Battle of Valmy
September 20, 1792

I. The French Army
and the Revolution

by Jean A. Lochet

At the beginning of the French Revolution, the Revolutionary government did not trust anyone or any organization that had been in the service of the King of France. That was particularly true for the regular army, [2] which was suspected of sympathy for the King. Hence, the new revolutionary government did its best to destroy it. In 1789, the French army included 102 infantry regiments of the line (79 French and 23 foreign), 12 battalions of chasseurs a pieds (the nucleus of light infantry regiments), 7 colonial regiments, one regiment of Marine infantry and the provincial infantry. [3]

In addition there were 6 battalions of French Guards (les Gardes Francaises) and 4 battalions of Swiss Guards. Contrary to what has been said by some English languages sources, [4] the French army at the beginning the French Revolution was not a demoralized organization. Far from it, it was well disciplined and the quality of what we call non-commissioned officers was especially good. [5]

Until the capture of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, the innate discipline of the regiments sufficed to maintain good order. After that date, disaffection spread rapidly. Many regiments mutinied and, in many instances, menaced their officers. As the situation slowly deteriorated, the result was the beginning of a massive emigration of the officers because most of the officers of the French army were nobles.

The conditions were aggravated by the decree of January 1, 1791 which abolished the old aristocratic titles of the regiments. From then on, politically motivated decisions rather than measures to reinforce the army were taken by the Revolutionary government. On March 4, a new decree disbanded the provincial troops - suspected of sympathy for the king - which had been the wartime reserve for the regular army and replaced it with the new and useless levies of the National Guard. With the possibility of war increasing steadily, the National Assembly decided to raise some 169 new battalions of volunteers to be recruited and formed by the departments. [6]

At the time of Valmy in 1792, these volunteer battalions were relatively good troops since some battalions like those of the "Armee du Centre" [7] had had a year of training and were largely composed of cadres and men of the disbanded provincial troops. The volunteer battalions of the so-called first ban were reliable and when mixed with regulars, i.e. units that had maintained or regained their discipline like the battalions of the "Armee du Centre", made acceptable infantry units.

Then in 1792, as war was unavoidable, the Assembly decided to further reinforce the army and raise a second ban of so-called volunteers from the departments. These volunteers from the second ban were only volunteers in name. They were formed mainly of unwilling and untrained men. Generally speaking, they were poor and undisciplined troops, lacking elementary discipline and led mostly by poor officers. [8]

Another "batch" of a special levy of 20,000 volunteers were sent to Paris and from whom representatives were "federated" at the national festival held on July 14, 1792 in Paris. This event gave them their name of "Federes". The 1792 Federes can hardly be called soldiers. They were a bunch of scoundrels ready for anything except fighting the enemy. [9]

The quality and cohesion of the regular army was further diluted by breaking down the old regiments (which until now included two battalions) and sending them into different formations. The regular battalions were mixed with volunteers of the first and second bans. In 1792, it resulted in armies of varied quality and mixed composition. The shortage of cadres due to emigration also contributed to the overall quality of the regular regiments.

The artillery of the Royal army was a very efficient body with a high reputation. In addition, the government realized that any meddling with these technical troops, who did not include many nobles, would ruin their effectiveness. Fortunately for France, the artillery, because it included very few nobles in its ranks, was not suspected of sympathy for the King. It was the one arm of the service that was left unchanged by the Revolution and practically untouched by emigration. In the early campaigns of the Revolution, it was the artillery that provided the steady core in divisions and armies around which the often shaky infantry battalions could rally. As we'll see later, the victory of Valmy was largely due to the efficiency and bravery of the artillery.

In addition, most of the artillery officers sympathized with the Revolution while most of the cavalry officers did not. Another detail of importance was that their uniform was blue, which was acceptable to the revolutionaries, in contrast to the white of the infantry (white was the King's color). Consequently, it did not have to absorb large numbers of volunteers and remained a true professional arm.

Surprisingly, the cavalry, although an aristocratic arm par excellence, suffered much less than the infantry from the upheavals of the Revolution. One of the reasons for the few changes, beside the eradication of their old distinctive titles, is that it was impossible to improvise mounted troops rapidly. Hence, it was necessary, at least for the time being, to keep at the service of the Republic the cavalry officers that were willing to serve. However, emigration of officers was very severe in the cavalry, and because of the shortage of cadres, the quality of the French cavalry suffered greatly in the early campaigns of the Revolution. In 1792, French cavalry was no match for the Austrian and Prussian mounted arms.

More Battle of Valmy September 20, 1792

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