Napoleonic Europe

Part 1: 1769-1808

The sheer amount of data available to a new student of the Napoleonic Wars can be daunting and confusing.

A brief glance at the historical background to the Wars, from the middle of the eighteenth century, right up to the defeat of Napoleon and his exile to St Helena, is an excellent starting point in understanding what it was all about.
 

Chronology
 

The Jacobin Revolution

The year was 1793. It had become clear that the King of France was on the side of the enemy, Austria and Prussia. If the Revolution was overthrown, he would recover control of the state. As a consequence the King was tried and executed. Now France was a true Republic, Governed by the People, and the task given to the people was to win the war.

The people at the bottom of the heap were now the guardians of the Revolution, and they had most to hope for from Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality. In Marseilles, for example, the battle hymn of the Army of the Rhine was first sung in public as a back-street "anthem".

In 1792 the poor were still poor, the price of bread was still rising, and the war was being lost. The people thought that the Revolution was being betrayed by the rich and powerful. In Marseilles, the Jacobins seized power early in the year; they were working-class groups of political extremists directly opposed to the Royalty of the Monarchy and all its trappings, which they thought the new Republic's leaders were being caught up in. The "dangerous classes" had come to power to save the Revolution.

In Lyon, too, the Revolution of 1789 had been led by the propertied middle classes and professional men. Here, too, they lost the confidence of working class Jacobins. The urban poor were not going to let the Revolution be taken away from them. The industrial workers of Lyon stormed down on the city, demanding stern emergency measures.

As in Marseilles, the Jacobins took control. The Jacobin club in Paris was the centre of a national network, and Robespierre had become its leading figure. He called for France to be purged of traitors in the army and the Government, who were betraying the Revolution.

Each piece of news about the war seemed to show that there were such traitors and that France's greatest enemies were within. On 2nd March 1793, the French abandoned La Chapelle. On 5th March they abandoned Liége. Six days later, armed insurrection broke out in The Vendé. On 21st March Général Dumouriez, defeated by the Austrians, denounced the Revolutionary Government and went over to the enemy. Four days after that the Prussians besieged Mainz.

In Paris, all through the month of March, there were food riots, and shortages throughout the rest of the country. In the capital the sans culottes were even more radical in their demands than elsewhere.

In April the Committee of Public Safety was set up to detect, try, and execute traitors. The more radical a deputy was, the more support he received from the Paris crowd. In the ensuing confusion, Robespierre and his followers took control. The radicalism of Paris, and the arrest of elected deputies led to a backlash outside the capital. The merchants and professional gentlemen of Lyon, Bordeaux and Marseilles staged counter-coups against the radicals. The dangerous classes were put back in their place and out of power.

By June 1793 France seemed doomed. The leading Jacobin of Lyon was executed. Marseilles was negotiating with the English. Bordeaux, too, renounced the authority of the Revolutionary Government. In a few weeks 62 of the 88 Departments of France had declared themselves part of a federation of independent regions. Faced by federalism and invasion, the Revolution was disintegrating, and Paris had been cut off from most of its food supply.

By mid-June 1793, Paris was the only large city still run by working-class radicals, and in their eyes they were the people who would have to save France from destruction. Despite his protests, and by popular demand, Robespierre was elected onto the Committee of Public Safety.

In August, the Convention - now controlled by the radicals - declared total war on its enemies. One million people were soon under arms, ready to impose unity: their slogan was "Liberty or Death". They immediately set upon Marseilles for negotiating with Britain, on the Prussians and Austrians occupying many French cities, and Lyon, which was denying the authority of Paris. Lyon was decimated, and over two thousand people were executed.

By the opening of 1794, France was virtually wholly united behind the Committee. All enemies of France had been expelled, but the stage was now set for Robespierre's fall from power. His fellows on the Committee began to worry over his incorruptibility. The time of Napoleon's rise to power was drawing close...
 

Chronology
 

The 1808 Expedition

Once Wellesley had been temporarily displaced as commander of the British force in the Peninsula, and the new commander had signed the Convention of Cintra which allowed the defeated French to leave Portugal via British ships, the three generals were recalled to London to face an enquiry. Wellesley was exonerated and returned to Portugal later in the year.

In the meantime, Major-General Sir John Moore was placed in command of the British forces, which included Craufurd's Light Brigade (of Rifles). It comprised of 43rd Light Infantry, 52nd Light Infantry, and 95th Rifles, who were trained in orthodox movements but with the extra capacity to skirmish, hold outpost lines, and generally act as a cover and screen for the main force, whether at rest or moving.

It is doubtful that any British general ever conceived and executed a more audacious stroke of soldiership than Sir John Moore, when he made his daring stroke at Napoleon's lines of communication, and spoiled the Emperor's plans for the conquest of Southern Spain, bringing him and his far-scattered columns hurrying to the north-west corner of the Peninsula.

Napoleon had assumed in person the command of the French armies in Spain, and had 300,000 veterans under his eagles. He had shattered the Spanish armies, was in possession of the Spanish capital, and was on the point of marching to overwhelm the rich provinces as yet unravaged by war to the south.

Moore, with 24,000 men under his command, resolved to strike boldly behind Napoleon, arresting the southward march of the French. When, in this manner, he had disrupted the strategy of the French, Moore calculated he could outmarch all the converging columns rushing to destroy him, and escape. But he was accepting a terrible risk.

Moore's generalship, though it was followed by the tragedy of the retreat to Corunna, and his own death at the battle in that place, was perfectly successful. He wrecked Napoleon's strategy, and yet escaped his counter-stroke. He secured a breathing space for the Spanish nation. The 2/95th joined Moore's forces at Sahagun, and the great retreat began almost immediately afterwards.

On 24th December Moore turned his columns westward for their march to his sea base at Corunna. It was a march of some 220 miles, through rugged and mountainous country, with the French hanging in the rear or pushing past his flank. At Astorga, Moore divided his army, and part, under General Craufurd, took the road to Benevento and Vigo, managing to make a prisoner of General Levebvre along the way.

The retreat lasted for eighteen days, and some 4000 men fell from the ranks, slain by hardship and exposure. But the British did not lose a flag or a gun in retreat, and when they reached Corunna they proved that neither their discipline nor their fighting power had been the least impaired by their suffering.

Text copyright © P L Kessler. An original feature for The History Files.