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The Army Reforms of Louis Napoleon

The war of 1866 took a totally unexpected course, with the disastrous defeat of Austria by Prussia. One faction in France urged the introduction of a Parliamentary constitution in the place of the ruling Imperialism, the other pointed out that the Imperial Government should prove anew its right to exist by a brilliant foreign policy. The latter course necessarily appeared the more agreeable to the Emperor and to the Imperial orCaesaric party; and as even the Parliamentary party based their arguments chiefly upon the bad results of the foreign policy of France, it seemed doubly possible for the Empire to quiet all discontent, silence all its detractors, and assert itself anew by seeking a quarrel abroad and bringing it to a good end.

At this point, the most urgent question appeared to the Emperor Napoleon to be a reorganisation of the French army, which should provide greater resources of trained soldiers than the existing institutions afforded. The preparation of a new law was therefore at once, in 1866, taken in hand ; but the law itself did not come into force until the year 1868, and even then in a form which but feebly carried out the views of the Emperor and of his circumspect advisers.

Side by side with the tasks of reorganising the army and of providing for it a new weapon, the work of concentrating the existing but scattered forces of France upon French soil was carried on. From Rome the French troops were withdrawn between the 2d and 12th of December 1866, many months sooner than the terms of the Convention of September 1864 required. As regards Mexico, Napoleon had decided, owing to the determined attitude assumed by the Government of Washington, even before the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian war, to withdraw the French expedition in three divisions-one in November 1866, another in March 1867, and the third in November 1867. After the war of 1866 he resolved to bring back the whole force to France in one body during the first months of the year 1867.

By the new decree of the 1st of February 1868, the land forces of France were divided into, (1.) the Active Army; (2.) the Reserve; (3.) the Mobile National Guard. In principle every Frenchman is bound to serve in person either in the Active Army or in the Mobile Guard. Recruiting for the army takes place by calling in the annual levies, by voluntary entrances, and by re-engagements. In the Active Army substitution is allowed, but not in the Mobile Guard. Exoneration-that is, the simple purchase of freedom from military service by the payment to the Government of a certain fixed sum, in return for which the Government itself provided a substitute, or did not-was abolished. With it, the law of the 25th of April 1858, of the " army dotation chest," went out of force after it had existed nearly thirteen years, to the great detriment of the French army. A return was essentially made to the law of the 21st of March 1832, whereby every one who was drawn for the Active Army and did not wish to serve was obliged to provide a substitute at his own cost and trouble.

The division of the contingent into two portions was retained, and men belonging to the first were to serve their 5 years in the Active Army, the peace footing of which, including the soldiers by profession, and those temporarily on furlough for a longer or shorter time, was assumed to be 415,000 men. Those belonging to the second were only to be exercised for 5 months - 3 in the first year, and 2 in the second- but were always to be in readiness when called in for service in the Active Army. The Reserve, in which the men of the second as well as of the first portion passed the last 4 years of their service, could only be called out in case of war, and by an Imperial decree, and these only by classes, to keep the Active Army at its full strength. During the last two years of their service, men could marry without special permission.

If an annual contingent of 100,000 men is assumed, 9000 of it join the marine, and 14,416 more must, as experience has proved, be allowed for volunteers who have already entered, and for those exempted on social grounds, so that a total of 23,416 men must be deducted from it. Therefore only 76,584 men remain available for the land forces. Of these, about 63,000 were assigned to the first portion, and of these 63,000 again, about 20,000 purchased substitutes, which substitutes did not engage for the whole 9 years' service, but only for the 5 years with the colours, and therefore must be necessarily reckoned in the class of soldiers by profession. The conscripts, therefore, of the first portion, amounted in the course of 5 years to 215,000 men, and to 68,000 men in the second, leaving altogether out of account the diminution which would be naturally caused by deaths, sickness, &c. The 4 years of the Reserve give by the most liberal calculation 210,000 men. From this it can be understood that the law of the 1st of February 1868 did very little to help the Active Army, especially as the evils which the Army Dotation Law had brought about could not be uprooted at once. Even in the circles of the French Government, men did not hope to be freed from them before the year 1877.

The events of 1866 and the introduction of the Chassepot did not fail to occasion much deliberation even in France as to what changes in tactics would now be necessary. These deliberations were reduced in some degree to a system by the so-called conferences militaires which Marshal Niel at first caused to be worked out by a commission of officers, who met under the presidency of General Jarras, Director of the War Depots.

As early as 1867 the infantry regulations were rewritten, then thrice revised, so that the last edition only appeared in 1870, shortly before the outbreak of the war. But nevertheless there were no comprehensive changes from former times to be remarked. In opposition to the Prussian company column, the French held to the battalion as the only tactical unit -very likely with perfect right, with their purposely weak battalions. The skirmishing drill was somewhat better established; and, in addition, the divisional column (each of two companies) and the subdivisional (peloton) column (each of one company) came into frequent use in the advance or retirement of whole brigades or divisions in line.

In the camp of Chalons every Commander-in-Chief who governed there in succession during the years from 1867 to 1870, L'Admirault, de Failly, Leboeuf, Bazaine, Bourbaki, Frossard, manoeuvred according to his own devices and fancies, without going deep into detail, so that it cannot with any justice be said that a new system was established by these exercises.

For the cavalry, the introduction of divisional cavalry and the adoption of the breech-loading carbine were especially important changes ; a few formations-as, for instance, the squadron column, the four ranks of the squadron behind one another, while the squadrons are separated by the wide intervals thus formed-were copied from the Prussians. In the artillery, the introduction of the mitrailleuse and the increase of divisional and corps artillery, which partly resulted from it, although it did not take place until the time of the Ministry of Marshal Leboeuf, must be remarked on. Moreover, the 12-pounder (12 kilogrammer) was to be replaced as a reserve gun by the 8-pounder; but this change was not, as far as we know, effected by 1870.