French Revolutionary Army

The French Revolutionary Army was the armed forces of the First French Republic and French Consulate from 1791 to 1802, founded after the French Revolution that created a new republican government. The army was commanded by NCOs that were made generals after the revolution, and its soldiers were conscripts from across France. The army rose to 1,500,000 troops in September 1794 after the levee en masse, and was made up of enthusiastic revolutionaries under brilliant generals.

History[]

Formation[]

The French Revolutionary Army was created after 27 August 1791, when Prussia and the Austrian Empire issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which stated their support for King Louis XVI of France against the French Revolution. As many French royalist officers left out of fear that they would be executed by the revolutionary French Republic, as well as the Prussian and Austrian threat, the French people felt the need to form a revolutionary army distinct from the former Royal French Army. Most of France's generals fled the country, so non-commissioned officers were promoted rapidly and became colonels or generals within two or three years. Privates could become officers in a short amount of time. In September 1792, the French Army prepared for war after their king tried to flee to the Austrian Netherlands to call for an invasion of his country, and they declared war on Austria and Prussia.

Early battles[]

Early in the war, the French Revolutionary Army's two principal leaders were General Charles-Francois Dumouriez and Francois-Christophe Kellermann, both former generals of the Royal Army. Their first major battle was the battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792, where the 32,000-strong French army under their command was able to hold off a 34,000-strong Prussian and Austrian Army under the Prussian Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick using cannon to hold off Prussian attacks. The victory left only 484 people dead on both sides, but it was extremely significant to history in that it marked the first battle of the revolutionary wars and the first French victory.

Inspired by this victory, France began to step up its efforts. On 6 November the French won another victory at the Battle of Jemappes, with Dumouriez taking control of the Austrian Netherlands with heavy losses. The French Revolutionary Army had to be reorganized if they were to win the war against the First Coalition. Lazare Carnot, the Minister of War, decided to amalgamate enthusiastic young volunteers with old veterans of the royal army in the same regiments (although in different battalions), so that the veterans could train the young on how to fight, and so that the young could put down any possible revolt by the older men. On 24 February 1793, he gave a quota to each department for the minimum men required to join the army, and by mid-1793 there were 645,000 French troops in the revolutionary army.

Decline and recovery[]

In early 1793, the Revolutionary Army suffered heavy losses in a string of defeats that drove them out of the Austrian Netherlands, with the Battle of Neerwinden leading to Dumouriez defecting to the Austrian Army. In addition, France declared war on Great Britain, Spain, and the United Provinces. Carnot decided to pass a levee en masse, with men from 18 to 25 being drafted into the army. Married men, women, and children were to work on arming and supplying their armies during the wars, making France a giant war machine that spat out victory after victory that year. In October-December 1793, the French recaptured the port of Toulon from the royalists, British, Spanish, and Italians. Napoleon Bonaparte, a young artillery officer, was responsible for the victory, using cannon to drive the British out of Toulon's Fort Mulgrove.

1795 miracles[]

French volunteers — French volunteer infantry

In 1794, France gained several more victories, such as Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's triumphs at Tourcoing and Fleurus, resulting in the fall of the Austrian Netherlands to the French. Flanders became a French region, and the Austrians were constricted to the Rhine and Italian fronts. In 1795, the Dutch were defeated and the Batavian Republic was made a French client state, while Spain was forced to make peace after many battles in the Pyrenees mountains. On 5 April 1795, the Peace of Basel ended Prussia's role in the War of the First Coalition.

Italian campaign[]

Italie 4 — French troops resting in Italy, 1796

In March 1796, with the French only facing the British, Sardinians, Naples & Sicily, and the Austrian Empire, General Napoleon Bonaparte was sent to take command of the French Army of Italy, an army of poorly-fed, poorly-trained, poorly-equipped, and poorly-inspired troops that were low on pay and supplies. However, he let them live off the land and won two major victories against the Sardinians: he captured the city of Coni in Cuneo and their capital of Turin. Sardinia became a French ally, and Napoleon proceeded to invade Austrian Italy.

Throughout 1796, he was able to defeat the Austrians at the Battle of Lodi and the Battle of Arcole, and he created the Cisalpine Republic and Transalpine Republic, two Italian puppet states, after liberating Milan from the Austrians. He also defeated the armies of the Papal States and the Republic of Venice, who threw their lots in with the Austrians in the war with France. Napoleon captured the Papal city of Ancona in 1797 to threaten the Pope, who was forced to make peace. French forces marched into Rome and ended the Papal States' role as a military power during the wars. In addition, he defeated the Venetian general Flavio Panicucci and forced the Venetian Republic to agree to a ceasefire. Napoleon then marched through Austrian Italy and captured all of their cities, and he focused on the Austrian city of Klagenfurt. Not far from Vienna, Klagenfurt was a stronghold for the Austrians in Italy. Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Spittal in June 1797 as he marched through the valleys of Tyrol into the Austrian Empire, losing his whole army to Josef Alvinczi, the Austrian commander. However, he assembled a whole new army alongside that of his aide Jean Seruier and was able to capture Klagenfurt in late October. Austria signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, making peace with the French. Austria occupied the former Republic of Venice, and France installed a Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in Milan. Naples and Sicily was also bound by the peace.

Egyptian campaign[]

Landing in Egypt — The French army lands in Egypt.

With the war in Europe over (except for a naval war with Great Britain), France was able to calm down for a while. However, in 1798 Napoleon planned an invasion of Egypt, a part of the Ottoman Empire. His goal was to secure the Suez Canal so that he could send forces to assist Tipu Sultan's Mysorean forces in their war with the British in British India, and to have a base against the British in the Mediterranean.

The French landed at Alexandria on 1 July 1798 and secured the port without much resistance, and they proceeded to begin their Egypt Campaign. They had the support of some of the local population, who they recruited as militia forces. Napoleon was funded by the Directorate, who feared that he was too popular to be kept at home in France. He received reinforcements after building supply depots, and he was able to capture Cairo soon after winning the Battle of the Pyramids against the Mamelukes, the autonomous rulers of Egypt. Napoleon then went east with his army, sending Auguste Marmont to subdue the Matruh Bedouin in Awlad Ali in the south and Louis Desaix to conquer the Suez Canal. Napoleon himself advanced into Israel and Syria, taking over the coastal cities and conquering the fortress of Acre, despite British intervention. At the same time, his navy was able to conquer the island of Cyprus from the British. Napoleon returned home in 1799 amidst political turmoil back in France, and in 1802 the French left Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, who were bleeding from their losses in Egypt and the Levant. Napoleon proceeded to take power in the 18 Brumaire coup, and declared himself First Consul of the French Consulate.

The Revolutionary Army went on to fight Austria and the Russian Empire in the War of the Second Coalition of 1799-1801, a brief conflict that had fighting mainly in Switzerland, Italy, and on the Rhineland of Germany. Napoleon won the Battle of Marengo in 1800 in Italy, having defeated the Russians; with the theater in Italy closed, the French victory at the 3 December 1800 Battle of Hohenlinden defeated Austria on the Rhine and forced them to make peace. Napoleon was now the master of Europe, and in 1802, with Britain forced to make peace, he declared himself Emperor of the First French Empire. He then formed the Grande Armee, his new army, which would go as far as Moscow to the east, Mecklenburg to the north, and Spain to the south.