"The most hated thing during the Napoleonic wars." Topic

No it wasn't Napoleon, or cossacks or being on the receiving end of canister.

The most hated thing during the napoleonic wars was…..

1796 Officers Sword AKA the Spadroon.

I would think dysentery and cholera would be at the top of the list.

My vote is for musket balls, theirs.

Typhoid? Being paid in assignats?

Death, or maybe worse, dismemberment.

Conscription?

Nope as I said. The 1796 spardoon.
A British officer would rather have a typhoid infected musketball in the ass, then use a Spadroon.

Income Tax – introduced to pay for the wars

I have a book on war stories and in the India wars a British officer was impressed how the colonial troops sliced up the opposition in a cavalry battle and asked how they managed to lop of so many limbs.
The colonial officer said they strike hard and had their swords, the same as issued to British troops, sharpened to razor edge.

Sergei Bondarachuk………

He will be forgiven for what he did with the resources he was given…but not by me

Disease and conscription would rate pretty high as the most hated things of the wars in general.

If we focus specifically on the battlefield troops seem to get used to 'normal' weapons and reserve a specific dislike for rarer types of weapons. From my reading of a fair number of Napoleonic memoirs over the years, troops always knew when they were being targeted by heavy guns, and specifically hated being on the wrong end of 12pder rounds.

Apropos, it seems that soldiers were particularly unnerved by Rockets (there was a good deal of trying to evade the likely point of impact/explosion, with consequent disorder in the ranks.

Getting killed?

Being hungry of course…

Plus a dirty arse and sore feet.

'English Gold'

Rockets were highly erratic, at least the land version was, and they could boomerang on their crews.

Against raw troops they could be effective as they hadn't seen them before, but veterans might ignore them as they already knew how inaccurate and erratic they were.

The naval rockets, however, were a different matter…

However, Wellington didn't think very highly of them. He might have experienced being on the receiving end in India. He also ordered the rocket battery assigned to his army in Belgium to be reequipped with conventional artillery. The troop commander still kept his rockets no matter what Wellington said, though he did 'accept' the field pieces.

No it wasn't Napoleon…

Unless you were an ancien regime monarch who suddenly felt his crown a little shaky on your head…

lice

Now you know why Sharpe used the 1796 Heavy Cavalry! 😄

a- 1813-15 Prussians being billeted on you if you were in France or anywhere vaguely thought ever to have sided with France.
b- French or Cossacks being billeted on you anywhere at any time.

Not sure how "English Gold" could have been the most hated thing – most of Europe was very keen on it?

Even Napoleon loved it. Spent his whole time on St Helena moaning about not having enough of it.

On the other hand the 1796 Pattern light cavalry sabre was one of the most savage blades ever made. The British loved it, the French hated it.

No British officer was issued a sword. You bought it!

Mud.

Throwing a one on your dice.

This to judge by my first ever experience of a wargame. In York today.

I saw that ultimate elite. the 95th Rifles, totally paralysed by indecision because of such an outcome. They froze….

Not sure how "English Gold" could have been the most hated thing – most of Europe was very keen on it?

The French used the term to describe ill-fortune.

And since Russia, Prussia, and Austria couldn't wage war without it, they 'appreciated' the subsidies.

And it should be noted that the most stable currency in Europe around 1810 was the French franc, nor the English pound.

There were 30 million frenchmen at the time. Only part of which sported Napoleon.
So less the 30 million hated English gold.
The 40 million Russians most of who were serfs didn't even have a notion of English gold and it effects on the war .

How ever every single serf knew and hated the 1796 Spadroon.

Well, let's see. France's allies were the Kingdom of Italy, the Confederation of the Rhine and all of those soldiers who served from those countries.

I would say that would be just a little more than '30 million.'

Really great academic point, so well argued.