Davout, the Real Organizer of the Army of 1815 (original) (raw)

Napoleonica. La Revue, 2011

Abstract

When Napoleon returned from Elba, he was once again faced with a European coalition assembled against him and above all against France. The French army at that time was in no fit state to begin a campaign. Since Louis XVIII’s government had privileged other budgetary imperatives before those of the army, the task facing Napoleon and his War Minister Davout was colossal. On taking up office, Davout discovered that the army was severely lacking in guns, horses, clothing and supplies. Nor did the minister have a great deal of money available, and industrial output was down. Unable therefore to ensure production of the 25,000 guns a month that Napoleon required, Davout ordered the repair of all damaged guns, thereby providing just enough firepower, but only for the Armee du Nord. As regards clothing, he was forced to negotiate with suppliers who demanded payment up front, and as for horses, he was able to purchase some and commandeer others from the gendarmerie and Parisian haulage companies. Though feeding the army was not to prove problematic, the soldiers (though provided with food) did not abandon their old habits of pillaging the locals as they passed by. In short, though Davout was able to work miracles in order to refit the army, if faced with a defeat, it would have been impossible for France to perform another vast logistical exercise. The cupboard was definitively stripped bare, the depots empty of arms, uniforms and horses. For Napoleon, whose aim was to provision the army from enemy magazines, the only possible outcome for the campaign of 1815 was victory.

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