Note: This article was published in EE&L Vol. 1 No. 68, back in 1982. It is a complement to our article on the evolution of the permanent Divisions of the armies of the Revolution to the Army Corps of the Wars of the Empire. Dr. Paddy Griffith, a former senior lecturer of the Royal Academy of Sandhurst, is a professional historian, author of many books and a frequent contributor to EE&L since 1981.
As wargamers we tend to field armies of about Divisional strength, and in our games we pretend to "command" them. Of great interest to us, therefore, should be the means by which real Napoleonic Division commanders were able to exercise that command - the officers and aides through whom orders were transmitted.
I have very little information on this point; and would welcome any comments which other EEL. readers could give me. For what it is worth, however, see the pattern as more or less as follows:
The Division Commander (General de Division) would be an up-and-coming officer with considerable experience but rather limited opportunities for making personal initiatives. By 1807 the Division was no longer the independent all arms force which it had been in the 1790's, but was not strictly subordinated to the corps HQ. It was only at the level of the corps that a truly "all arms" force could be said to exist. it was the corps which formed the basic maneuver unit of the army -no longer the Division. The requirement for staffwork within the Division was thus much reduced from what it had once been, although the vestigial organization for it was still deployed.
The Division commander would have two captains and one major attached to his person to act as aides de camp. Their job would be to look after the general, help him sort through his personal paperwork, act as a screen between him and those who wanted to talk to him. They might occasionally act as couriers for more important letters, but that was not their main function.
Most Important Man
The most important man on the Divisional staff was the chief of staff or Adjutant-commandant. He would have the rank of brigade general, and he was effectively the second in command of the Division. He was empowered to sign correspondence for the Division commander, and would stand in for him if for any reason the Divisional commander was unable to fulfill his functions. The Adjutant-commandant was the Division commanders right hand man. He would be sent out to lead the troops in any particularly difficult action, or to rally them, make reconnaissance etc. (provided that the Division commander did not feel he had to do these things himself).
Most important, the Adjutant-commandant was responsible for the smooth running of the Divisional staff. His assistant was a chef de bataillon adjoint, or Officier charge des details de la Division (Officer in charge of the Division details). He was, in effect, the adjutant to the chief of staff, who looked after the details of staffwork while the chief of staff looked after the principles and higher policy. The chef de bataillon adjoint's office was the Postal address of the Division HQ, and at night it would be prominently lit with lanterns so that couriers could find it.
The main business of the staff - the order-writing and routine reporting was done by three "capitaines-adjoints. They were the executives of Division HQ, and at least one of them would always be on duty, possibly standing in for the chef de bataillon when he was asleep.
The riding staff of the Division was fairly extensive. Permanently attached would be a small number of subalterns acting as Officiers de Correspondance (i.e. couriers), and they would be reinforced on an ad hoc, temporary basis by others detached from the regiments to act as Officiers d'Ordonnance. Between these two groups was divided the task of carrying daily reports and orders between the Division HQ and the corps HQ, the other Divisions in the corps and the sub-units of the Division. They in turn could draw upon a detachment (or Picquet d'Ordonnance) of perhaps nine private soldiers and one Nco from the cavalry. Normally the cavalrymen would be used to carry routine letters, while the officers would take the more important ones. The cavalrymen might also be used for outpost work and other odd jobs around the HQ, such as riding as an escort for a commander.
One of the functions of the Divisional HQ staff was the collection of intelligence.Apart from liaison with sub-units, this was done directly by the Adjutant-commandant's office. Some of it was clandestine and exciting, although usually that sort of thing was left to the partie secrete (secret service) of the army corps HQ. At Divisional level most intelligence activity was a matter of collecting local guides (preferably from the educated families of the neighborhood) and picking their brains.
In principle there might be half a dozen of these, although it varied a great deal. They would be guarded by the gendarmes attached to Divisional HQ. There might also be an officier interprete (interpreter officer) to interrogate them and organize other aspects of intelligence.
There might be up to a dozen gendarmes attached to Divisional HQ with a varied military police responsibility. In addition others would be detached in small units along the line of communication of the Division and the corps.
Other Staffs
So far we have discussed the commander of the Division and his chief of staff's office. In addition to these there were three other components of the Divisional HQ which were all of great importance - the artillery, engineer and administrative staffs. The artillery staff of the Division was under a chef de bataillon with a capitaine-adjoint and a conducteur. Their job was to look after the administration of the Division's batteries, linking them with the corps artillery commander and perhaps also the corps park. The artillery commander of the Division would also advise the Division commander on artillery matters.
A similarly role was fulfilled by the engineer staff of the Division, although in this case there would rarely be any actual troops under command. The specialized sappers were held at corps level, although detachments might sometimes be made to Divisions, or regiments would use their pioneers plus requisitioned labour for engineer tasks as they arose. The engineer staff consisted of an engineer captain and perhaps a capitaine-adjoint. Most of their time would be spent advising the Division commander and making reconnaissances and maps.
The administrative staff was far more complex than either the artillery or the engineer staffs. Its command was split between a sous-inspecteur aux revues, responsible for inspection and auditing, and a commissaire de guerre, who actually commanded the administrative units and organized their activities. These consisted of the following services:
-
(1) Vivres pain (Food: bread) *
(2) Vivres viande (Food: meat) *
(3) Regie des fourrages (forage)*
(4) a reserve ambulance and a Divisional ambulance
(5) a Divisional hospital
(6) a payeur (paymaster) with a staff and treasury caisson,
(7) the services des postes (post office) and habillement (clothing) (often not represented)
(8) the service des equipages
(*) later united under a 'directeur general des vivres-reunis' (Director of subsistence)
Overall, therefore, we could make up a typical table of organization for the Divisional staff which might look something like this, when batmen and other hangers-on are included:
| Position | Officers | Other |
|---|---|---|
| Division Commander | 3 | 15 |
| Adjutant Commandant | 8 | 35 |
| Artillery Staff | 2 | 5 |
| Engineer Staff | 2 | 0 |
| Administrative Staff | 12 | 150-254 |
| Total | 27 | 55 plus admin. staff |
Note that the whole organization varied radically from one Division to another or from one moment to the next. I am not aware that the divisional staff composition was ever clearly laid down in one document as a regulation TO&E, consequently it fluctuated wildly on campaign. But, however, the above was the general skeleton of the divisional staff organization.
Each brigade staff had a commander, an aide de camp, an officier d'ordonnance and two or three cavalrymen for riding duties. This amounted, in effect, to no more than the personal assistants of the brigade commander himself, and most of his business would be conducted verbally. The administrative functions at this level would mostly be the responsibility of individual regiments.
Staffwork was what made Napoleon's armies victorious. When we make a wargame, therefore, we should give it the absolutely highest priority. Beside staffwork the actions of infantry, cavalry and artillery were relatively unimportant. Yet out of every 100 wargamers I doubt that there is even one who has fully considered this point.
Sources:
(1) De Philip, Lt. Col., Etude sur les services d'Etat-Major pendant les guerres du Premier Empire.(Paris, Chapelot, 1900)
(2) G.Lechartier P. Capt., Les services de l'arriere de la Grande Armee, 1806-7. (Paris, 1910)
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© Copyright 1997 by Jean Lochet
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