| Mike Petro | 13 Jun 2019 8:37 a.m. PST |
So Napoleon calls up your draft class. How long was the national/imperial obligation for a new Private? |
| Cerdic | 13 Jun 2019 8:40 a.m. PST |
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robert piepenbrink  | 13 Jun 2019 10:03 a.m. PST |
That's not true, Cerdic. His majesty would release you when he had no further use for you, so just losing an arm or leg would be sufficient. And every now and then someone aged out--I remember some Mameluks--and be allowed to go home on a pension until the Emperor needed them in 1813/14. |
| 79thPA | 13 Jun 2019 10:13 a.m. PST |
Five years, I believe. That's what it was during the Revolution, and I don't know if that number dropped. In 1818 it went to six active and six reserve. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Italy followed the french model, but required four years of service. |
| huevans011 | 13 Jun 2019 3:31 p.m. PST |
It was probably an academic question given the attrition rates on campaign in the Napoleonic Wars. |
| Frederick | 13 Jun 2019 3:41 p.m. PST |
I am pretty sure that the theoretical obligation was 5 years service, but in practice after 1804 it was until you died or were incapacitated |
| robert piepenbrink | 14 Jun 2019 3:40 p.m. PST |
Has anyone run into an account of a healthy French conscript being released and sent home between 1803 and 1814? Or, really, any time after the start of the Revolution? There's an old Bairnsfeather drawing of two British soldiers in a WWI trench:
"'Ow long are you in for, Bert?"
"Seven years."
"Ye're lucky--I'm duration." |
| Brechtel198 | 14 Jun 2019 4:30 p.m. PST |
Daru said it very well: '[Conscription] is an ineluctable consequence of political equality. If you demand equality, then accept the consequences. In other words, suck it up, buttercup. |
| Mike Petro | 14 Jun 2019 5:50 p.m. PST |
Daru said it well indeed. Thanks for the input gentlemen. I figured there was no 'definitive' answer, but 5 years sounds about right. I think the Austrians rolled back from 20 to 5 about the same time? |
| Keith Talent | 15 Jun 2019 1:56 a.m. PST |
Not much different to any other conscript army. . you were in until you won the war, or died, or got wounded, or broke down. No 6 month tour and a rotation in those days. |
| Jcfrog | 15 Jun 2019 11:53 a.m. PST |
Sure at least till the wars ends. |
| robert piepenbrink | 15 Jun 2019 5:07 p.m. PST |
More fun when the wars have gaps instead of overlapping. |
| Brechtel198 | 15 Jun 2019 6:27 p.m. PST |
Well, let's see… There was a 'gap' between the Ulm and Austerlitz campaigns and the Jena campaign. The campaign against the Russians after Jena was a continuation, not a gap. The next major campaign in central Europe was against Austria in 1809, then the Russian campaign was three years later…is that not a 'gap?' The war in the Peninsula was continuous from 1808-1814, so there was no 'gap' there. |
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
