Organization: How Armies are Formed for War

by Hubert Foster

Organization in the Wars following the French Revolution

At the close of the eighteenth century, during the wars brought on by the French Revolution, a great change in organization took place. France, with her old army shattered by the Revolution, was suddenly obliged to raise enormous numbers of troops to defend herself against the onslaught of Europe. When, with unparalleled courage and energy, she had stemmed the flood of invasion, a number of French armies at once took the offensive, and carried the war beyond her frontiers in every direction for the next twenty years.

DIVISIONS

The size of the armies, and the area covered by them, made it impossible for the Commander to exercise personal control over his whole force, especially as the absence of a system of supply entailed wide dispersion for subsistence on the country invaded. It became necessary to appoint independent Generals to command the scattered fractions of the Army, often operating at a distance from each other. This arrangement was instituted by Carnot in the early wars of the Revolution.

It thus came about that the Army was divided into separate portions, which were naturally termed its Divisions, a designation which was retained when they became permanent organizations, and exists in all armies to this day.

These Divisions consisted mainly of Infantry, but some Light Cavalry and Artillery were attached to them, so as to make them capable of the independent action demanded by the increased extent of the theatre of war and of the battlefields.

The Division comprised generally 12 Battalions of Infantry, 4 to 8 Squadrons, and 8 to 12 guns, with the necessary administrative services, making a total of some 10,000 to 12,000 in all, under command of a General Officer.

The Infantry was formed in what were termed Demi-Brigades of 3 Battalions, which reverted to the name of Regiments in 1803. These comprised one Battalion of regulars from the old Royal Army, and two of Volunteers. Each Battalion had 9 Companies, each about 120 strong; one being of Grenadiers, and two of Light Infantry. The Battalions were numbered, their old army name being dropped. The Cavalry Regiments were of 4 Squadrons, each 150 to 200 strong. The practice of living on the country allowed the transport train to be greatly reduced, especially as tents were discarded, and the troops always bivouacked, when not billeted. Company officers were allowed no bât animals for their baggage. By these measures the mobility of the army was greatly increased.

This divisional organization was adopted by Austria in 1805, by Prussia in 1806, and by Russia in 1807; we find it in the British Army in the Peninsula in 1808, when the Divisions were formed of 2 Brigades of 3 or 4 Battalions each, with 1 or 2 Batteries, and often a Rifle Battalion.

CORPS D’ARMÉE (ARMY CORPS)

The power of independent action thus conferred on these Divisions, which were in fact miniature armies, led to a want of concert in their movements, and of co-ordination in their action, while at the same time, as Armies increased in size, the number of Divisions became too great for the Commander-in-Chief to control properly.

An attempt to remedy these drawbacks was made in 1800 by Moreau, when planning his invasion of South Germany. He grouped his Divisions into two Wings and a Centre, which he placed under three senior Generals, while retaining a Reserve of four Divisions in his own hand. Each Division was either 5,000 or 10,000 strong, and 3 or 4 of them, with 6 guns per 5,000 men, and a Cavalry Division of 2,000 or 3,000, formed virtually a Corps d’Armée, 20,000 to 30,000 strong.

Bonaparte, when First Consul, grasping the desirability of this arrangement for large armies, introduced a permanent organization by Corps d’Armée.

In this manner was organized the army assembled at Boulogne, in 1804, for the invasion of England. This formed the famous “Grande Armée,” which overcame Austria, Prussia, and Russia in three great wars during the succeeding three years, and formed the model of organization for the later armies of France, and eventually for those of all the great Powers of Europe.

The Napoleonic Army Corps was commanded by a Lieutenant-General or a Marshal. Its size depended on the capacity of its Commander, and varied from 2 to 4 Divisions, each of 2 or 3 Brigades of 2 Regiments of 3 Battalions. A Battalion had 6 Companies, or sometimes 9, and was 700 to 1,000 strong. A Cavalry Regiment had 4 or 5 Squadrons, of 150 to 200 men.

DETAILS OF NAPOLEON’S ORGANIZATION

In 1805, light companies, or Voltigeurs, were added to Battalions for skirmishing duties, thus relieving the Grenadier Companies from this work. Napoleon then detached the latter from their Battalions to form a Grenadier Corps as an Army Reserve, to which all the Voltigeur companies were afterwards added.

In 1808, in the first French army sent to Spain, the Brigades were of 2 or sometimes 3 Regiments, or 6,000 to 10,000 strong. The Companies had become increased up to 140 men, but their number was only six when the Grenadier and the two Voltigeur Companies had been detached.

The Cavalry not allotted to Divisions of Infantry was formed into Divisions of 2 or 3 Brigades, those of Light Cavalry being attached to Army Corps, while the Heavy Cavalry Divisions formed the Cavalry Reserve. This was practically a Cavalry Corps of 4 Divisions, with 2 Batteries of Horse Artillery, or 20,000 in all. Its function was to enable Napoleon to influence the battle by the decisive effect of an overwhelming mass of Cavalry, as well as to furnish a body of Cavalry under one command for action well to the front of the Army during its advance—in fact, to perform the duty of Independent Cavalry of to-day.

The Artillery not allotted to Army Corps was similarly formed into one body called the Reserve Artillery, under Napoleon’s own Orders. This was used in one mass against the centre of the enemy’s line, where Napoleon intended to launch his main attack.

He invariably kept the Reserve Army Corps, as well as the Cavalry and Artillery Reserve, in his own hands, for decisive action at the crucial moment of the battle.

These Army Corps were soon imitated by Prussia after 1806, by Austria before 1809, and by Russia by 1812, and became the permanent organization of the first two nations down to this day; but it was not definitely adopted by Russia until the close of the nineteenth century. In the Civil War in the United States both sides adopted Army Corps, which the size of their armies rendered desirable.

STRENGTH OF ARMY CORPS

The strength of Napoleon’s Army Corps was very variable. In the Grande Armée it was at first 2 or 3 Divisions of 2 or 3 Brigades, with 1 Cavalry Division, or from 19,000 to 30,000 in all. The Cavalry Corps was of 20,000 with 2 Horse Artillery Batteries.

In later campaigns the Army Corps grew larger, and their strength varied with the quality of their Commander.

In 1809 they were of 30,000 to 40,000 men, and one was of 4 Divisions with 60,000. In 1812 the French Corps varied from 30,000 to 70,000, the largest having 5 Divisions; but the Corps of the foreign allies were less than 25,000 strong. There were four Cavalry Corps, each of 28 Squadrons of Light Cavalry, 16 of Cuirassiers, and 16 of Dragoons. In 1813 the French Corps varied from 20,000 to 50,000, and the Cavalry Corps from 10,000 to 16,000. In 1815 the Corps were from 16,000 to 24,000 strong, and the Cavalry Corps was in 4 Divisions. Throughout these campaigns most of the Army Corps had a Cavalry Division attached to them.

Since Napoleon’s time the organization of the French Army has been on similar lines.

In the war with Austria in 1859 the Army Corps had 2 Divisions, each of 2 Brigades, or 18 to 20 Battalions, with 40 to 56 guns.

In 1870 the Army Corps were of 3 Divisions with a Light Cavalry Division of 2 Brigades. Those commanded by a Marshal had 4 Divisions and a Cavalry Division of 4 Brigades. The Artillery with each Division consisted of 3 Field Batteries and 1 of Mitrailleuses; the Corps Artillery of 5 Batteries. As in Napoleon’s armies, there were Reserve Divisions of Heavy Cavalry, comprising 2 Brigades of 2 Regiments, with 2 Batteries of Horse Artillery. One evil of this organization was that the Light Cavalry Divisions kept close to their Army Corps, and the distant reconnoitring for the whole army fell to the Reserve Heavy Divisions, which were unsuited to this duty, and were often kept actually in reserve.