The QUESTIONS and ANSWERS section intends to answer specific questions from the readership. Some questions may remain temporarily unanswered, and answers may be provided by the EE&L readership. Discussions following seminars are a lot of fun and always full of surprises. The attendants always come up with questions simply impossible to anticipate and which may require different degrees of research. The following are some of the questions that were unanswered or partially answered at a lecture I attended given by George Nafziger at Historicon 93, called French Napoleonic Infantry Marches in which the different rates of march used by the French army were discussed: Question 1: Was it standard practice for infantry to discard their backpack for the duration of the battle and recover them afterward? Answer: As far as I know that was not standard practice in Continental armies with the notable exception of the Russian army which is known, at least on some occasions, to have discarded their backpacks for the duration of battles or at least prior to an attack. Without doing extensive research, I know of two instances in which the backpacks of defeated Russian infantry were captured by the French. The first instance is at Austerlitz and the other took place at the Battle of Pultusk (December 26/ 27, 1807). The following is a most significant a quotation from the Journal du 3eme Corps. [1] It reads: "...The skirmishers took post ahead of the columns, which were now formed of double companies to follow the skirmishers through the woods. The enemy made a strong resistance, and finally discarded their knapsacks a Russian habit (emphasis mine, JAL) to charge with the bayonet. But the fire of the French columns and the activities of the skirmishers forced them to abandon the woods, leaving their 4000 knapsacks behind..." Question 2: The question was raised about greatcoats. If I recall correctly, someone asked if greatcoats were worn during battles. Answers: (1) It is obvious that during the winter, great- coats were worn by all troops who had been issued them, and would be worn in battle. (2) At the time, I mentioned that the French light infantry received great coats only at the end of 1806. [2] (3) It is reported that in Spain, some French infantry were wearing their great coat instead of their regular coat. Question 3: Do you have examples of the French infantry using the "pas de course"? Answer: Yes, there are several well documented instances of the "pas de course" being used by French infantry. Two well documented examples took place at  Austerlitz. The first one took place during the capture of the Pratze village lead by Thiebault, and the second, after the capture of the Pratzen. Both events are related in Christopher Duffy, Austerlitz, pp. 115-6: "...Thiebault was soon at hand to restore order. He pointed out the 36th Line at the village, with the second battalion of the 14th Line to its left, and ordered the three battalions to attack without more ado. The French deployed at the run, and they swept through the village with such an elan that the Novgorod battalions gave way and carried the Apsheron grenadiers with them in their flight. " The second event took place after the French captured the Pratzen and after the Russian General Kamensky attacked the French columns pouring over the Pratzen: "...He (Kamensky) at once turned the two regiments about and led them back up the slope against the right flank of St.Hilaire's breakthrough. The enterprising Russians flooded around the 10th Light, and Morand's little command was saved from destruction only when Saint- Hilaire in person brought up the first battalion of the l4th Line at the run and inserted it on the right." The timely "insertion" of the 2nd battalion of the 14th Line is well illustrated in the following map [3] , (reproduced with the kind permission of Christopher Duffy). Question 4: What was the typical weight carried by an infantryman? Answer: Napoleon in his project of organization of the French army anticipated that the soldier should carry no more than 40 (French) pounds (about 44 pounds avoir du pois)..But, in 1810, General Foy [4] apparently puzzled, decided to weight the knapsack, the whole heap of gear (foumiment), the cartridge pouch, the 50 cartridges, the musket, the sabre-briquet, the greatcoat, the 10 days of biscuit, and the 4 days of bread carried by the soldier to embark on a campaign. And following are the results of his experiment: "I found that three soldiers so loaded carried the first one 64 pounds (58 1/2 French pounds), the other 68 (62 French pounds), and the third one 69 pounds (63 French pounds) and concluded never men were so abused then in the present days." Was that weight unusual?.. Certainly not. Commandant Bucquoy in La Garde Imperiale (reprint by Grancher, Paris, 1977) p.49, mentions that the weight of all the equipment carried by a grenadier of the Imperial Guard was 32 kilograms (70 pounds). There is little doubt that Foy's experiment was representative of the average weight carried by the French soldier and probably by the soldiers of other nations. It has been reported by many historians that the Roman soldier campaigned while carrying enormous weights. The Napoleonic soldier did the same. In addition put a few (essential) [5] bottles of wine, the cooking gear for the squads that had it, and miscellaneous goodies purchased or "found" during "the hazards of war" and the weight to be carried could even be higher. It's interesting to note that, if he tried to discard his food, or for one reason or another or had no food in his haversack, the load was replaced by and equal weight of sand! [6] QUESTION 5: What was the average road speed of the French infantry? ANSWER: On a good road, Marshal Foch in his Des principes de la Guerre [7] related that Lannes and Augereau Corps during the march to Saalfeld moved from Grdffenthal to Saalfeld at an average of 4 kilometers per hour, that is about 2.5 miles per hour. It should be noted that the road from Graffenthal to Saalfeld was an excellent so-called high road. No doubt that on poor roads the average road speed was somewhat less and depended highly on the road's condition. On occasion, the abysmal conditions of the roads, reduced speeds to a crawl, like during the Campaign of Poland in 1806-7. ENDNOTES [1] The Journal de 3eme Corps, has been published by the staff of Davout's IIIrd Corps. It is an extremely reliable document using almost exclusively first hand reports written after each combat by the general officers of that corps. [2] Les unifbrmes des soldats dupremier empire, L'infanterie, Commandant Bucquoy, Jacques Grancher, Paris, 1979,p.293. [3] Duffy, Christopher, Austerlitz, p. 115, Seeley Service & Co. London, 1977. [4] Viie militaire du General Foy, Girod de l'Ain, Paris 1900, p.94-95. [5] "Pas de vin, pas de soldats!", is an old saying in the French army. That translates as "No wine, no soldiers!" One bottle of wine was usually carried in the shako and two could easily be fit in the grenadier's bearskin. Was that the secret reason the French grenadiers were somewhat reluctant to get rid of their bearskins? [6] This is what Davout did in 1812. His soldiers carried their sand until it was replaced with flour. Memoires, Caulaincourt, vol p. 343 [7] Des principes de la guerre, Colonel Foch, Paris, 1903. [8] We'll be glad to publish any complement of information on our questions and partial answers. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 3 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com