La Grande Armée (Episode 2) - The Infantry & Officer Corps [5:00-10:03]

The Carabinier were recruited from the same crop of veterans as prospective regular Grenadiers, wore the same distinct bearskin shackle and were often detached for special missions. The only real difference from regular Grenadiers is that they fought dispersed as skirmishes rather than in rigid formations. Where Chasseur, Kerabinier and Vultigeur tended to fight alongside each other in the same battalions, Tyreur operated in separate units. The word doesn't have a direct translation into English but ranger or scout fits well enough. Most Tyreur companies began as volunteer units formed in France's outlying departments or occupied regions. Recruits were drawn from locals who knew the terrain intimately. Those raised in Naples, Catalonia, Piedmont or Corsica often enough had themselves once been anti-French partisans or bandits. As effective irregular fighters, Tyreur served in the real lines. They protected coastlines, harassed enemy incursions and suppressed partisans. Some regularised Tyreur battalion did fight in major engagements throughout the Napoleonic Wars, performing analogously to the Vultigeur. Another whole class of French infantry plied their trade, not with bayonets but with clarinets. They were Lemousissien, musicians and instrumentalists who formed a musical core within La Grande Amé. Each French regiment had a music, a band, led by a tambour majeur, the drum major. He was added by a summajeur as 2 AC. Each company of the regiment was assigned two drummers called tambouriste. From among the drummers, one would be promoted to the post of tambourmetre, drummaster. Drummers were trained in a variety of signals that dictated the tempo of regimental life. La Dianne, la Rijadon, served around the troops awake. La Corvée called an inspection, and Alapais, or to the bed, ended the day. La général meant full in or move out, often accompanied by a chorus of grumbling. In battle, the drummers were analogous to modern-day radio operators. In a pre-modern era, sound was the only way to get simple bits of information out quickly at distance. For a company battalion regiment operating on a small frontage, the call and response of the drums dictated what formation to take, and the pace of the maneuvers made when changing formation. Waters were also relayed from the rear to the front by drum signals. Every advance was led by the tambour majeur and a gaggle of drummers who fell back when the order was given to convert from a column to line. When withdrawing, the drummers would signal where the regiment was to rally, allowing units to reform in the dark or even during a route. For such a pivotal role, the French made surprisingly little use of trained musicians. They wouldn't pass on an experienced player naturally, but in general the policy was to train a new drummer out of a private plucked from the line. They were in for a world of pain. Simply lugging their instruments was a surprisingly physical ordeal, as the drummer hosted their sturdy drum alongside a carbine. He was expected to march, sprint, and climb whilst keeping a consistent beat, a tall order even for the heartiest recruit. No time was spared before the drummer was trained by the tambour majeur in a very specific set of cadences, the meaning of signal orders, as well as the battery of orders to be performed each day. Mistakes, when they were made, were punished until drumming was as instinctive as marching. It was reckoned this process took about 5 years, or in the case of a truly exceptional drummer, 10. Few drummers went that long unscathed, being as they were so often at the spear tip and priority targets for enemy skirmishes. In the waning gears of the empire, raw recruits were trained by their forebears and put into action. Even les enfants de troup, regimental yudes, took up the sticks. That said, there were definite upsides to being in la musique. From the drummers to the majeur, all were released from the regiment's uniform code, leading to particularly opulent outfits. Styles varied from simply adding more lace and adornment to a regimental uniform, adopting fashion from the cavalry, all the way to invoking Egyptian, Persian and Turkish styles. Official complaints from the imperial guard at the supposedly un-martial heirs of such styles slid across the desks of clerks at the warm ministry. Until 1812, such complaints were chalked up quite rightly to jealousy, and thus the bands were free to mix and match styles. Eventually Napoleon weighed in, and as part of a larger effort at conformity, imposed a simpler, darker green uniform on all bandsmen. The first was the penache, even if the bandsmen still looked quite smart. A big problem often encountered by the drummers was the difficulty in making themselves heard over the carcophony of battle. Bunching the drummers together helped, but one stray cannonball or peel of musket fire could lay waste to the band. Line regiments took inspiration from their comrades in light regiments, who used cornets instead of drums. Cornets a little handheld trumpets that are much easier to carry than a full drum.