La Grande Armée (Episode 2) - The Infantry & Officer Corps [43:10-48:11]

Fresh water sources were scouted out and protected, used to refill hefty wooden barrels carted along by each regiment's supply company. Experienced soldiers never missed a chance to refill their canteens, not knowing when another chance would pop up. Before using cooking or cleaning, water was boiled in the kettle, so it was sterile, but it was not commonly drunk. Wine was the soldier's refreshment of choice. Red wines were preferred, but none would share whatever local vindages could be procured. French soldiers devised some peculiar ways to enjoy their wines. At the most basic level, they might be watered down, others added salt, vinegar, or other alcohols to make a kind of brew. Veterans in the Imperial Guard took a pinch of gunpowder to their wine. Palatability aside, morale hinged on the wine supply. Indeed, if the French soldier was to choose between wine and bread, he'd opt for the wine. In Germany and Eastern Europe, where wine was nowhere near as common, beer was all it could be provided regularly. The French only imbibed it for lack of anything else. Another alcohol ration of brandy was provided separate to wine. Called colloquially a divi, order of life, you can guess how important the brandy ration was. Not only was it nice for a tipple, but brandy was a general purpose antiseptic, cleaning agent, and morale booster. Charges were often proceeded by a swig to harden hearts. Unlike with beer, local substitutes, vodka in Poland and Russia, schnapps in Germany, rum in the colonies, were gulped with glee. But as the wars endured, spirits were replaced by distilled wine and even straight alcohol in vinegar or water. This quite literally didn't go down easily. In 1812 Napoleon tasted one such concoction and immediately ordered the inspectorate began quality control. Marching and encamping were activities that occupied, let's say, 90% of a soldier's life under the colors. But it was all in service to that minority of time spent in combat, where the infantry had to rely upon their training, their comrades, and their equipment. The standard weapon of the infantry was the Schalvier. A muzzle loading, 70 caliber flint lock musket, named after the arsenal where it was encepted. This was the final version of the Schalvier produced in the arsenals of Sant'etienne and elsewhere under the Kingdom of France. Fine-tuning and incremental improvements meant that it was an effective weapon, emphasizing durability and ease of use. That didn't mean that further improvements were off the table though. In 1800 Napoleon ordered the Ministry of War to revise their weapon procurement process. The Schalvier model, 1767, the Schalvier model of 1777, was revised to a model in Miluit Saint, the model 1800. The 1800 was slightly less complex, used fewer materials, and incorporated a few field expedient modifications. A company this was the use of high-quality flints produced in France, the exact methods kept a state secret. At the time of this reorganization, France had hundreds of thousands of older rifles and captured weapons, which were still usable, and then went to real-line units in the Army of the Interior, the Jean-Dameurie, or to Allied Nations. Frontline units in La Grande Armée received the best weapons. New and old arsenals in Sant'etienne, Versailles, Viège, Turin, Moburg, Tul, and of course Schalvier pumped out modern muskets. By 1804 La Grande Armée was equipped with several hundred thousand muskets, carbines and pistols. In all, 2.5 million would be produced from 1800 to 1814. The base Schalvier weighed 10 pounds and was 1.57 meters long. This long barrel length, combined with the black powder charge, meant that on paper, the Schalvier could shoot out to about a kilometer. Typical practice was only to fire within about 100 meters of a body of enemy troops. Skirmishes were a debt to target shooters and under favorable conditions, the best could bullseye something out to about 150 meters. The actual projectile fired by the musket was a small ball of lead, sometimes stone or another soft metal. The firing charge was provided by gun powder, a formula of saltpitter, charcoal and sulfur. In French practice, the ball and gun powder were wrapped in paper to make a cartridge, an early type of bullet. Though time-consuming, requiring shift work to complete, French troops liked having cartridges as opposed to loose muskets balls, paper and gun powder. Not only did it save time reloading, but it made for smoother, more consistent firing. Each of these cartridges was stored in a small box called a jabelle, slung from the hip and battle. In addition to the 35 or so cartridges and spare flints, the jabelle also contained all the various tools of weapon maintenance. The fauna saun was trained to fire in a five-step firing