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graemecallister.bsky.social
Senior Lecturer in History and War Studies, York St John University, UK. Interested in everything Napoleonic, Revolutionary, and the general history of conflict.
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Not so much 1807, but I suspect Peninsular War units were behind some of the drafts. The biggest were July 1808 to the 118e (493 men), Dec 1810 to the 34e (319 men), & Nov 1812 to the 132e (140 men). In total 58 went to the Imperial Guard & 106 to the Artillery Train, but not all at the same time.
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Bear in mind some of Napoleon's major battles came in the earlier period: Austerlitz (1805) Jena-Auerstadt (1806) Eylau (1807) Friedland (1807) Eckmuhl (1809) Aspern-Essling (1809) Wagram (1809) The 33e played a role in all of them.
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In total, 6473 men were recruited into the regiment March 1803 to March 1811, and 6742 were recruited April 1811 to April 1814. The corresponding losses were 5002 (before Apr 1811) and 8137 (from Apr 1811). The two biggest loss peaks pre-1811 are contingents being transferred to other regiments.
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Absolutely. The regiment (and indeed much of the army) was virtually wiped out twice in two years.
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It's slightly impressionistic, but we can start to see here the sheer scale of losses in 1812 and 1813 compared to earlier in the wars. Again, any man who returned to the unit at any point is not included in these figures - these are just men never heard of again for one reason or another. /End
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So if we add men last recorded in the registers as POW/presumed POW (i.e. they were never heard of again by the regiment), we get this graph. Note it isn't totally accurate, as the 'presumed POW' in 1813 don't have exact dates, so I've divided them evenly between months of active campaigning. 6/
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But this may again not be an accurate reflection of loss, as many men who disappeared or were left behind on the battlefield after a defeat were just recorded as 'presumed POW'. This was especially the case in 1813, when 1,844 men were 'presumed POW'. 5/
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So if we add in men last recorded as wounded or hospitalised to the numbers, we get this graph. As you can see, losses in September 1812 (Borodino) and Oct/Nov (the retreat) are enormous, dwarfing those of earlier in the wars. 4/
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There are clusters of losses around major campaigns, but 1812 seems remarkably light in losses. I suspect this is because of how losses were recorded - the regiment never received news of most men hospitalised during the campaign, so couldn't update records. 3/
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Here's a month-by-month breakdown of deaths (all causes) where an exact date is recorded. As you'd expect, a few small spikes for outbreaks of illness, larger spikes for major battles (Eylau Feb 1807, Wagram July 1809, Borodino Sep 1812). Large spikes in early 1814 probably deaths in garrisons. 2/
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It usually means they'll have spent months in hospital, often on campaign when the regiment will have moved on. So they might have recovered and been sent to continue service in another unit, been discharged from the army, or died - but nobody told the 33e what had happened to their soldier.
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It started off at about 1,200 men, and expanded to around 5,000 by the start of the Russian campaign in 1812. For most of the period it would have been 2-3,000 men in the regiment at any one time.
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There's so much more detail to get out of this, so if anyone's interested I can post a few updates with new analysis from time to time. But for now that's just a brief overview of what is recorded of the fates of Napoleon's soldiers. /End
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Only 237 of the 14,812 soldiers of the 33e Ligne remained with the regiment to be discharged when the army was disbanded in September and October 1815. (Another 1,200 soldiers were drafted in from elsewhere to make up the numbers in 1815). The odds of coming through unscathed were poor. 11/
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154 men - over 1 in 100 - were promoted from the ranks. I haven't yet traced career trajectories, but some went on to further promotion, at least up to Chef de Bataillon. 14 men - or 1 in 1000 - received the Legion d'Honneur. Seven were eventually made officers & seven remained in the ranks. 10/
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More than one in ten men transferred to other units, often new regiments later in the empire (e.g. 493 men to the 118e, 140 to 132e). A few became gendarmes or medical orderlies. 58 men transferred to the Imperial Guard. 9/
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The desertion figure (1,396) also only includes deserters who never returned. But it is skewed hugely towards deserters in 1803-5 (c.15% of conscripts of that period), mass desertions from conscripts of late 1813, and a burst of desertion after Waterloo. Other desertion during the war was low. 8/
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The POWs include more or less any man not explicitly recorded as killed, wounded or returned from Russia in 1812, and almost all men lost in 1813 if their exact fate was not known. The 3,814 listed only includes those who never returned to the regiment. Many probably perished. 7/
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The deadliest battles were: Austerlitz - 17 KIA Jena-Auerstadt - 10 Czarnowo - 6 Eylau - 89 Friedland - 3 Eckmuhl - 19 Aspern-Essling - 10 Wagram - 56 Smolensk - 9 Borodino - 83 Krasnoi - 25 Nollendorf - 7 Others died in smaller or unrecorded actions. 6/
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There are huge nuances, but here's a tiny bit of detail. Of 2,459 men recorded as dying in service: 393 killed in battle 193 died of wounds 1260 died of illness 574 no cause of death recorded 12 'killed' 9 drowned 8 accidents 6 'suddenly' 21 as POW 4 suicide 4 in prison 5 in lodgings/en route 5/
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Died: 2,459 Last seen in hospital: 1,433 Wounded: 1,026 POW (includes many men missing after defeats): 3,814 Discharge (mostly medical): 2,071 Transferred: 1,559 Promoted to officer: 154 Deserted: 1,396 Discharged late 1815: 237 Missing: 153 Condemned: 29 Replaced: 88 Long absence: 46 Other: 364 4/
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The records aren't perfect in saying what happened to men - in many cases, once the man was detached from the regiment there was no further information about his fate. But the main reasons given for leaving were:...3/
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The 14,829 entries represent 14,812 individual soldiers recruited up to the Bourbon restoration of 1814 (with 17 false or double entries). 651 were soldiers of the early Revolution. 736 were replacements or substitutes. 120 were volunteers. 13,305 were conscripts. 2/
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Not sure this Wesley chap will amount to much. I hear he spend his time playing a violin and engaging in debauchery (not at the same time). He can't even decide if he's an infantryman or cavalryman.
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Not yet. I wanted to but could never find three hours spare to watch it! Is it any good?
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That is very interesting! I got a couple in the 1815 army, but none in the 33e so far. A couple of unexplained gunshots, and one or two unexplained 'tué', but no explicit duelling deaths. So either the 33e were very good duellists, or too disciplined to fight, or just didn't record them!
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Each battalion had a muster book, but their survival is another matter. I've found a couple of entries into the regimental register of men who'd been in service several years in the battalion muster, and only when they were discharged did anyone notice they were missing from the regimental register!
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I've also come across dropsy - 20 men in my sample of the 33e (c.8400 men) died of it, many in their early 20s. I assume pre-existing health conditions?
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It's something I need to look into a bit more. Certainly in Britain it was illegal, and a suicide's possessions were forfeit to the crown, so a coroner's jury would often say 'temporarily insane' or find accidental death to spare stigma/punishment for family. Not sure if the same in France.
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I've found a couple after the first abdication in 1814 who deserted the British army and returned to the French, and ended up fighting in 1815. But I haven't as yet found any amnestied in the same way.
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Certainly seems plausible. Veteran units tended to lose fewer stragglers and have fewer men reporting sick anyway, so that would have helped. More physically hardened, better small-group cohesion - all might have given advantages. They could also have been lucky, e.g. left in garrison near frontier
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Yes, the suicide is recorded as such. There have been three in 8,400 records of the 33e I've looked at so far - but I suspect that some of the 'gunshots', 'accidents', or just 'mort' without details might also be, just not recorded. (But they could also be murder, genuine accidents, or natural!)
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Unfortunately not in the records I looked at. I suspect the men joining the Polish army may have found themselves lost or starving, and joined to survive, but I'm speculating. Because the men were amnestied, there are unlikely to be interrogation records to tell us more - so we may never know.
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Absolutely. To give another example from the 33e: a contingent of 221 men joined the regiment on 18 April 1811, mostly from Alsace and the Rhineland. 182 of those men were lost (incl. killed, wounded & POW, or just POW) in Russia between 15 July and 15 December 1812.
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None of the eleven were ever promoted in the rest of their careers, but all apparently served faithfully. One transferred to another regiment, six were lost in Russia, and one committed suicide. Three made it through to 1815 - when two promptly deserted after Waterloo. End/
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Although their records listed that they had 'deserted to the enemy', none of the eleven men actually bore arms against France. Perhaps for this reason, all eleven received a pardon and were reintegrated into the French army. 5/
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The other three men joined Austrian service after deserting the French army, two in infantry battalions & one in the hussars. All three deserted in 1809. One man, who had been in the 63e Ligne, deserted amidst vicious fighting at the Battle of Wagram (6 July 1809) & went over to the Austrians. 4/
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Poland was a French ally, but French citizens needed the permission of the emperor before taking service in foreign armies, so these men were not just considered deserters, but 'deserters to the enemy'. 3/
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Eight of the men had deserted French service while campaigning in Eastern Europe 1806-8 and joined the Polish army. Three joined the Polish 15th Line, two the 5th Line, one each to the 6th and 8th, and one joined the 11th Uhlans. 2/
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A sad tale indeed - and one probably replicated in thousands of cases across France. Thanks for sharing this one.
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Last time except for 1940...