Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier - 720 Words

During the years 1800 to 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte was preparing a large army. His goal was to spread the idea of the French Revolution and ultimately expanded Frances bountiful pride and glory. The way this was going to happen, according to Napoleon, was through expanding French territory. In order to do this he would need a large army, so that involved enlisting men by conscription. The army was filled with French men, as well as men from Germany and other surrounding areas. The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier looks first hand look at the life of an average soldier at the time, Jakob Walter. He was a nineteen year old german boy enlisted by conscription and assigned to regiment Romig, later known as Franquemont Regiment. In somewhat of†¦show more content†¦He did supply the men with clothing, but not the kind of clothing they needed for the Russian winter, because Napoleon was not expecting for the expansion to take as much time as it did. The men were not always lacking in food, clothes, and shelter, in some places they were treated well and given plenty of alcohol and food to keep them occupied. Some areas the men passed through they would exploit the common people to get ahold of the necessities they needed. From the beginning Walter was relentless in getting the things that he knew he would need. When he had to requisition food from a village he found a Jewish man, he had to chase after him and finally caught up to him in an attic of a house in which there were many women and children. In Walters own words he said, I took him, dragged him down the two flights of stairs, and had to hold him by the coat and kick him forward for two hours, threatening him if he should fail to lead me the right village (pg. 6). This was just one example of how poorly the common people were treated and this continued throughout every campaign, but was soon returned to them when they entered into Russia. The soldiers were faced with attacks from the Cossacks in Russia andShow MoreRelated Napoleons Russian Campaign Essay2887 Words   |  12 PagesSmolensk, Barclay’s army was anxiously guarding the city’s right side. Napoleon though swung around to the Russians left side, crossed the Dnieper River and attacked the city from the south. A courageous rearguard action by a group of 9,500 Russian soldiers under General Neverovsky gained enough time for the First and Second Western Armies to unite in the city and hear Barclay’s command. Bargation and most of the generals were determined to make a stand but Barclay disagreed with them. He recognized