Operations in the Napoleonic Era

Operations in the Napoleonic Era

Assignment: six-to-eight-page paper (1,650 to 2,000 words, double-spaced) on the topic of subordinate command and military operations in the Napoleonic Era.

Here are the documents that you will use to write the paper:
3 corps documents ulm maneuver.docx (See uploaded Reading-3 corps documents ulm maneuver)

Here is a link to a semi-animated map of the campaign (the relevant section for this paper is “Phase 2”):
https://pages.uoregon.edu/ulmausterlitzmap/Links to an external site.

Here are some additional materials (the organization of the III Corps and a map of Ansbach):
Fsm-Ansbach_1791.png (See uploaded Pic)
Organization of Davout’s III Corps.pdf (See uploaded Reading-Organization of Davout’s III Corps)

You only need to use all materials provided as your sources and cite them all in MLA Format. No outsides sources are allowed.

The topic and question you are to address

The topic for this paper is the role of a subordinate commander on campaign in the Napoleonic era. What were their responsibilities and tasks? What kinds of issues did subordinate commanders have to worry about? How did they they deal with them?

The example we are using for this paper is Marshal Louis Davout, the commander of III Corps of Napoléon’s Grande Armée during the 1805 campaign. As commander of III Corps, Davout was subordinate to Napoleon and his staff, but was commanding officer of the four divisions placed under his command during the period we are looking at (three infantry divisions and III Corps’ cavalry plus an additional division of heavy cavalry that was temporarily attached to his corps).

For the purposes of this paper, you are to use the collection of documents (See all uploaded materials and links) I have translated for this assignment (and posted on the Canvas assignment site). These documents represent a selection of the letters addressed to Davout, both by his superiors and subordinates, as well as letters sent by Davout or his staff officers, either to Napoleon or to one of Davout’s subordinates.

These documents cover the ten days that for Davout’s corps to move from the Rhine River to the Danube River. They begin on 24 September 1805, the day III Corps began to cross the Rhine, and end on 6 October, as Davout was preparing to cross the Danube. The collection includes a total of forty-nine distinct documents and they cover a range of issues, so an important part of your job in this paper is to make some decisions about which topics you want to address and which documents you want to use to illustrate or prove your points.

The aim of this assignment is replicate in a small way the situation that historians typically face when writing history. At least in modern history, you always have much more material than you can possibly talk about or use. One of the historian’s most important tasks is to make decisions about what is and what is not important for what they want to say.

You are the historian here. Your task is to explain what subordinate commanders in a Napoleonic army did. The materials that you will use to construct your history is this collection of documents.

It is not necessary to do any further research: the documents contain what you need. If you are at a loss, you should talk to one of us (either myself or one of the graders). If you want a model or bit of inspiration, take another look at the chapter by Rory Muir on “Subordinate Commanders, Staff Officers, and ADCs” in his book on tactics and battle. Note, however, that Muir’s topic is different than ours: Davout’s III Corps did not engage in a battle in the period that we are examining. The III Corps would shortly be engaged in battle. Davout is usually regarded an outstanding battlefield general. But in this assignment, we are following him on a march through southwestern Germany: the topic therefore is not battlefield maneuver or tactics but military operations.

How to proceed with this assignment

My advice is to begin by quickly reading through the documents to get a sense of what is in there. I would print them: that will save you a lot of time in the long run and make it much easier to find things later. If you take notes at this stage, only do so to indicate thematic possibilities, issues that you may want to address, and to connect those themes to specific documents. (For instance: Food, doc x, y, and z).

As a second step, make a decision about what topics you want to address. There are a large number of possibilities (organization of marches, the importance of indicating locations, food supplies, munitions, requisitions and treatment of the local population, the crossing of Ansbach, pay, necessary preparations for the anticipation of battle, river crossings, troop discipline, staffing, etc.). You cannot talk about everything, so make a decision with the understanding that there are many “correct” ways of doing this paper.

Third, return to the documents with your themes in mind and identify some supporting material. That material can be anecdotes or illustrations of some topic; events or moments that are particularly illuminating; and passages of text that you may want to use in your paper. You want to cite the documents but you also want to choose your citations with care. You need to make sure that your quotes do what you want them to do (that they illustrate the point you are making). You also do not want to avoid citing so much that they overwhelm your authorial voice: subordinate your materials to the purposes of your paper and your argument. Make the documents work for you.

Finally, you need to make a decision regarding the order in which you want to discuss your topics. There are many different ways of ordering your topics. As a general rule, it is easiest to start with the simplest and move in the direction of the more complicated. However you end up organizing your material, you do want an introduction that orients the reader with respect to your topic and major themes.

How to cite the documents

You only need to use all materials provided as your sources and cite them all in MLA Format. No outsides sources are allowed.

As in the first (short) paper, you should use an abbreviated MLA citation method. Every document in the document collection is numbered and has a title. After that title, I have indicated the source with a coded reference. You should use that code for your reference.

For instance, if citing or referring to document #6, use “A/C II, 563-4”:

Davout ordered that “best discipline shall be maintained.” (A/C II, 563-4)

Or, if citing document #7:

Napoleon ordered Davout to establish regular communications with General Marmont. (Nap V, 738)