Ernest Marsh Lloyd

A Review of the History of Infantry Ernest Marsh Lloyd Facsimile edition of 1908 edition

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... VIII THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1792-1815) "They will be beat; they want discipline; they have no subordination:" such was the prediction which Arthur Young heard on all sides when the French declared war against Austria in April 1792. He was unwilling himself to play the prophet, but " thus much I may venture, that the expectation of destruction to France has many difficulties to encounter. Give all you please to power of field evolution, depending on the utmost strictness of discipline--you must admit that it bears only on the question of battles. But guarded as France is, by the most important fortresses the world knows, why hazard battles?... Oil and vinegar, fire and water, Prussians and Austrians, are united to carry war among twenty-six millions of men, arranged behind one hundred of the strongest fortresses in the world." 1 He came to the conclusion that if these people cared for freedom, as they seemed to do, and were but tolerably united, the attack would be full of difficulties. Even he did not dream, however, that before the end of the year the invasion would be repelled, the Austrians would be driven out of their own Netherlands, and the French be masters of Mayence. To a professional eye the French army was in a deplorable state at this time. As Trochu has said, the French are a warlike rather than a military people, and discipline had always been slack. There had been little sympathy 1 Young, p. 350. lit between officers and men, drawn as they were from widely different classes; and the progress of the Revolution had increased their alienation. In May 1791 the National Assembly authorised the soldiers to attend meetings of the patriotic clubs, where they were incited against their officers; and in August it decided that half the vacancies cause...