battle line each Soldier was allotted one French Pace or 0.65 M for proper spacing the first rank would fire from a kneeling position while those of the second rank fired while standing above them meanwhile the third rank stood close behind to receive spent muskets reload them and cycle them back to the front alternatively the third rank might be detached and sent ahead of the force as skirmishers when casualties were high the men of this third rank would be pulled to the front to maintain the width of the unit by 18133 the French army was so depleted that Napoleon would actually issue an order adopting the two- rank battle line as a standard yet the extent to which this was adopted in the midst of a hardfought campaign is not well understood next up the organization two sections would come together to form a company of about 120 privates and eight corporals this unit would be led by a captain along with an additional Command Staff that consisted of a lieutenant a sue Lieutenant a sergeant major four sergeants a fua and two [Music] drummers most of these officers would have had a non-combatant servant called a domestique resulting in about 5 to 10 such individuals per company in addition lieutenants and captains were allowed horses if they were over 50 though not many lived that that long in the wars of the Empire to account for this our model will assume two horse spares for shelter we will also assume that our company has about 18 t0 between the 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 instance the fer managed the procurement and distribution of his unit supplies as such we might expect such officers to have been educated men from the upper echelons of society this was certainly the case for most armies of the era whose wealthy classes often bought their commissions however the French had largely done away with this system following the Revolution and by the time of the Napoleonic Wars promotions were largely merit-based thus among these ranks we would actually expect to see a more representative slice of society at this point we should also note that the men of each of these administrative companies would also double as a combat unit known as the platoon for the sake of this video though we shall continue to refer to them as companies to limit confusion in battle this Force arrayed its men into three lines with the first section on the right flank and the second section on the Left Flank the four corporals of each section stood in each corner of either formation to help guide the rank and file troops the captain meanwhile led the entire company from his own file on the far right however given that such units measured roughly 30 m across the remainder of the Command Staff would be spread out along its width two paces from the troops to maintain proper alignment Flags helped the men visually remain in good order while drums audibly kept them in syn at the next organizational level multiple companies would be joined into a battalion this was the most common Tactical Unit on the Napoleonic Battlefield as such it could come in many shapes and sizes with both the type and number of companies in a battalion varying over time with regards to type there were light and line infantry each with their own subtype Loosely graded on height for instance the light troops were broken out into the vaulty gear the chasser appier and the carabineer while the regular troops were broken out into the fuselier and the Grenadier generally speaking the light troops acted as skirmishers while the regular troops fought in the main battle line however in practice they received much the same training and often saw their roles overlap in combat in 1808 we might find the following battalions in common use a French light infantry battalion with one company of voltiger four companies of chasu and one company of caribiner a frenchline infantry battalion with one company of voltiger four companies of fuselier and one company of Grenadier for our purposes we will now look more closely at one of these typical line infantry battalions here we see it six companies totaling about 720 soldiers and 114 officers whose organization we previously defined added to them is a Command Staff led by a mounted Chef Deon and his assistants the agitant major and two agitant sub officers once more each of these men will have had their own domestique which we assume total about five such 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 to carry various baggage but perhaps most important would be four women known as the canier considered absolutely necessary to the functioning of the army and mandated by Consular decree they sold food and drink to the Troops while handling many other day-to-day needs of the men such as clothes washing and repair to ensure good order these women had to be licensed by the Army and were usually married to soldiers in the unit zooming back out to consider our entire Battalion we see that it has roughly 720 solders soldiers 120 officers 60 support staff 16 horses two wagons and about 110 tents in combat a battalion might adopt the following formations line column and square let's quickly review each of these a six company Battalion in line formation appeared as follows the elites volar and Grenadier companies protect the flanks while the four fuselier companies take up the center each maintains roughly two paces of spacing to prevent collisions the battalion's officers meanwhile are dispersed across the formation's 200 M front in the center the Bannerman proudly waves the flag meant to serve as a visual and psychological anchor for the force it is protected by the men of the fanon's Guard about 15 M behind them rides the chef de beton who has the best view of the entire unit besides him are the drummers drawn up from each company flanking him about 20 M on either side are the agitant and Sue agitant Majors who supervise each Wing at the extreme ends of the line are one of each flank company sergeants who acts as a GID General when the order to advance comes they and the first rank of the Fan's guard will will step out in front of the entire Battalion set up the alignment of the men and Signal back to the commander that he can now give the final order to March however it is extremely difficult to keep such long lines of men in good order even in the best of conditions thus it was that they often formed into columns for more rapid movement a column could take many forms depending on the situation variables included the frontage and the depth of the formation generally speaking the smaller the front the more quick and mobile the force for instance March columns typically adopted a three-man frontage to squeeze into the available Road however this came at the cost of forward-facing Firepower and an increased vulnerability to artillery fire thus in combat attack columns traded depth for Frontage in this case we have chosen a battalion with a two compan Frontage also confusingly referred to as a division and a half interval depth here we see the four fuselier companies making up the front two divisions while the elite voltear and Grenadier companies making up the rear division in width they measure 70 M and depth they measure 70 M the shef de Pon and the drummers likely take Pi up the rear while his agitant and Sue agitant Majors supervise the first and last division this formation was often a favorite of commanders on the attack its Frontage maintained a useful balance of speed and Firepower while its half interval spacing left large enough of a gap to reduce the damage of artillery fire but small enough of a gap that the men of the rear could quickly be brought up to evolve the formation in most cases this meant switching from column into line just before joining battle against other infantry yet the column could easily transform into a square to repel Cavalry this would be done by having the two companies of the middle division wield to either side hence the half interval depth which left a company sized gap for such situations with the three sides of the Box thus formed the last division had merely to advance to complete its defenses over overall the completed square formation measured roughly 70 M wide and 40 m deep from here the men could present a dense wall of bristling bayonets to dissuade all but the bravest Horse and Rider from charging while firing at any troops mounted or on foot who dared approach the process of forming this Square was said to take just 30 seconds on the parade ground even if the battlefield conditions caused some delay it was certainly a rapid maneuver thus we see how the Battalion the main tactical infantry unit of the French army could be efficiently wielded by its commanders yet such groups did not act alone and Napoleon's infantry often found themselves grouped into even larger units for both administrative and combat purposes next up the organizational lad was a regiment in 1808 a French regiment consisted of five battalions four of which were War battalions with the final one being a Depo Battalion whose purpose was to remain behind to collect equip and train new recruits before marching them to the front thus a regiment rarely found itself marshaled together in one place and even the four War battalions often found themselves dispersed in the chaos of a campaign given these realities we will actually be modeling the more likely Battlefield strength of a regiment by assuming it deploys with just two of its five battalions using our prior figures it numbers about 1,440 soldiers 240 officers 120 support staff 32 horses four wagons and 220 tents added to this was a regimental headquarters and a small baggage train let us take a closer look at each of these a regiment's field headquarters of about 25 included its Colonel paym Eagle bearers musicians and surgeons the colonel commanded the regiment or as many battalions of the regiment as were present the pay Master naturally enough distributed pay the eagle bearers carried the regiment Imperial standards which had been personally distributed by Napoleon himself in Imitation of the ancient Roman practice of the legionary Eagles these standards were held with great honor and pride by the first Battalion of a regiment the eagle Bearer himself was a lieutenant who was flanked by two halir wielding sergeants and backed up by a fua from each of the first battalion's six companies nearby stood the regiment's musicians who were led by its drum major the drum Corporal and bandm with seven bandsmen meanwhile a surgeon major led the regiment's medical services with four assistant surgeons and five sub assistants with regards to the baggage train the regiment had a wagon for shoes a wagon for baggage and at least one wagon for the medical staff in combat all could have doubled as transports for the wounded a Satler woman with her own wagon serviced the regimental headquarters the regiment's colonel meanwhile had his own support elements in the form of two servants three riding horses three pack horses a wagon with two draft horses and two drivers between the Personnel of the field headquarters and the baggage train we might assume about about 10 additional tents thus altogether a regiment numbered about 1,440 soldiers 260 officers 130 support staff 44 horses eight wagons and 230 tents at the next organizational level was the Brigade however unlike our prior units this force was purely a tactical group with no administrative function during a campaign various regiments would be brigaded together as deemed necessary for the mission at hand as such their strength varied typically ranging anywhere from about 2 and a half th000 to 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 prior figures it numbered numbers about 4,320 soldiers 780 officers 350 support staff 132 horses 24 wagons and 690 tents Beyond this brigades had minimal headquarters and support staff owing to their purely tactical role we will thus assume that its new elements consist only of a brigadier general his Aid as well as a few servants horses and wagons altogether this bumps up our head count for the Brigade negligibly ultimately it was a massive Force roughly equivalent in size to a Roman legion any larger force would begin to severely tax the command and control capabilities of the era thus in the French armies of the Napoleonic Wars a brigade stood as the largest pure infantry unit when deployed for battle it would typically do so with each of the battalions formed into their own column of attack to avoid being shot these would often seek cover or even lay prone until it came time to advance when the order to attack was received the battalions moved rapidly towards their objective being sure to maintain proper spacing so as to avoid entanglement and cannon fire only at the last minute would French Doctrine dictate that they deploy into a line unleashing fire across a 630 M front or simply plow through the enemy with a Bayonet charge such were the efficient aggressive tactics which won Napoleon his Wars but this is only part of the story we have yet to cover the units of Cavalry and the artillery let alone the greater combined arm arms groups which made up the infamous French Army Core join us next time as we continue to explore the true size of Napoleon's Army you can catch script previews and download all our art by becoming a channel member or joining our patreon a huge thanks to our current supporters and the researchers writers and artists for making this episode possible we couldn't have done it without this team and this community if you enjoyed this episode be sure to like And subscribe for more content and check out these other related videos see you in the next [Music] one

Channel: Invicta

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Keywords: invicta, invicta history, true size of napoleons army, napoleonic army, grand armee, napoleon army explained, napoleon formation, old guard, waterloo, battle of waterloo, napoleon history, napoleonic wars, french army, battle of austerlitz, napoleon movie battle, napoleon movie battle scene, waterloo battle, units of history, napoleonic wars documentary, napoleonic wars full, napoleon total war, napoleon trailer

Id: qR0sODDUT8U

Length: 23min 47sec (1427 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 14 2023