Napoleonic Warfare

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Napoleonic Warfare

• The Move to the Future

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Infantry Techniques

• Musket
• Bore loaded
• Loading procedure
• Rate of fire

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Cavalry

• Arm of the elite
• Shock and awe

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Artillery

• Ball
• Grape
• Canister

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Combined Arms

• Infantry
• Line
• Dispersed
• Square
• Artillery
• Cavalry
• The view

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Campaigns and Battles of Napoleon
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Italy

• Young General
• Divide and Conquer
• Destruction of Austrian Power in Italy

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Egypt

• Hubris
• Battle of the Pyramids
• Defeat at Sea
• Nelson

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Corps

• Collection of divisions
• Integral
• Infantry
• Artillery
• Cavalry
• Mini-army

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The Conquest of Europe
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Ulm

• Opponent
• Austria
• Location
• In southern Germany
• Important Factors
• Austrians eager to engage
• Napoleon advances with corps in oblique order
• Austrians surrounded
• Results
• Destruction of Austrian army
• French capture of Vienna

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Austerlitz

• Battle of the Three Emperors
• Opponents
• Russia Austria
• Location
• In modern day Czech Republic
• Greatest victory of Napoleon
• Results
• Knocks Austria out of the war

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Jena/Auerstadt

• Opponent
• Prussia
• Location
• South of Berlin
• Factors
• Split the Prussian army
• Results
• Berlin taken
• Prussia knocked out of the war

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Friedland

• Opponent
• Russia
• Location
• East Prussia
• Result
• Peace of Tilsit

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Peace of Tilsit

• Agreed to aid each other
• France would help Russia against Turkey
• Russia would join the Continental System
• Europe split

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Spain
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Stealth Invasion

• Cooperating French and Spanish troops occupy
  Portugal
• Masses of French troops in Spain occupy vital
  Spanish locations
• Napoleon forces abdication of Spanish king and
  his son
• Napoleons brother, Joseph, proclaimed king of
  Spain

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Spanish Reaction

• Madrid rises in revolt
• General war begins with the Spanish

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British Intervention

• August 1808
• Led by Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley
• French initially pushed out of Portugal
• Wellesley considered too junior officer
• Replaced by less competent senior officers who
  allow French to retreat unmolested

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French Intervention

• Bring massive reinforcements into Spain
• Wellesley returns to direct British response

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French Defeat

• Following conventional and guerilla warfare
• French slowly pushed back
• Leave Spain in 1813

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The Invasion of Russia
vs.
Napoleon
Alexander
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The French Army

• Grandé Armée
• 691, 501 men
• 450,000 French troops
• 34,000 Austrians
• 95,000 Poles
• 90,000 Germans
• 30,000 Italians
• 25,000 Neapolitans
• 12,000 Swiss
• 4,800 Spanish
• 3,500 Croats
• 2,000 Portuguese

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The Russian Army

• 280,000 troops on Polish frontier
• 112,000 troops in reserve
• 100,000 troops freed by peace with Sweden and
  Turkey

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The Invasion

• Began 23 June 1812
• Rapid French advance
• Initially no major battles
• Scorched earth policy
• Battle of Borodino
• Very bloody battle
• Russian defeat

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Capture of Moscow

• Moscow evacuated and stripped of supplies
• Moscow burned by the Russians
• A French island in a Russian sea

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Retreat
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Retreat

• Winter retreat
• Effects of scorched earth
• Guerilla warfare
• partisans

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Losses

• 300,000 French
• 70,000 Poles
• 50,000 Italians
• 80,000 Germans
• 450,000 Russians
• 200,000 horses
• Over 1,000 artillery pieces

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The Battle for Europe
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The Struggle of the Nations

• Napoleon raises a new army
• Move into Germany
• Initial encounters against Russia/Prussia
• Lützen
• Bautzen

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Battle of the Nations

• Opponents of Napoleon
• Austria
• Russia
• Prussia
• Sweden
• Forces present
• France 190,000
• Allies 330,000

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Battle of the Nations

• Overwhelming general attack by Allies
• French army forced back with heavy casualties
• France forced back across the Rhine

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The Final Push

• 1813 1814
• Napoleon slowly pushed back to Paris
• Napoleon wins a series of victories
• Paris taken
• Napoleon abdicates
• Elba

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Elba
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Elba

• Exile
• Small army
• Ruler of Elba
• Rumors
• To be exiled to a remote island in the Atlantic

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The Return

• Arrived in France early March 1815
• Louis XVIII sends troops under Ney to stop
  Napoleons march on Paris
• "Soldiers of the Fifth, you recognize me. If any
  man would shoot his emperor, he may do so now".

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The Hundred Days

• Return to Paris
• Raising army
• 140,000
• Communications with Allies

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The Waterloo Campaign
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Initial Moves

• Armies approaching France
• British
• Prussian
• Austrian
• Russian

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Strategic Concepts

• Best defense is a good offense
• Division of Opponents
• Lines of Communications

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Quatre Bras Ligny June 16

• Quatre Bras
• Ney stalls and pushes back Wellington and the
  British
• Ligny
• Napoleon defeats and forces back Blücher and the
  Prussians

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Troop Movements
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The Battle of Waterloo

• The Battle