Napoleon's Military Postal Service
by Guy C. Dempsey, Jr. USA
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The first French response to this problem had two facets - courier services to handle high-level headquarters communications and a general postal service to deal with all other correspondence to and from the army. When Napoleon came to power he preserved this dual organisation, but he also refined its constituent institutions in an attempt to provide the Grand Army with the most efficient and secure communications possible within the technological limitations of his day. His efforts never met with total success, however, especially in the face of the extremely adverse conditions which the Grand Army met in its campaigns in Poland, Spain and Russia.
The most important communications needs of France's armies were met by couriers, specially chosen individuals who were responsible for carrying messages direct from the sender to the recipient. The first courier service, known as the "Courriers de Government", which was created by a law passed in 1792 and subsequently modified by a consular decree of 20 Vendemiaire An XI (September 11, 1803) [1], was specifically intended to carry communications between army headquarters in the field and the government ministers and other important functionaries left behind in Paris.
Other courier services were created from time to time to meet specific needs of government ministries and the army high command. These couriers did not, however, have any responsibility for carrying orders between units of the Army, that duty being handled exclusively by staff officers. The couriers were not fully integrated with the rest of the military postal system until 1809.
The men accepted into the courier service were carefully chosen so that they were capable of making oral reports as well as delivering dispatches. Esprit Chazal, nicknamed "Moustache", served as the chief courier in government service from 1802 until 1814. [2] The courier service operated according to either of two methods, depending on the importance of the communications involved. On the express orders of a commanding general or other senior official, a dispatch could be sent by extraordinary service under which the courier carrying the dispatch travelled exclusively by horse. [3] With the couriers riding with only minimal halts to change horses, a dispatch could be carried in this manner between Berlin and Paris in less than six days. [4] Most dispatches were, however, carried by ordinary service couriers who took longer, but cost less, to complete their assignments because they travelled by coach more than by horse. [5]
Efficient
In general, the courier service was remarkably efficient in accomplishing its appointed task, but no matter what its peak efficiency, its overall performance was continually hindered by shortages of manpower. Generals were constantly forced to improvise their own courier services with staff personnel and detached cavalry, but the reliability of these substitutes was often questionable.
An attempt was made in 1809 to relieve some of the burden on the couriers by the creation of the "Estafette", or relay service. In this service, used for less sensitive despatches, letters were not carried to their destination by a single courier as with the regular types of service, but instead they were passed from rider to rider or from coach to coach in a locked case to which only the sender and the recipient had keys [6]. The estafette was slower than either of the two types of courier service, but it was also less costly, an attribute which made it very popular with Napoleon and his military administration. [7] The courier service was also supplemented within the borders of France by a primitive mechanical telegraph system which used both signal flags and lanterns to transmit messages. Monsieur Chappe, the inventor of this system, was himself attached to the general staff of the Grand Army until his death in 1806. [8]
Napoleon and his commanders were not, however, the only letter writers in the Grand Army. Despite significant illiteracy in the ranks, the officers and men still generated a large volume of correspondence, a volume that was at least matched by the correspondence which was sent to them by their families and friends at home. The bulk of these communications of the Grand Army was handled by a special military postal service which linked the armies in the field and the postal system within France.
The Service Militaire de la Poste was essentially a division of the civilian postal service which was run by Antoine-Marie Lavalette, Napoleon's former aide-de-camp in Italy and Egypt. The personnel of the service were consequently appointed and paid by the civilian branch. [9] Nevertheless, they wore military uniforms, were subject to a modified form of military discipline and had their equipment, rations and operating expenses paid by the Ministry of War. [10] Any postal employee captured by the enemy was, however, regarded as a non-combatant for the purpose of prisoner of war exchanges. [11]
The organisation of the military postal service went through several forms during the Revolutionary era, and during the early years of the First Empire it was still somewhat ill-defined. In general, however, there was a separate postal service for each French army, with a Bureau de Poste, or post office, assigned to the general headquarters and to the headquarters of each of the army's constituent corps and divisions. There were also supplementary bureaux located at major frontier towns and in occupied cities of importance in the army's theatre of operations.
In August of 1809, a special Regulation was promulgated which specified certain refinements to this structure, although the Regulation may simply have been confirming accepted practice in this area. The headquarters Post Office of each army was divided into two sections. One, the Grand Bureau, actually followed the army into the field while the other, called the Fixed Bureau, was typically established in a large foreign city on the army's line of communications. The corps and divisional postal bureaux dealt exclusively with the Grand Bureau, which passed the mail on to the Fixed Bureau for transfer to the civilian postal service within France. [12]
The size of these individual bureaux ranged from that of the Grand Bureau, consisting of the Chief Director for the Army (in charge of all administrative matters), the Chief Inspector (in charge of ensuring compliance with prescribed administrative procedures), up to 25 employees, clerks, couriers and postillions and numerous wagons and horses, to that of a divisional bureau which would be commanded by a Director and which might be staffed by as few as five employees and sub-employees. [13]
The actual handling of mail by the military postal service was a well-ordered process. Although individual soldiers could, and did, conduct their business directly with the employees of the nearest postal bureau, most mail was entered into the postal system by regimental Baggage Masters (Vague-maitres) because they had to visit the postal bureaux in any event to discharge their official function of collecting all mail and packages to be delivered to their regiments. [14] Any letters arriving by courier were carried directly to their addressee.
The postal service was designed to be a profit-making, or at least self-supporting, operation and so letters were normally accepted for delivery only upon full payment of the necessary postage, which was 15 centimes until February 9, 1810 and 25 centimes thereafter. [15] In such a case, the letter would be marked with the unique number which was assigned to each postal bureau and the designation "port payé" or postage paid. Because the pay of French troops was chronically in arrears, the postal service was inevitably forced to accept letters for which the postage would be paid by the recipient. Such a letter would be marked "Départ en port du" or postage due. [16] The postal service was able to raise additional revenue by carrying passengers in the mail coaches and hiring out the horses of the service for private use, although it was forbidden under any circumstances to carry mail sent by foreigners. Since the postal service had large amounts of cash on hand at most times, it often acted on campaign in conjunction with the army paymasters who represented the Treasury Department.
The first campaigns of the Grand Army demonstrated that the military postal service was not always equal to the immense task assigned to it. The service was generally understaffed, as demonstrated by the fact that at the start of the Jena Campaign there were only 225 postal officials and employees, 24 wagons, 29 caissons and 97 horses to serve the entire Grand Army. [17] Moreover, under campaign conditions, military commanders were quick to requisition the postal service's horses and wagons to carry military supplies. It is therefore by no means surprising to find Napoleon as early as October 5, 1806, instructing Berthier to establish a relay of light cavalry piquets between his headquarters and rear areas "because the post is not, at this moment, a reliable means of correspondence". [18]
Improve Service
In an effort to improve service, over 150 additional vehicles and 337 more horses were acquired by the postal service during the course of the 1806-1807 campaign, but apparently no immediate gains in efficiency were noticeable. [19] The performance of the service during this period prompted General, later Marshal, Grouchy to make the following comments in a letter to his father dated May 12, 1807: [20]
The postal service has lost many of your letters, my dear father, but that should not surprise you. The wife of one of my friends has written me 14 letters since the Battle of Eylau and of these only four have arrived.
There were also numerous allegations of corruption in the service with respect to the handling of the cash received for postage and the money which was often included in letters being sent to soldiers by their families. [21] Despite these failings, however, there was still, in some respects, undoubted validity to the system. Captain, and later Marshal, Castellane, for instance, reported in his memoirs that at Vienna in 1809 he received a letter from his father which had originally been addressed to him in Spain in 1808, but which had been successfully forwarded by the postal authorities, albeit rather slowly. [22]
Napoleon himself periodically expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the military postal service, but he nevertheless took no action to improve it until he promulgated the definitive 1809 Regulations. Those Regulations were so successful that they remained in force almost unchanged until 1831 and it un-doubtedly made the military postal service better run and more efficient.
The most serious problem affecting the efficiency of the military postal service was undoubtedly that of physical security. Mail coaches were robbed and destroyed even in populous areas, and the risks were of course even greater for courier and postal personnel and vehicles moving through more deserted and hostile territory. The situation was worst in Spain and Russia, where the security of the postal service was threatened by the guerrillas operating in the rear of the French. Napoleon was acutely sensitive to this problem and, whenever the security of his communications was threatened, he was quick to act.
Letter
A letter to Berthier dated December 21, 1808 contains a typical set of instructions in this regard: [23]
Order the commandant at Aranda to stop the next detachment of Dragoons which enters that town, assign 30 troopers to each postal relay station between there and the pass of Somo Sierra [sic] and warn the neighbouring villages that any village in which a courier is interfered with will be burned to the ground.
Despite such measures, the scanty surviving records concerning postal employees and couriers demonstrate that their work was significantly dangerous. In Spain between 1808 and 1814, there were 78 couriers killed and 28 wounded, while 10 postillions were killed and 2 wounded. [24] Although the bulk of these casualties came at the hands of the guerrillas in isolated incidents, postal employees were also at times apparently at risk in major troop engagements, since the records indicate that one postillion was wounded at the battle of Fuentes d'Onoro while another postillion and two couriers are listed as having been "sabered by English cavalry" at the battle of Vitoria.
As a result of these efficiency and security problems, it was often necessary to make use of local postal services as an adjunct to the military post, but while this expedient worked well in Germany and Austria, it was of little use in Poland, Russia and Spain. [25] Some soldiers even preferred to send mail by such local services because they felt there was less chance of the contents of a letter sent in that fashion being reported to Napoleon's police. The false nature of that assumption is demonstrated by a letter written by Berthier on January 3, 1807, giving orders for an employee of the postal service to be seconded to the Polish post office in Warsaw to take charge of opening letters posted there by French soldiers. [26]
As the French armies retired within the borders of France in 1814, the role of the military postal service obviously diminished, although the part played by the couriers retained its importance. In fact, Bernard Vernet, one of the last couriers used by Napoleon, accompanied the Emperor on his journey of exile from Fontainbleau to Frejus in April of 1814. [27] Vernet is even reputed to have helped Napoleon to escape from an angry crowd in Provence by exchanging his uniform jacket for Napoleon's famous bicorne and overcoat.
Large Color Uniform Illustration (slow: 101K)
The dress of Napoleon's military postal service was initially standardised in 1803. This uniform consisted of a dark blue single-breasted jacket with chamois (light buff) collar and straight cuffs and a scarlet vest which could be either single or double-breasted. [28] The buttons of the jacket were of white metal and bore an imperial eagle over the legend "Poste Militaire", and there were two small buttons of the same pattern on the cuff. The ensemble was completed by a black bicorne hat with tricolour cockade (but no plume) and blue trousers. The Chief Inspector had a strip of silver braid 30 mm. wide with a serrated lower edge around his collar and cuffs. The senior directors had the same braid on the collar only, while lower ranks had no braid at all. A black and white illustration of a postillion drawn in 1808 by an artist named Zimmermann depicts a figure wearing a top hat, a jacket with lapels and minuscule, but obvious, coat tails, and, around his left arm, an armband on which is mounted an oval plaque with an eagle decoration. [29]
There is no certainty about the uniform worn by couriers prior to 1809. Another black and white drawing by Zimmerman depicts a "Courier Francais" who is wearing a bicorne hat, a double-breasted jacket with rolled collar, breeches, heavy cavalry boots and a silver plaque worn on the right breast of the jacket. However, a distinctly different costume is depicted in a colour print from a series published in Germany during the First Empire which bears the dual-language caption "Franzosische Feldpost/Un Courier de Postes Francais de l'Armée" [French Field Postal Service/A Courier of the French Military Postal Service]. This print series is often referred to as the "Brunswick Manuscript". [30]
The mounted figure illustrated in that source wears a bicorne with a brown (discoloured yellow?) plume and white tassels; a red jacket with dark blue collar, cuffs, cuff flaps, turnbacks and cutaway lapels with square bottoms; yellow/gilt buttons and fringed epaulet (only the right shoulder is visible); buff breeches and black, heavy cavalry boots with cuffs, and silver spurs. The outfit is completed by a black dispatch case carried on a shoulder strap and a red armband on the upper right arm trimmed with a blue stripe top and bottom and decorated with a white eagle device.
The horse furniture consists of a black sheepskin over a red cloth with a band of gold/yellow trim, a grey portmanteau and a black harness. The noted French historical illustrator, Jacques Onfroy de Breville (JOB), who drew a reproduction of this figure, conjectured that he might represent a Swiss officer attached to Marshal Berthier's staff, but there is no evidence other than the red coat to support that theory.
What does seem certain is that specialised armbands were often used to distinguish membership in the different courier services. A surviving armband in the French Army Museum in Paris has several distinctive features. The band itself is a strip of green cloth which is tapered at both ends and lined with red material which is visible around the edge in the form of tiny sawteeth. One end of the strip has a button, and the other a button hole, thus indicating that the band was buttoned rather than tied around the arm. In addition, there is a tab of cloth with a button hole extending from the upper edge of the band at its widest point, which suggests that there must have also been a button on the courier's sleeve to hold the band in its vertical location. The widest part of the band is covered with a vertical oval of red felt (which has the same sawtooth edge as the lining), and mounted on that oval is a white metal shield-shaped badge with the central caption "Courrier de l'Armée" and the designation of "Administration des Postes" around the outer edge of the shield.
The last feature of the armband is that it is outlined with a thick line of silver lace, supplemented by one chevron of the same lace (pointed towards the end of the band) on either side of the red oval. Other examples of such badges in the Army Museum and the Postal Museum in Paris are also silver and are shield-shaped or oval. They bear captions referring to such different types of couriers as those "de l'Armée" [of the Army], "du Ministre de la Guerre" [of the Minister of War], and "de l'Empereur" [of the Emperor.
1809 Regulations
The 1809 Regulations contained detailed specifications for a new green postal uniform for all employees: [31]
Title II, Article 12. All individuals attached to this service are required to acquire (at their own expense) and wear the following uniform:
Employees - Imperial Green cloth jacket, lined with the same colour, without lapels but with thigh-length tails; straight collar, 7 to 8 centimetres in height, made of scarlet cloth; scarlet cuffs 10 to 11 centimetres in height, cut and open at the bottom; vertical pockets and cuff flaps with 3 points, all with scarlet piping; coat tails with turnbacks; embroidered silver star in each turnback; 9 large buttons on the front of the jacket, 3 for each pocket and 1 on each hip; 2 at the bottom of the pleats [pockets?] and 2 small ones on each cuff. Vest and breeches of buff cloth in winter, buff nankin in summer, in each case bearing the same pattern of buttons as the dress uniform.
Black stock.
Silver plated metal buttoned bearing the imperial eagle and, in the exergue, the words "Postes Militaires".
Bicorne bordered with a strip of black goat hair trim 4 centimetres wide; French-style cockade; the left side of the hat held up by two small, round silver loops of braid and a big button; "French-style" straight sword (épée) with silver metal guard and fittings; black scabbard.
Black waist belt with silver plaque bearing the same decorative design as the buttons.
Heavy cavalry boots with knee cuffs and silver spurs.
This basic uniform was modified in significant ways to distinguish between Employees and Sub-Employees, and in minimal ways to distinguish among the various grades of Employees. The latter type of distinctions were derived from the arrangement on the uniform of short strips of silver, oak leaf-shaped braid in accordance with the following scheme:
Chief Inspector and Chief Director - Two strips of oak leaf braid (five cm. long) on each side of the collar, three on each cuff and three adorning the buttonholes of each jacket pocket.
Inspectors, Directors and Controllers - Two strips of braid on the collar, three on the cuffs and none on the pockets.
Cashiers and Postal Employees 1st Class - One strip of oak leaf braid on the collar and two on the cuffs.
Postal Employees 2nd and 3rd Class - One strip of oak leaf braid on the collar and none on the cuffs.
Sub-Employees, divided into couriers and postillions, were easily distinguished because they wore an unusual hat of glazed felt (chapeau rond en feutre vernissé) with the brim turned up on the left side. The hat also had a cockade. The uniform was of lower quality, with no braid, red instead of silver stars in the turnbacks, and tin buttons. The Sub-Employees were armed in a unique manner, with an infantry sabre and two pistols in holsters carried on a black waistbelt. Couriers had one strip of plain silver braid on the collar and two on the cuffs. Couriers also wore on the left breast of their jackets an oval medallion of white metal bearing the imperial coat of arms over the inscription "Postes Militaire". Postillions had the same uniform, but the medallion described for couriers was worn on an armband around the left arm. The postillions took care of the horses of the postal service, all of which were branded with the marking "PM".
Pay for Your Own Uniforms
The uniforms would possibly have been better kept than those of ordinary soldiers since postal employees had to pay for their own uniforms and were subject to fines if they did not wear the prescribed model. This fact accounts for the unusual commercial advertisement which accompanied the publication of the uniform regulations in the Journal Militaire. That advertisement took the form of a footnote informing all readers that "All the components of this uniform can be obtained at moderate prices and perfect quality from Habert the Embroiderer, Rue du Bac No. 17."
Although M. Chappe, the inventor of the field telegraph used by the French to send messages over great distances, was not officially attached to the postal service, the uniform he wore while assigned to the general staff is certainly worth noting in this context. It consisted of a medium blue single-breasted jacket with horizontal pockets, medium blue collar and cuffs embroidered with silver lace in a pattern of small flowers, and silver buttons. The jacket was worn with white vest and pants and a bicorne hat.
The postal service did not have unit flags as such, but the location of each postal bureau was possibly marked by a small square white flag with a green border and a green "P" in the centre.
[1] Fremont, Les Payeurs d'Armée: Historique du Service de la Tresorie et des Postes aux Armées (Paris, 1906) (hereinafter cited as "Fremont") at 226.
Franck, Ph. F. de Les Marques Postales de la Grand Armée (Paris 1948)
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The military successes of the armies of France at the end of the Eighteenth and beginning of the Nineteenth Century posed a major communications challenge for the French nation on both a governmental and an individual level as those forces became scattered throughout Europe. The domestic postal service was equipped to carry letters only as far as the borders of France, so a whole new framework had to be created to bridge the extraterritorial gap and deliver both official dispatches and personal correspondence to its armies in the field.