The Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon (Warfare & History)

285 Pages·2005·4.552 MB·English

by  Owen Connelly, O. Connelley

THE WARS OF THE FRENCH
REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON,
1792-1815
In this essential addition to French military history, Owen Connelly examines
both the wars of the French Revolution between 1792 and 1799, and those of
Napoleon between 1800 and 1815. Arguing that the importance and drama of
the Revolutionary Wars have been neglected, and that the unceasing cut-throat
politics that continued into the Napoleonic era has been overlooked, this
analysis examines the two eras together to provide a broader context for warfare.
Connelly demonstrates how the wars of the Revolution shaped Napoleon as a
military leader and how the practices of warfare developed and deployed during
this period were to influence modes of combat throughout the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, establishing trends discernible in the First and Second
World Wars.
Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon, 1792—1815 examines the causes
of the wars of the Revolution and Napoleon and examines key questions,
including: what was the impact of the population explosion of the eighteenth
century on armies and war? How did the legacy of the ancien régime impact upon
revolutionary armies? What was the impact of the Revolution on leadership,
strategy, organization and weaponry of the armies? Was Napoleon s leadership
style unique or could other generals have played his role as well? What
contributions were made by governments of the early Revolution, the Terror,
the Directory and the Napoleonic regime? What did twenty-three years of
successive wars accomplish? Was the era of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Wars a turning point in the history of warfare and the conduct of combat?
Based on extensive research and including twenty maps, this fascinating study
provides a thorough re-examination of this crucial period in the history of
France.
Owen Connelly is McKissick Dial Professor of History at the University of
South Carolina, as well as being a Director of the Consortium on Revolutionary
Europe. He is the author of ten books, including Napoleon's Satellite Kingdoms
(third edition, 1990), The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era (third edition,
1999), Blundering on to Glory: Napoleon's Military Campaigns (second edition,
1999) and On War and Leadership: The Words of Combat Commanders from Frederick
the Great to Norman Schwarzkopf (2002).
WARFARE AND HISTORY
General Editor, Jeremy Black
Professor of History, University of Exeter
AIR POWER IN THE AGE OF TOTAL WAR John Buckley
THE ARMIES OF THE CALIPHS: MILITARY AND SOCIETY IN THE
EARLY ISLAMIC STATE Hugh Kennedy
THE BALKAN WARS, 1912-1913: PRELUDE TO THE FIRST
WORLD WAR Richard C Hall
ENGLISH WARFARE, 1511-1642 Mark Charles Fissel
EUROPEAN AND NATIVE AMERICAN WARFARE, 1675-1815
Armstrong Starkey
EUROPEAN WARFARE, 1494-1660 Jeremy Black
EUROPEAN WARFARE, 1660-1815 Jeremy Black
THE FIRST PUNIC WAR J E Lazenby
FRONTIERSMEN: WARFARE IN AFRICA SINCE 1950
Anthony Clayton
GEPJVLAN ARMIES: WAR AND GERMAN POLITICS, 1648-1806
Peter H. Wilson
THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918 Spencer C Tucker
THE IRISH AND BRITISH WARS, 1637-1654. TRIUMPH,
TPJVGEDY, AND FAILURE James Scott Wheeler
ISFJyEL'S WARS, 1947-1993 Ahron Bregman
THE KOREAN WAR: NO VICTORS, NO VANQUISHED
Stanley Sandler
MEDIEVAL CHINESE WARFARE, 300-900 David A. Graff
MEDIEVAL NAVAL WARFARE, 1000-1500 Susan Rose
MODERN CHINESE WARFARE, 1795-1989 Bruce A. Elleman
MODERN INSURGENCIES AND COUNTER-INSURGENCIES:
GUERRILLAS AND THEIR OPPONENTS SINCE 1750
Ian E W. Beckett
MUGHAL WARFARE: IMPERIAL FRONTIERS AND HIGHROADS
TO EMPIRE 1500-1700 Jos Gommans
NAVAL WARFARE, 1815-1914 Lawrence Sondhaus
OTTOMAN WARFARE, 1500-1700 Rhoads Murphey
THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR: A MILITARY STUDY J E Lazenby
SAMURAI, WARFARE AND THE STATE IN EARLY MEDIEVAL
JAPAN Karl E Friday
SEAPOWER AND NAVAL WARFARE, 1650-1830 Richard Harding
THE SOVIET MILITARY EXPERIENCE Roger R. Reese
VIETNAM Spencer C. Tucker
THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE AND THE TRANSFORMATION
OF AMERICAN SOCIETY Harry M. Ward
WAR AND THE STATE IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE: SPAIN,
THE DUTCH REPUBLIC AND SWEDEN AS FISCAL-MILITARY
STATES, 1500-1660 Jan Glete
WARFARE AND SOCIETY IN EUROPE, 1792-1914 Geoffrey Wawro
WARFARE AND SOCIETY IN EUROPE, 1898 TO THE PRESENT
Michael S. Nieberg
WARFARE AT SEA, 1500-1650 Jan Glete
WARFARE IN ATLANTIC AFRICA, 1500-1800: MARITIME
CONFLICTS AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EUROPE
John K. Thornton
WARFARE, STATE AND SOCIETY IN THE BYZANTINE WORLD,
565-1204 JohnHaldon
WAR IN THE EARLY MODERN WORLD, 1450-1815
edited by Jeremy Black
WARS OF IMPERIAL CONQUEST IN AFRICA, 1830-1914
Bruce Vandervort
WESTERN WARFARE IN THE AGE OF THE CRUSADES, 1000-1300
John France
WAR AND SOCIETY IN IMPERIAL ROME, 31 BC-AD 284
Brian Campbell
WARFARE AND SOCIETY IN THE BARBARIAN WEST, 450-900
Guy Halsall
WAR IN THE MODERN WORLD SINCE 1815 edited by Jeremy Black
WORLD WAR TWO: A MILITARY HISTORY Jeremy Black
WAR, POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN CHINA,
900-1795 Peter Lorge
WARFARE IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST, TO c. 1600 BC
William J. Hamblin
THE WARS OF THE
FRENCH REVOLUTION
AND NAPOLEON,
1792-1815
Owen Connelly
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2006
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Simultaneously published in the UK
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Transferred to Digital Printing 2006
© 2006 Owen Connelly
Typeset in Bembo
by Keystroke, Jacaranda Lodge, Wolverhampton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Connelly, Owen, 1929-
The wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon, 1792-1815 /
Owen Connelly.
p. cm. - (Warfare and history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. First Coalition, War of the, 1792-1979. 2. Second Coalition, War of the,
1798-1801. 3. France-History-Revolution, 1789-1799. 4. Napoleonic Wars,
1800-1815. 5. France-History, Military-1789-1815. 6. Europe-History,
Military-1789-1815. I. Title. II. Series.
DC220.C66 2005
940.2'7-dc22
2005009602
ISBN10: 0-415-23984-2 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0-415-23983-4 (hbk)
ISBN13: 9-78-0-415-23984-4 (pbk)
ISBN13: 9-78-0-415-23983-7 (hbk)
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent
CONTENTS
List of maps ix
Introduction 1
1 The Eighteenth century: the French military and its
enemies — the Revolution begins 8
2 The Revolution and war: First campaigns, 1789-93 18
3 The Terror: politics and army reform, 1793—94 40
4 The Terror and war, July 1793-July 1794 45
5 The government of Thermidor and establishment of the
Directory, July 1794-October 1795 68
6 War in Italy and Germany, 1796—97 77
7 Egypt and the coup d'etat de Brumaire, 1798—99 97
8 Marengo and the Grande Armée, 1800-05 107
9 Subduing the European powers: Austerlitz—Jena-Auerstädt—
Friedland, 1805-07 118
10 "That miserable Spanish affair": the Peninsular War, 1808-13 142
11 The Wagram campaign, 1809/The Empire reaches its height,
1810 155
CONTENTS
12 The Russian campaign, 1812 169
13 Campaigns of Germany and France, 1813—14 186
14 The Hundred Days and Waterloo, 1815 200
15 Conclusions 217
Notes 221
Bibliography 242
Index 260
viii
MAPS
1 Europe in 1789 9
2 Paris in 1789 19
3 First actions, 1792, northern France and Belgium 24
4 Battle of Valmy, 20 September 1792 30
5 The Vendee and the Federal Cities, 1793-94 46
6 The foreign war, 1794-95 (key places only) 56
7 Battle of Fleurus, 26 June 1794, at the end of battle (dusk) 64
8 Napoleons first Italian campaign, 1796-97 81
9 Jourdan and Moreau in Germany, 1796 85
10 Battle of Areola, last day, 17 November 1796 91
11 Campaign of Egypt, 1798-99 98
12 The Marengo Campaign, May-June 1800 108
13 Battle of Austerlitz, 2 December 1805 127
14 Battles of Eylau and Friedland, 1807 136
15 Napoleon in Spain and Portugal, 1808-09 143
16 Battle of Wagram, second day, 6 July 1809 163
17 Napoleonic empire at its height, 1810 167
18 The Russian Campaign, 1812, and the Battle of Borodino,
7 September 1812 172
19 The Campaign of France, Napoleons battles 195
20 The Waterloo Campaign and the Battle of Waterloo, 18 June 1815 206
ix