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    francophile50

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    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

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    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.

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