"Succession of Command?" Topic

I promise I have looked, but I can't seem to find an answer as to who takes command of a French (or Austrian) brigade if the General de Brigade is incapacitated in battle.

I believe aide-de-camps too junior to assume brigade control, so does that mean the senior colonel of the brigade's battalions or oberst takes over? Do aide-de-camps ever take over control of a unit (maybe of a battalion)?

And would a captain take over a battalion if the chef de battalion fell?

The senior brigade officer takes command of the brigade. The same for officer casualties at any level so, yes, a captain could be a battalion commander due to officer casualties. It is also possible that a less senior officer may take command until a more senior officer may be found to replace him.

I'm with 79th. And generally within a brigade, the field grades knew both everyone's rank and seniority within that rank, just as every officer within a battalion understood where he stood relative to the others. The confusion comes in when the next man in line isn't where he's looked for, or when multiple officers go down in a very short period. The messenger sent to Colonel X finds him dead or seriously wounded, and doesn't know that Col Y is already dead or that LTC Z is next in line, let alone where to find him. Given enough casualties quickly enough, a captain might command a brigade. It happened.

ADCs derive their authority from the person whose ADC they are. They might command anything if that person is high enough up, and tells them to. (Read Jean Rapp's memoirs some time.) But that authority is derivative, so if their boss is incapacitated, they have none--unless and until some higher-up "adopts" them.

In our house rules, if a commander is incapacitated the next most senior takes over. Unless there is historical information as to who that should be, it is the commander of the senior formation or unit under command. If that is not clear then the player commander must note it at the start of the game.

If the successor is in line of sight to the fallen commander then he takes over in the next move. If he is not, then an ADC has to go and find him and inform him of his elevation. This seems to work quite well.

An Aide-de-camp in to a French General de Brigade was probably a Captain and usually from the attached Cavalry regiment that is assigned to the Corp. So, a replacement to an infantry battalion would never be an Aide to the Brigade General but either a (Major, but most Majors usually were in command of the depot battalion) or the senior Captain from that battalion. The replacement of a General de Brigade would be either the senior Colonel of the Brigade temporally or a Senior Officer from the Division Staff or Corp staff afterwards.

Adjudant généraux and Adjudant commandant could be employed.

also the adjudant-major could re place a battalion commander in the French army in case of need.

The system is described above. That question is laid out in the various nations' regulations, and the solution was always officer seniority. It also was aided by the fact that the senior regiment was usually the directing unit of the brigade, which means the next in command was already at the steering wheel.

This was the time-honored and very conventional method in all the armies in the pre-20th century armies [actually ancient armies too.] Of course, the time between a commander being taken out and the next in command being informed could take a while, particularly of several senior officers are casualties.

Regardless, every officer in a brigade knew what the line of succession was. The second day of Gettysburg, Hood is wounded and Lane, senior officer of the senior brigade, and the regulating unit took over. It didn't matter what level of command it was, it was the same. KISS

For the French IIRC, a brigade could be made up of one or two regiments' battalions. In that case, the senior regimental colonel took over if he wasn't in command of the brigade already.

Every army officer knows who he is superior/inferior to in the pecking order, the next senior man steps up unless he's too far away when the most senior man on the spot does the job. In a Brigade of 2 multi battalion regiments, the two colonels would definitely know who was 'first up' if the brigadier went down. If things got shitty and they were down to say the majors IC the third battalions then it's probably past the time when giving orders other than screaming 'stand fast' count.

Great stuff! So now I can rest easy using my newly painted mounted French colonel to represent an infantry brigade's commander; however, it seems that I can't get away with using a division/army ADC to be an infantry brigade commander. Thanks.

Most rules, in any period, vastly under play the knock on effect of command disruption, which acted like a ripple in a pond. Not only causing delay though the break in order transmission, along with the resultant confusion of tracking down who was to act upward while in action.

Exacerbated by finding a replacement, for the replacement, when the replacement was already dead!

That and the lottery of whatever the replacements presented, in terms of competence, some you won and some you lost!