France Napoleonic badge

[francophile50]

I am creating a Imperial couriers uniform.This would have been from around 1807.There was a badge created that is displayed on a line drawing from Herbert Knotel.The drawing doesn't show definition,just placement of the badge.Can anyone recommend how I can research this badge?I need a picture or even just a description of it.Any help would be appreciated.Thanks,Sincerely Scott

[francophile50]

This article was sent to me recently and translated from French:

Napoleon and telecommunications (Article of QUENNEVAT Jean-Claude)

Postal service under the Empire the air telegraph under the Empire

transmissions in the Large Army

The constant territorial expansion of the French Empire could only

make increasingly acute for Napoleon the problem of the transmission

as fast and as easy as possible of any written message of an end to

the other of Europe. Here, as in good of other fields, we will see

the Emperor making as well as possible with the still antiquated

means of the previous century, whereas the new inventions all of the

XIXe century remain unemployed by him, fault of time to develop them

and draw from them the practical applications necessary. To treat of

this problem of telecommunications under the Empire, we called upon

the particular competence of the conservation of the Postal Museum.

For this reason, Mr. R. Rolland, exposes us, in a first article, the

operation of the imperial post office, which it acts of the letter

post, of the system of the estafettes or the post office to the

horses. He reveals us how the requirements of transfers of funds to

the army gave birth to the first "mandates", and, in all

objectivity, evokes the "black cabinet" with the censure touching

mainly the letters coming from abroad. What, in my opinion, does not

deserve wrongly to be interpreted like a mark of political despotism

since France, under the Empire, was in a state of war in a permanent

way, would be this only against England. The same specialist treats

then air telegraph of the brothers Chappe, invention recent to which

the First Consul, then the Emperor, will pay a very detailed

attention and of which it will highly encourage the development on a

scale more than national, from Amsterdam in Venice and Brest in

Vienna. We will retain however that this telegraph will remain the

property of the government, never not being able to be used for

private telecommunications. Following the two articles of Mr. R.

Rolland, specialist in the postal history, we, tried ourselves to

analyze the various means of military telecommunications used with

the Large Army. He comes out from it the paramount importance of the

drums and the trumpets as regards transmission at short distance, of

the gun for the messages at long distance, and the capital role and

very personnel played by the aide-de-camps for the port of the

higher orders on the battle fields. Lastly, we made follow the

article on the post office of a series of extracts of the Imp?rial

almanac of 1809 in order to deliver to the curiosity of the reader

an equivalent of our current calendar of P and T, at one time when

the French Empire was going to reach its apogee.

Postal service under the Empire.

ROBERT ROLLAND

When, May 18, 1804, the Empire is proclaimed, the postal service is

directed by Antoine Marie Chamant de Lavalette, general manager of

the Stations. All devoted to the Emperor, Lavalette remains at this

station until 1814. To the time chief of an administration and

collaborator of the Emperor, Lavalette directs his service with all

the authority necessary to ensure the speed and the permanence of

the postal communications. And it post office is all the more

essential as the telegraph, in spite of the unquestionable

advantages that it comprises, is not yet, far is necessary some,

able to compete with the Post office. The TRANSFORMATIONS OF the

POST OFFICE SINCE 1789 Strongly disturbed by the Revolution, the

post office was completely transformed in its administrative and

legal structures. Considered since the 17th century a monopoly of

State, the post office was put in farm: i.e. the postal exploitation

was entrusted to a company of financial which paid with the Royal

Treasury a royalty fixed by a lease renewed every five years. The

Farmers general of the Stations, very as much as those of gabelles

and other taxes, benefitted vast from the postal exploitation. But

the Farm of the Post offices disputed is maintained however until

the 25 frimaire year VIII (December 16, 1799): it is then replaced

temporarily by an interested control before becoming a Directorate-

General of the ministry for Finances. The Post office is then

placed, and for nearly one century, under the authority of the

Minister for Finance (1). The postal regulation into force was

published in 1792 in the form of a general Instruction on the postal

service: the drafting of this important text was entrusted to the

secretary-general Legrand, old agent of the Farm of the Stations and

which remains secretary-general until 1816. It is him which at the

sides of Lavalette directs the postal service. The monopoly of the

transport of the letters was defined by the decree of the consuls of

the 27 meadow year IX (June 16, 1801). Lastly, the 14 flor?al year X

(May 4, 1802), a new tariff for the Letter post was published. Thus

the new general manager Lavalette is with the head of an

administration which rests on solid legal bases, with a qualified

personnel, using tested methods and techniques. Two great services

are subjected to the authority of Lavalette: the Letter post on the

one hand, service of the Relays on the other hand. The LETTER POST

It is the service of transport and distribution of the

correspondences. We are far then from the traffic which the Post

office knows today which conveys each day of the million letters. In

1789 approximately 30 million letters had circulated in France by

the intermediary of the mail service. In 1821 the traffic rose to 45

million letters. This progression also appears by the number of the

offices which passes from 1284 in 1791 to 1.630 in 1815. The

personnel counts only a few hundreds of agents: 3.588 in 1815. The

letter, to be also rare more only formerly, is yet widespread in the

layers of the population. Only easy people can receive letters.

Because the port is paid by the recipient and not by the shipper,

like that is done generally today. The tariff is following it for

the simple letter weighing less than 7 grams. Up to 100

km............... 2 ten-per-cent taxes 100 to 200 km...............

3 ten-per-cent taxes 200 to 300 km............... 4 ten-per-cent

taxes 400 to 500 km............... 5 ten-per-cent taxes 500 to 600

km............... 7 ten-per-cent taxes 600 to 800 km...............

8 ten-per-cent taxes 800 to 1.000 km............... 9 ten-per-cent

taxes above 1.000 km...... 1 frank This tariff, fixed by the law of

the 27 frimaire year VIII will be modified by the law of the 14

flor?al year X bringing back to 6 grams the weight of the simple

letter. Finally the law of April 24, 1806 previously establishes

eleven zones of taxation instead of eight. How to send letters?

Either by depositing them at the office nearest, or as in Paris by

throwing them in the boxes laid out in certain streets. Paris has

eight offices and, in 1810, 308 letter boxes were installed in the

streets. In winter, the boxes are raised 5 times per day and 5

distributions are assured. In summer, from March 30 at October 1,

the number is changed to ten. The inhabitants of the Parisian

suburbs are less privileged: only one lifting and only one

distribution per day. In province certain communes have a post

office and the departure of the mails is variable, but in general

one counts a departure every two days. The letters for the foreigner

must be freed at the beginning: the shipper goes then to the post

office where stamping will be calculated according to the country of

destination. Postal conventions which govern the tax on the foreign

letters are negotiated between the various postal offices. The

regulation in force also specified the price to be paid for the

registered letters, the samples, the books and also the articles of

money. For the port of the money or gold matters, the rule in force

since 1791 was to make pay a tax equivalent to 5 percent of the

value of the sending. But the administration of the Stations was

responsible, in the event of loss, of the totality of the sum. The

trunks of mail thus transport often of the important money sums.

However it is interesting to note the measurements taken in favour

of the soldiers. A payment, February 17, 1808, envisaged the

suppression of the material transport of the money sums addressed to

the soldiers in Shift. The accountant was to preserve the money in

case and to address to his colleague of the destination office a

payable mandate at sight. Only the sums lower than hundred franks

per sending could be addressed according to the system which,

initially held to the soldiers in Shift, 1812 was extended to all

the soldiers in garrison. These provisions which ended into 1815

were taken again in 1817 but, this time, were applied to all the

users and either only with the soldiers: this is why the generally

quoted date of creation of the mandate is 1817, whereas the system

created at the post office with the armies dates from the First

Empire.

ESTAFETTES

If the creation of the mandate under the Empire did not strike the

spirits, on the other hand the development of the service of the

estafettes is much more known. According to Lavalette, the Emperor

himself paid all his attention to the correct operation of this

service: "It is at the time of 1805 that I made use into large

system of the estafettes that the Emperor ordered me to organize and

whose bases belonged to him. He had felt the disadvantage of making

cross with only one man of enormous distances. It arrived several

times that exceeded of tiredness or badly been useful mails did not

arrive at the liking of its impatience. It was not advisable to him

either to put between the hands of only one man of the news whose

prompt reception could have a serious and sometimes decisive

influence on the most important events. I thus organized by his

order the service of estafettes which consisted in making pass

through the postilions of each station the dispatches of cabinet

wrapped in a wallet of which we had, him and me, each one a key.

Each postilion transmitted to the following station a booklet where

the name of each station was registered and where the hour of the

arrival and the departure was to be reported. A severe fine and

sorrows, according to the repetition, punished the loss of the

booklet and the negligence of the postmaster to register the hour of

the arrival and the departure. I have much sorrow to obtain the

execution of these formalities. But with an active and constant

monitoring I out of wines with end and this service was done during

eleven years with a complete success and extraordinary results. I

could return to me one day account of delay in the space of 400

miles. The estafette left and arrived tous.les.jours of Paris and at

the points most moved away, Naples, Milan, the Mouths of Cattaro,

Madrid, Lisbon and consequently Tilsitt, Vienna, Presbourg and

Amsterdam. It was a relative economy besides, the mails cost by item

7 F 50, the estafette did not cost 3 franks. The Emperor received

the eighth day the answers written to the letters in Milan and

fifteenth in Naples. This service was very useful for him. It was, I

then the statement without vanity, one of the elements of its

successes ".

The POST OFFICE AND the POLICY it is seen, the correct operation of

the Post office was essential for the Emperor. Sometimes the Post

office becomes for him an instrument of government. The continental

Blockade is declared in November 1806. Article 2 of the decree

suspended any correspondence with the British Isles: "Any trade and

any correspondence with British Isles are prohibited. Consequently,

the letters or packages addressed or in England or to an English, or

written in English language, will not have course at the Stations

and will be seized (article 2)". The correspondence of Napoleon

shows all the importance which the Emperor attached to the execution

of this article. It thus writes in Gaudin the Minister for Finance

on which the Post office depended: "Made a circular and take

measures so that, in the extent of the Empire, all letters coming

from England or written in English and by English are put at the

reject. All that is extremely important, because England should

absolutely be insulated ". Napoleon If the monitoring of the letters

for England were, starting from the 1806, official control of the

correspondence by the Black Cabinet was it less. The Black Cabinet,

old institution functioned under Ancien R?gime and of many

personalities had had to complain about the violation of their

correspondences. Also, July 27, 1789, Stanislas de Clermont Tonnerre

wrote in the name of the French National Assembly: "the French

nation rises with indignation against the violation of the secrecy

of the post office, one of absurdest and the most infamous

inventions of the despotism". However in spite of this proclamation,

the Black Cabinet continued its work in spite of many declarations

of intents. And the 27 pluviose year IV, the Minister for Finance

addresses to the administrators of the Letter post: "great reasons,

Citizens Administrators, urge the Executive Directory to temporarily

establish a secret office in the Administration of the Stations to

check the Letters there going and coming from abroad...". Under the

Empire, the office workers secret continued to treat the letters of

the foreign ministers and many personalities, without forgetting

certain members the imperial family. A report/ratio, called "foreign

Gazettes" arrived daily at the Emperor without this one attaching to

it more importance than one did not have because, said it, "seldom

the conspiracies are treated by this way...". Metternich, which him

also, used of the postal censure, was hardly made illusion on the

use that one made of the letters addressed by the Post office. It

wrote to the director Stations to communicate to him a print of its

new seal: "I have the honor to point out to you that my seal has, by

misfortune, receipt a blow of punch. Please thus make some as much

with yours so that I continue to see me nothing ".

The CONQUERED DEPARTMENTS the political and even diplomatic problems

thus did not fail to influence on the operation of the post office.

The territorial conquests oblige the administrators of the Stations

to adapt the organization of the mail service. The new territories

were divided in departments. The postal administration will thus

come to form part of these new administrative structures. The same

rules of operation will be of use on all the territory of the

Empire. For that, the regulation was represented to be able to be

better included/understood populations and of the personnel charged

to apply it. Thus the general instruction of 1808 was translated

into Dutch and a bilingual edition published in 1810. In general the

personnel of the Stations in the conquered departments was selected

among people of the country; generally the agents remained at their

station, which facilitated the correct operation of the Stations in

the annexed territories.

The POST OFFICE WITH the HORSES a second great service was placed

under the authority of the general manager of the Stations: service

of the Relays, i.e. administration of the Post office to the horses.

The relays of station were used initially for the mails of the

administration of the Letter post: they found there mountings fresh

that the postmaster was held to reserve to them. Under Ancien

R?gime, the ma1tres of station enjoyed many privileges, in

particular out of tax matter. The Revolution removed them, which

involved a reaction of the postmasters who threatened to give up

their service to launch out in the companies of private transport

become very remunerative. It was necessary to increase the pledges

of the postmasters, to raise the tariffs of hiring of the horses.

But competition with the transport remained sharp. Also measures

they were taken to improve the situation of the postmasters whose

maintenance was essential with the correct operation of the

communications. Contractors of public cars, even if they did not use

the horses of the postmasters were held to pay them for each one of

their cars 25 centimes per horse and station (i.e. approximately 4

books). In addition, the development of the service of estafettes

supported the postmasters who placed their postilions at the

disposal of the administration to assure the transmission of the

urgent folds of the government. All the regulation concerning the

postal service to the horses, the tariffs, the nomenclature of the

various relays were indicated on the books of station, called

officially "general State of the roads of station". These

directories which allowed the travellers item some (2) to establish

their route as well as the price to be paid for their voyage was

updated and published each year.

Post with the horses, Letter post, throughout all the imperial one,

the postal communications are maintained thanks to the efforts of

the administrators and the vigilant authority of the Emperor.

Napoleon said that it was necessary to judge the prosperity of a

country to the accounts of his diligences. From this point of view,

the accounts of the post office under the Empire offer the example

of a happy country.

The air telegraph under the Empire.

ROBERT ROLLAND

On November 9, 1799 a telegram was transmitted to announce that the

Bonaparte General was named ordering force armed in Paris. The

following day, the executive power was entrusted to three Consuls:

Bonaparte, Si?y?s and Roger-Ducos. Claude Chappe then submitted to

the three Consuls a project of dispatch to announce this nomination,

but the communication could not take place because of the bad

weather. Between these two dispatches, one transmitted, the other

remained to the state of project, there was all the ambiguity of the

air telegraph: this remarkable instrument of communication had a

great weakness, that to be tributary of the atmospheric conditions.

Concerned Napoleon of effectiveness in his strategy, always carried

a keen interest to the development of the telegraph collections,

without, however to grant an absolute and final confidence to this

system which could be abruptly lacking to him.

The BRILLIANT INVENTION OF CLAUDE CAP the first official telegram

was transmitted on August 16, 1794 to announce the resumption of the

city of Quesnoy by the French troops fights the Austrians so much.

Filled with enthusiasm by this invention, the Conventional ones

ordered in Claude Chappe the construction of a second line towards

the East, the first connecting Paris in Lille. The telegraph network

thus included/understood, with the day before of the proclamation of

the Empire three principal lines Paris-Lille, Paris-Strasbourg by

Metz, Paris-Brest, this last line belonging to the ministry for the

Navy, while the two others depended on the ministry for the War.

This telegraph which had been spread in a few years on the country

had been developed by Claude Chappe, young physicist born in the

Sarthe. Having initially thought of using electricity to transmit

communications, Claude Chappe presents a project of air telegraph at

the French National Assembly which authorizes it to try a first

experiment of communications between two established stations one in

M?nilmontant, the second with Saint Martin of the Hillock. The

Lakanal deputy attended the experiment and wrote a favorable

report/ratio: Cap was then charged, with the title of "engineer

th?l?graphe" (sic) to build a line between Paris and Lille. In spite

of many financial obstacles or techniques which they met Cl Cap and

its collaborators succeeded in concluding their mission and the

telegraph started to function in August 1794. Of what thus did

consist this telegraph whose invention was cordially greeted by

Bar?re in front of Convention? The Chappe telegraph was a system of

remote control of signals carried out by apparatuses located at

suitable distances along a line. Each apparatus was composed of

three mobile arms: the regulator and two indicators laid out on the

ends of this one. These mobile arms connected by cables to the

levers laid out inside the station could take 196 different

positions. It was then enough to establish by convention a

correspondence between each one of its signals and their

significance. The first dispatches were transmitted letter by

letter. But it very quickly appeared necessary to establish a code

in which each signal would represent a word or a group words. The

first code, established by Leon Delanoy was composed of 9.999 words.

Then the Chappe brothers used three codes: the vocabulary of the

words (8.464 words of everyday usage), the vocabulary of the

sentences (8.464 sentences or expressions used also in a usual way)

finally a geographical vocabulary of 8.464 geographical places. The

transmission of the dispatches was done in the following way: when

two stations in direct relation were in operating condition the

transmission started. The movement of the apparatuses was given by

an agent called stationary. This one was satisfied to transmit

signals without knowing the significance of it, only the translators

in possession of the code could carry out the transcription. The

rules of transmission laid down into 1795 were used until 1830. Each

indicator could take 7 different positions, multiplied by the 7

positions of the other indicator, 49 combinations were obtained when

the regulator was in driving position and 49 when it was in

horizontal position. That represented on the whole 98 signals of

which 6 were reserved for special indications. The transmissions

could thus be ensured thanks to 92 signals representing figures 1 to

92. The telegrams were thus quantified: each figure corresponded to

one of the 92 words laid out on each 92 page of the vocabulary. Let

us recall that there were three different vocabularies. The message

thus indicated as a preliminary which vocabulary was to be used to

decipher the dispatch. The transmission of the message started then:

each stationary took note of the signals and a little further

repeated then the dispatch for another station located. Gradually,

the message was transmitted: with the arrival it was deciphered by a

translator in possession of the code. Although enough complexes,

this system allowed, when the best conditions were met, a very fast

transmission: thus on the line Paris Lille it took 2 minutes to

transmit a short dispatch and 6 minutes and half on the line Paris

Strasbourg. Mr. Henri Gachot whose studies on the Chappe telegraph

in Alsace are very important gives the following example: "With the

Director of the Telegraph in Strasbourg: answer your last dispatch

the army beat the enemy completely ". "These 18 words, says Mr.

Gachot, could be conveyed by the air route by using the three

following groups 4/55 - 53/21 and 12/13, is six signals for 18

words". (the air Telegraph in Alsace - Strasbourg 1968). The

stationary ones ended up acquiring a great dexterity in the handling

of the apparatuses. However related to the atmospheric conditions,

with the length of the messages, the solidity of the apparatuses,

the transmission was in general longer. And especially, it could be

stopped abruptly by a technical hitch or the sudden rise of a layer

of fog. In addition, the night, no communication could be carried

out.

The FIRST CONSUL AND the TELEGRAPH These difficulties did not fail

to aggravate Napoleon who was eager, above all, to have a fast and

sure information system. Also the Emperor will always keep a certain

mistrust with respect to the air telegraph. However, as of the

Consulate, Bonaparte takes measures so that the air telegraph is

placed at its disposal. The First Consul even intends to have

exclusiveness in it. A decree of the 4 vend?miaire year IX

(September 26, 1800) stipulates that "the Citizen Cap, engineer

telegraph, will not be able under some pretext, even for the details

of its service to make any transmission by the telegraph according

to the order signed by the First Consul". At that time Claude Chappe

had proposed that the telegraph is placed at the disposal of the

public. This measurement which would undoubtedly have caused a great

development of the process is refused. It is only into 1851 that the

administration of the telegraphs will be authorized to transmit

private dispatches. However, Claude Chappe, who notes with

bitterness the reduction by the First Consul of the appropriations

of management assigned to the telegraph, makes accept the principle

of the weekly transmission of the results of the Lottery. The

telegraph thus remains exclusively with the service of the

government. Thus the First Consul gave the order to urgently install

a telegraph line between Paris and Metz so that it could communicate

with the plenipotentiary ones joined together in Lun?ville for the

diplomatic Congress which was to with it to be held. Thirteen days

after the beginning of work, the line was in operating condition.

What showed well that the team animated by Claude Chappe had

acquired a great effectiveness.

The EXTENSION OF the TELEGRAPH NETWORK UNDER the EMPIRE In spite of

the often provided evidence of its effectiveness and its utility,

the telegraph did not have, under the Empire, a development as large

as one could suppose it. On the one hand, Claude Chappe, his

inventor, disappeared. In spite of the success which its invention

had obtained, Claude Chappe suffered much to be able to give to his

work a larger extension. He had had in particular the project to

carry out a European network of telegraph collections connecting the

large ports: Cadiz, Amsterdam, London, Calais, etc. He would have

also liked to create a daily telegraphic bulletin giving each day in

the large cities of the Empire the principal news. He had also

continued his research to improve the telegraph collections.

Napoleon in addition had charged Abraham Chappe with seeking the

means of establishing a telegraph collection of day and night

between the coasts of France and those of England. Napoleon thought,

at that time, to proceed to an unloading of his armies in England.

One can think that if it is Abraham which was in charge of this

task, this one did not fail to require of his/her Claude brother to

take part in the research tasks which were not continued because of

the abandonment of the project of unloading. Claude Chappe was then

reached this nervous disease which was to lead it to the suicide.

After the death of Claude Chappe, his brothers who since the

beginning, had been associated to him, continued his work. Ignace

and Pierre Chappe were named administrators, while Abraham was, on

his request, attache with the general staff of the Large Army.

Abraham had presented itself to provide these functions near the

Emperor. The Director of the Telegraph in Boulogne with his Majesty

the Emperor and King, Lord, I have the honor to ask Your Majesty to

create a place of Director of the Telegraph, attache to your Staff,

the purpose of following you everywhere where DOUS would order it

and to translate the telegrams which you would like to transmit or

who would be addressed to you. In addition to the advantage, for

Your Majesty, to be able to communicate of all the places where

there are telegraphs, it will result that not to be obliged to

entrust to an unknown Director of Your Majesty, dispatches which can

require a great confidence in that which is charged to translate

them. If this project deserved the approval of Your Majesty, I will

dare to claim your kindness the occasion to convince you of my zeal

and my entirety devotion. I have the honor to be with the deepest

respect, Lord, of Your very humble, very obeying and very the

subjected Majesty prone one. A. Cap Its request having been

approved, Abraham Chappe was named, 30 August 1805, "directing of

the telegraphs" near the Large Army. For this reason, it was

charged "to translate the telegrams that the Emperor, his lieutenant

and his Major G?n?ral will want to transmit or who will be addressed

to him". Abraham will occupy these functions until 1814. It was, in

addition, charged to visit the installations of the Paris-Strasbourg

line to see whether they were in state. The telegraph took more and

more importance and Napoleon paid a very detailed attention to his

development. Thus, undoubtedly informed the creations carried out in

nearby countries as England where an air telegraphic system had been

set up, the Emperor requires of the minister Navy, the admiral

Decr?s of the precise details on the new systems used in

France "Make me a short report and well clearly, which makes known

me which are the new telegraphs which you have just established. Are

this combinations of letters of the alphabet, like the ground

telegraph or of the signals? Can one send by these telegraphs the

order to the squadron of Cadiz to make a mouvemen, or to prevent it

exit of a squadron of Toulon or Brest? "it is seen, Napoleon would

have agreed to have a network which enabled him to direct from Paris

of the strategic operations, putting moving its armies or its

squadrons of North at the South of Europe. Various measurements are

taken in this direction: the line of North is prolonged in 1808 to

Antwerp and with the entry of the mouths of the Scheldt to the port

of Flessingue. This line will reach Amsterdam in 1810. Towards

Italy, the Paris-Lyon line is prolonged to Turin in 1805, Milan in

1809 and finally Venice in 1810. Napoleon took care personally of

the development of the network as its correspondence testifies some.

March 16, 1809, he writes to the Minister of Interior Department: "I

wish that you make complete without delay the telegraph line from

here in Milan and that in fifteen days, one can communicate with

this capital". April 10 of the same year, he writes to Prince

Eugene, to viceroy of Italy, to specify to him that "the 15, the

telegraph must communicate with Milan, he delays me well to know

that this communication is open". In 1810, the telegraph network

reaches its greater development: from Amsterdam in Venice, from

Brest in Vienna, the telegraphic stations multiply and ensure the

fast communications increasingly necessary as the Empire increases.

In fact, the telegraph network is used in a way complementary to the

other means of information: the mails with horse, the estafettes

which the Emperor affectionnait continued to transport the urgent

messages, sometimes even on portions of temporarily stopped

telegraph lines. On the Vienna-Strasbourg line the telegraph system

Cap which could not have been installed, it was necessary to be

satisfied to transmit signals made up with flags of various colors.

With the return of the Countryside of Russia, the Emperor ordered

the prolongation of the Paris-Strasbourg line to Mainz. Work was

carried out in two months and on May 29 the 1813 first dispatches

were transmitted.

The TELEGRAPH DURING the HUNDRED DAYS the return of the Emperor and

his unloading to the Juan Gulf were announced to the government by a

telegram coming from Lyon. The progression of the Emperor was

followed, hour per hour, thanks to the dispatches which followed one

another. The baron de Vitrolles made telegraph with Sir, brother of

the king, a dispatch which shows the anxiety of the king well in

front of the striking down walk of the Emperor "His Majesty orders

that it leaves tous.les.jours two estafettes for Paris with all the

details which one will have been able to join together and which the

telegrams unceasingly follow one another the ones the others". March

21, the duke of Bassano dispatched with the prefects the following

telegraphic circular which was transmitted on all lines "S.M. the

Emperor entered to Paris yesterday, at eight hours of the evening,

with the head of the troops which, the morning, had been sent

against it, and with the acclamations of immense people". One half-

century later, the electric telegraph knew, under the reign of

Napoleon III, a spectacular development. The telegraph Cap, like

diligences, disappeared and the poet Gustave Nadaud looked with

nostalgia to stop the strange machines. Since the destiny gathers us

Since each mode has its Achevons turn to die together At the top of

your old woman L? tower as two old astronomers We will look at

Passer proudly the things and the men top of our monument. (the old

telegraph).

Transmissions in the Large Army

JEAN-CLAUDE QUENNEVAT

Napoleon was certainly one of the largest innovators of the mobile

warfare. The Campaigns and the operations "flashes" do not certainly

miss all with the length of In spite of the absence of motorized

means of transport, the battalions of the imperial army penetrated

on the backs of the adversary with a celerity comparable with that

of the "Panzers" of the last world war. Operate of Ulm: for each

army corps an average of 350 km traversed in 20 days, in contact

with the enemy! The Lassalle brigade sows panic through Prussia of

1806 by marking out 1.160 km in 25 days (either 46 km of average per

day). Then how a chief is asked for as Napoleon could, with safety

necessary, to also quickly move his pawns on the strategic chess-

board, whereas it had neither air exploration, nor of the telephone,

the telegraph or the radio? With first reflexion, the only

transmission resources of the Large Army proved to be the human way

and the port of a dispatch by a rider. We will see that in fact of

other means were used. Nevertheless these two first belonged to the

daily practice and it is them whom we will analyze initially.

VOICE, TRUMPET AND DRUM

Apart from the battle, it was enough to a quite assured voice to

easily transmit the orders of the captain to all the levels of its

company, because the distance from an officer to nearest to his sub-

orders never exceeded ten meters, whatever the adopted formation. It

went from there differently to the combat, because of the

considerably noisy environment in which the soldiers were plunged.

The deflagrations of the blasting powder, as well rifles than of the

guns maintained a terrible din as we have evil to imagine "I smelled

the ground permanently to tremble under me", writes a soldier

wounded on the battle field of Moskowa. In Boulogne, in 1804, it is

enough to some guns drawing with white in accompaniment from "Te

Deum" sung with the church Saint Nicolas, to make steal in glare all

the panes of the district. I could myself compare in 1969, at the

time of the turning of film televised "the Large Army", the shooting

in salvo of the "Arquebusiers de France" armed with rifles model

1777 with the shooting at will of a company of infantry of the

quota, and I noted how much the modern automatic weapons proved less

deafening that their elder. Under these conditions, one

includes/understands how much the verbal transmission orders, with

the combat, was compromised. It had been necessary to use, as in the

navy, of the speaking pipe. But we do not know any example of such a

use in the Armies; the instrument had been too cumbersome and

especially less effective than its substitutes, namely the trumpet

and the drum. Indeed, it is via these two musical instruments that

with the full fire of the action the officers were likely best to

pass an order and to immediately see it carrying out. The trumpet

was the speaking pipe of the cavalry. In the order of battle, the

colonel always had at his side a sergeant-trumpet ready to translate

his command by a sound sentence good known of all. This one was

taken again by eight grouped trumpets, placed under the command of

an adjudant, together sufficiently powerful so that all the regiment

can perceive the ringing. In this way, the colonel could order "the

load, the retirement, the rallying, with the fields, with horse,

moving"... More exactly, the trumpets did not replace the verbal

order, but preceded it or followed it immediately, the sound phase

amplifying in musical language what was stated in verbal language.

In the troops with foot, the same role failed the drums. Like the

trumpets, the latter chaired the functions day labourers of the

military life: "the alarm clock, the Diane, let us rigodons them

morning, for the flags, the honors with the Emperor, the extinction

of fires"... With the combat they evolved/moved grouped on two rows,

with fifteen steps behind of the first battalion of each regiment.

What did not prevent them from being sometimes mown by the

grapeshot, with all that that could have like repercussion in the

transmission of the orders. Thus, when with the battle of Dresden

the drums of the 3rd riflemen of the Young person-Guard are struck

by a flight of bisca?ens, one sees the men suspending one moment

their attack, each one wondering: "Which thus has just ordered:

halt? "In connection with the drums, let us recall that this

instrument was sometimes used as receiver accoustics: the case was

posed with ground, the higher membrane amplified a remote noise of

mousquetery or displacement of cavalry transmitted by the ground in

an unperceivable way; it was thus enough to stick its ear to it to

detect the proximity or the movements of the enemy. He comes out

from what we have just said that not only each regiment of infantry

or cavalry had, in addition to his brass band, his drums or his

trumpets, but that it was the same for all the companies for the

others weapons, that it is artillery, genius etc..., which proves

well that to these musicians was reserved very an other role to beat

or sound the load. According to the same principle, any staff of a

officer-General included/understood, in more of the aide-de-camps,

the permanent presence of a trumpet: the telephone of the General!

Thus, drums and trumpets constituted, within each combat unit, a

weapon with share: they were "the soldiers of the transmissions"

before the letter. Their role with the combat required much cold

blood, because the drums, only armed with a short sword, could

hardly but box the blows without being able to return them; as for

the trumpets, when they were confronted with the enemy, they acted

of the kind: they nimbly gathered trumpet and reins in the left hand

to release the right hand and to draw the sabre; in the event of

surprised they struck the adversary while striking to the head with

the held up instrument of the right hand. These "men of the

transmissions" thus enjoyed rightly a consideration at least equal

to that the other soldiers; many profited from a food and a housing

warrant officer and touched a double pay of that of a simple rider

or infantryman. Before the institution of "the cross", they had had

right to the particular honors of the trumpets or rods of honor

decreed by the First Consul. As would be a this as much error as an

affront to confuse them with the brass band of the regiment, made up

either musicians pledgers having contacted a military engagement, or

of civil without balance entirely as of the load of the officers,

therefore soldiers of occasion, such those of the infantry has

Essling, fleeing with the first blows of gun to go to take refuge in

the island of Lobau!

The AIDE-DE-CAMPS the transmission of an order or a particular

opinion could obviously be done only by estafette, i.e. by a light

rider duly informed of the identity of the recipient. In the

majority of the cases, the dispatch was written with the feather,

sometimes with the pencil, therefore not always perfectly readable

and quite interpretable for the recipient; however the omissions of

punctuation constituted the source of the most serious errors there.

Theoretically the sabretache (carried by all the light riders at the

beginning of the Empire) was the satchel punt intended for the

transport of the dispatch. In fact, adopted by the hussards of the

King in the middle of the 18th century, it could easily play this

part when originally it was suspended under the belt in contact with

the left thigh; but the fashion having reduced it to height from the

calf, its destination of letter-box became very badly convenient.

One can conclude from it that under the Empire the estafettes hardly

used it and placed the fold preferably to be carried in their belt

or hidden under their shirt. This assumption seems confirmed well by

the fact that the lawful uniform of the aide-de-camps of the officer-

Generals, designed in 1803, did not comprise a sabretache. The

principal function of the aide-de-camps was indeed to carry the

dispatches, so much on the battle field, where it was necessary to

face the worst dangers while threading between fires of battalion

and while slipping between two loads of cavalry, which at the time

of missions at long distance through an enemy territory. These aide-

de-camps, being all of the soldiers tested with at least the rank of

lieutenant, Napoleon preferred them with the professional mails that

it judged "unable" because they did not give any explanation on what

they had seen. The confidence of the Emperor was not likely besides

to be disappointed, because these young at the same time generous

and ambitious people, for the majority wire of family of the old

nobility rejoined with glory, endeavoured to achieve their mission

until the limit of their forces: Marbot connects Paris in Strasbourg

in forty eight hours, and spends only three days to traverse the

cinq-cent-vingt kilometers which separate Madrid from Bayonne;

without changing horse, an officer of Davout covers cent-soixante-

dix kilometers in nineteen hours in enemy country. With through

Spain, threatened unceasingly by the guerilleros, these insulated

mails risked much, and Marbot will write on this subject "I do not

believe to exaggerate while carrying to more than two hundreds the

number of the staff officers which were taken or killed during the

war of the Peninsula". Each marshal had with his service at least a

half-dozen of aide-de-camps (in 1809, for example, Lannes had eight

and Mass?na sixteen of it). But it was not rare that at the evening

of a great battle half of these courageous carriers of order were

put out of combat. A transmission of good quality was thus paid

extremely expensive at the time. As for the Emperor, it was not

limited to send on mission its own aide-de-camps. It had set up,

mainly for the dispatches of its cabinet, a service of estafettes

specialized equipped with a large bearing leather satchel on a broad

copper plate the mention "Dispatches of S.M. the Emperor and King".

These mails of which most famous were Moustache, Cl?rice and Vidal,

traversed the marked out imperial main roads of relay every eight

kilometers.

The POST OFFICE WITH the ARMIES As for the way in which the soldiers

could communicate by letter with their family, the "payment on the

Military postal service" specifies us that as from September 1809

there existed for them: -- inside the Empire, a correspondence by

the intermediary of the offices of the garrison towns; -- and in

Shift a service of transmission and handing-over ensured by mails

and helped postilions of employees, under the monitoring of the

police chiefs of war. The frankness is acquired for the mail from

the soldiers to the armies during the Programs only. Each weapon has

its paper with illustrated Iettre of a colored label, of naive

invoice, representing a soldier in the corresponding uniform. They

are the letters known as "cantini?res", because generally provided

and sold by these last; those intended for the Imperial Guard add

each side of the effigy of the combatant those of the Emperor and

the empress in medallions. Verbal orders, drum rolls, ringings of

trumpets, sendings of estafettes, such were thus the great means of

telecommunications of the Large Army. However there were complements

which one cannot cannot overlook.

The GUN Initially the gun. Tie "with white", it could double the

effect of the drum; it was the case in the camps like that of

Boulogne, when for example it punctuated each day the alarm clock

and the extinction of fires. In Shift, it announced the beginning of

a great battle: three characteristic blows drawn with equal

intervals by a company from the Guard. Another type of acoustic

connection by the intermediary of the gun, this order of Soult a few

days before Austerlitz: "In case where the adversary would make

movements with the outposts it will be drawn four blows from gun of

alarm by a battery established on the height of the Vault... and

with this signal Vandamne Division will join at once that of Legrand

to put itself in battle on the height located at...". And at long

distance, that is to say 35 kilometers with flight of birds in this

case, the connection envisaged between the Emperor and Davout on

April 22, 1809: "If you are ready to attack, written Napoleon, draw

at midday a salvo at the same time from twelve blows, similar to 1

a.m., another at 2 a.m." running Dans these conditions the large one

of the army of Landshut will be able to surprise the adversary with

Eckmuhl, at the precise moment where it will be strongly engaged

against Davout, therefore compromised in its freedom to manoeuvre.

The visual use of rockets of artifices seems to have existed under

the Empire only in the war of seat. It had been however realizable

without particular equipment and using specialized bomb disposal

experts, since we know that any infantryman could, without any

modification of his rifle, to send to several hundred meters in the

sky of luminous stars. The example us is given by it by the evening

from August 16, 1804 in Boulogne, during which were drawn, with the

night falling, 45.000 cartridges with stars, illuminant during a few

seconds the city and the roads of a light so intense that this

luminous play was seen English coast. To close this study of the

means of telecommunications of the Large Army, we will quote

obviously the Chappe telegraph, which by its originality and its

innovation was published to us to deserve an article with share in

this number of our Review. Let us specify nevertheless that its

military role very often supposed the complementary use of

estafettes: it was the case on April 10, 1809 when, of Tileries,

Napoleon wanting to communicate urgently with Berthier which was in

Donauwerth, sent a telegraphic message from Paris in Strasbourg

(disturbed in its transmission by the fog) and which the latter was

taken again by a rider of Strasbourg with Donauwertll. Assessment:

this missive of importance had spent five days full to cross 700

kilometers with flight of bird.

MAIL SERVICE A PARIS UNDER the EMPIRE (I) (1) Extracts of the

Imperial Almanac of 1809 - chapter of the Stations. JEAN-CLAUDE

QUENNEVAT This service represents the "distribution in Paris of the

letters of the departments, of those coming from abroad and the

letters of Paris for Paris..., the distribution of the newspapers

and the periodic works; the stamping from the letters for Paris,

departments and the foreigner; lifting of the boxes in Paris and the

subscription with the bulletin of the laws (our current Official

Journal) in all France ". "This service divides in Paris, between

ten offices whose functions and site will be indicated Ci

after...". "the central office of the post office building is open

tous.les.jours since 8 H of the morning up to 7 a.m. the evening.

One distributes the addressed letters to it "postmaster address";

those in charge of the departments for Paris and those of Paris for

Paris. One finds there for three months, as from the day of the

arrival in Paris, the letters under address come from the

departments. This office, one can free the periodic letters,

newspapers and works for Paris ". Offices of distributions

(which "divide the letters in authority of the Division of Paris,

H?tel of the commune of Paris in about equal portions") leave the

factors for the distribution the letters "the letters put in reject

remain in deposit for three months as from the day of the arrival in

Paris..., and it is, after this term only, which they are sent to

the office of the head of the Division of Paris, Post office

building, where they are classified alphabetically, and where the

public can claim them for three months, and, passed which term, the

general office of the rejects". "the unknown letters with the

destination which they carry" are daily sent to the office of the

letters in authority of the Division of Paris, Post office building,

where they are classified by name alphabetically and where the

public can claim them." The list of eight offices of the various

districts of Paris follows, with for each office 1' addresses letter-

boxes (about thirty per office), each box being numbered and this

number corresponding to the number of the stamp of the post office.

A table is posted on the door of all the offices of distribution

like on the 200 boxes of Paris. It specifies: -- the hour of the

liftings: October 1 at March 30: 5 liftings for Paris, the first of

6. 3/4 at 7 a.m. 3/4, the last of 7 H with 9 H of the evening, but

only one departure for the departments (about midday). April 1 at

September 30: 6 liftings for Paris, the first of 6 H with 6 a.m.

l/2, the last of 7 H with 8 H of the evening, and always only one

departure for the departments (around midday). -- the hour of the

distributions: October 1 at March 30: 5 distributions for Paris, the

first of 8 H with 9 l1 1/2, the last of 7 H with 9 H of the evening.

April 1 at September 30: 6 distributions for Paris, the first of 7 H

with 9 a.m., the last of 7 H at 8 a.m. 1/2. In small suburbs, four

liftings and distributions per day some is the season. In large

suburbs, only one lifting and distribution per day ("the factors

regularly leave each day the offices of distribution to 1 a.m.").

For the province, in general a lifting and a distribution each day

of the week, or only three days per week according to the importance

of the locality ("the public is prevented that it is very essential

to put on the address the name of the department in which the

commune is where one writes"). For the foreign countries the letters

will be freed either by the recipient but by the shipper "under

penalty of remaining with the reject". Stamping will be total until

destination for the kingdom of Italy, the principality of Piombino,

Rome, and of many German cities belonging to the Confederation of

the Rhine and all Hanover. It will be partial for the colonies, to

the seaport; England, to Dover; possessions of the House of Austria,

to Strasbourg; Istrie and Illyrie, until V?rone; isles of Italy,

until V?rone; the Mediterranean basin, to Marseilles; Switzerland,

until Huningue or Pontarlier... One cannot free for the kingdoms

from Spain and Portugal, for the kingdom of Holland. Stamping is

optional for Prussia, while remaining partial until Cl?ves, Erfurt'

Hamburg. Some examples of duration of the courses by relay of

station in 1809: Paris-Antwerp....................3 days 1/2 Paris-

Brussels............... 3 Paris-Lille days........................ 3

Paris-Lyon days........................ 4 Paris-Mainz

days.................5 Paris-Geneva days....................6 Paris-

Nantes days..................... 4 Paris-Strasbourg

days..............5 Paris-Toulouse days.................8 Paris-

Rouen days..................... 13 Paris-Caen

hours.......................1 jours1/2 Paris-Bordeaux...............

5 days N.D.L R. -- This information, drawn from the Imperial almanac

of 1809, leaves to dreamer the user of 1975. Indeed, on the one hand

the five or six daily distributions in Paris are for a long time

reduced to two. In addition, since the memorable strike of October-

November 1974, the routing time of the letters of Paris to the

province became strictly comparable when it is not lengthened.

Progress is not stopped.

(1) the ministry for the Stations and T?l?graphes will be creates in

1879. (2) To travel in station, to run the Post office, meant to use

the postal services to travel. One could profit thus from many

advantages: priority on the roads, reservation of horses in the

relays, certainty to achieve the voyage within a time allowed in

advance, possibility of circulating the night, postmasters having to

ensure a permanence.