PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE
THE “EAGLE-GUARD”
The loss of twelve Eagles in one battle made a deep and lasting
impression upon Napoleon. That twelve of his cherished emblems, those
mementoes of victorious Caesar, for whose prestige he had advanced
such exacting claims, should have fallen _en bloc_ into the hands
of the enemy came as a galling blow to Napoleon’s military pride.
Twelve Eagles reft from amid the bayonets of the Grand Army on one
battlefield: twelve Eagles paraded together as trophies through the
capital of an exulting foe! It was a poignantly felt humiliation for
the mighty Imperator of the Field of Mars. And yet no default could be
charged against the soldiers to whom these Eagles had been entrusted.
All that men might do for their defence they had done. Most of the
luckless battalions, indeed, had fought and fallen directly under the
eyes of the Emperor himself, looking on from his post of vantage by the
wall of Eylau churchyard.
Napoleon, however, had already realised that his distribution of an
emblem to whose preservation he attached such extreme importance had
been made on too lavish a scale. He had been imprudent in distributing
such hostages to fortune broadcast; there were too many Eagles on
offer to the enemy. Napoleon, indeed, had already tacitly admitted
that. Within two months of the opening of the first campaign of the
Grand Army--during the Austerlitz campaign--immediately after Murat’s
daring gallop on Vienna, Napoleon had summarily directed all the
light cavalry Eagles to be sent back from the front. Every Hussar and
Chasseur regiment was ordered to return its three squadron Eagles to
head-quarters forthwith, for sending back to France. In future, a new
Army regulation laid down, those corps would not take their Eagles into
the field at all. The regulation after that was extended to Dragoons;
and later to all Light Infantry battalions. No doubt it was a step
dictated by prudence. In these corps particularly, from the nature of
the duties they had normally to perform, the Eagles were peculiarly
exposed to risk of isolation and capture.
What had happened at Eylau, and several narrow escapes in hand-to-hand
combats at Friedland, together with certain other incidents in that
battle which had come under Napoleon’s personal notice, where, through
a nervous anxiety for the safety of their Eagles, some battalion
commanders had kept back round them men whose bayonets were badly
wanted elsewhere, led to a further step. Napoleon took advantage of
the general scheme for the reorganisation of the Grand Army, which he
carried out in 1808, to recast entirely his original arrangement as to
the Eagles. He reduced the numbers by two-thirds.
[Sidenote: NO MORE BATTALION EAGLES]
Battalion Eagles were to be withdrawn in favour of Regimental Eagles.
In the infantry, under the reorganisation scheme, there were to be five
battalions to each regiment instead of three as heretofore; but there
would be only one Eagle in future for the entire regiment. The existing
Second and Third battalions were ordered to give up the Eagles they had
hitherto carried, which would find a resting-place at the Invalides.
The Regimental Eagle would be borne by the First Battalion. The other
battalions would carry only “fanions,” small pennon-shaped flags. Each
would have one “fanion,” a plain serge flag, of a distinctive colour
for each battalion, without any mark or device on it, beyond the number
of the battalion.
The Imperial edict, issued early in 1808, laid down that for the
special protection of the Regimental Eagle in battle a commissioned
officer and two picked veterans were to be appointed as the
“Eagle-Guard,” replacing the sergeant-major and escort of the
Battalion Eagles. The three were to be known as the First, Second,
and Third Eagle-Bearers or “Porte-Aigles.” The officer to whose
special charge the Regimental Eagle itself was committed was to be a
senior lieutenant, “a man of proved valour, with not less than ten
years’ Army service, including service on the battlefield in four
campaigns,” specified as those of Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, and Friedland.
He would receive captain’s pay, and wear a gold-laced cocked hat and
gold epaulettes. The two other Porte-Aigles were to be, in Napoleon’s
own words, “deux braves,” of ten years’ service in the ranks, and
“non-lettrés.” On the last qualification, indeed, Napoleon laid
peculiar stress. The two were to be, as the Emperor himself put it,
“men who could neither read nor write, so that their only hope of
promotion should be through acts of special courage and devotion.” They
would receive lieutenants’ pay, have special privileges, and wear four
gold lace chevrons on their arms. Only the Emperor could nominate or
degrade Porte-Aigles.
[Sidenote: PENNONS TO FRIGHTEN HORSES]
The Second and Third Porte-Aigles were to carry no weapons except heavy
pistols, “to blow out the brains of an enemy attempting to lay hands
on an Eagle.” These were Napoleon’s own words as to that, in his order
of February 18, 1808: “Pour éviter que l’ardeur dans la mêlée ne les
détourne de leur unique objet, de la garde de l’Aigle, le sabre et
l’épée leurs sont interdits. Ils n’auront d’autres armes que plusieurs
paires de pistolets, d’emploi que de veiller froidement a brûler la
cervelle de celui qui avancerait la main pour saisir l’Aigle.” After
the Wagram campaign of 1809 Napoleon substituted a helmet and defensive
brass scale-epaulettes as the First Porte-Aigle’s equipment. He gave
the two soldiers of the Eagle-Guard a halberd each, with a pennon
or banderol attached--Red for the Second Porte-Aigle, White for the
Third--as well as a sword and a pair of large-bore pistols. The pennons
were for use should mounted men attack the Eagle; “for fluttering in
front of the horses in order to make them rear and plunge and upset
their riders.”[19]
Two more soldiers were added to the Eagle-Guard in 1813, as the Fourth
and Fifth Porte-Aigles. They were armed with the same weapons as
the others, and had respectively Yellow and Green pennons on their
halberds.
Yet further to add to the prestige of the Eagles, Napoleon, after
Wagram, decreed the institution of a Special Order of Military Merit,
which he called the “Order of the Trois Toisons d’Or”--something on the
lines of our own Victoria Cross--certain of the provisions of which
had direct reference to the Eagles. The decoration was to be conferred
on men, whatever their rank, “distinguished in the defence of the
Eagle of their regiment.” Also, according to the 6th Article of the
Constitution of the Order, “Les Aigles des régiments qui ont assisté
avec distinction aux grandes batailles seront décorés de l’Ordre des
Trois Toisons d’Or.”[20]
The special distinction of having the badge of the Legion of Honour
affixed to its Eagle as a decoration to the regimental standard was in
1812 granted to one corps, the celebrated 57th. It was as a reward
for magnificent intrepidity displayed under the eyes of Napoleon
at the battle of Borodino. The 57th had at the same time a further
and unique mark of Imperial regard awarded to it. Napoleon ordered
that a representation of the badge of the Legion of Honour should be
stamped on the uniform buttons of the regiment. No corps of the Grand
Army, perhaps, had a finer fighting tradition than this splendid
regiment--the same “_Terrible 57me qui rien n’arrête_,” of the Army of
Italy; which, too, as has been said, Napoleon singled out for a special
word of encouragement on the morning of Austerlitz; calling to them
as he rode past, “You will remember to-day, Fifty-seventh, how I once
named you ‘Le Terrible’!”
But, with regard to the Regimental Eagles of 1808, even for Napoleon it
was one thing to decree the abolition of Battalion Eagles, and another
to obtain compliance with the order that the surplus Eagles should be
returned to the War Minister for laying up at the Invalides.
[Sidenote: SOME CORPS DID NOT OBEY]
A number of second and third battalions of regiments stationed at
places out of the way of direct Imperial inspection--in garrisons
beyond the frontiers, in subjugated countries, or in the remaining
overseas possessions of France--continued for some time to evade the
order recalling their Eagles. No doubt, too, they were unwilling to
part with standards some of which had led the corps under fire at
Austerlitz and Jena.
Napoleon had to repeat his order of recall twice: once during 1809; the
second time in 1811. That second order was the outcome of a discovery
made by the Emperor himself. At an Imperial review of the troops of the
Amsterdam and North Holland garrisons on October 12, 1810, three of the
regiments had the temerity to parade before the Emperor’s eyes with
four Eagles apiece--one to each battalion. Such flagrant disobedience
could not be overlooked; and then subsequent inquiries brought out
the fact that elsewhere there were many Battalion Eagles which had
similarly been retained against orders. An additional discovery was
made at the same time, that the Fourth-Battalion Eagles had been
supplied surreptitiously, through some official at the Ministry of War,
entirely without Napoleon’s knowledge.
It made Napoleon excessively angry. He complained bitterly to Marshal
Berthier at the way in which the department which had to do with the
standards of the Army had been mismanaged. “La partie des drapeaux des
régiments,” he declared, “est aujourd’hui dans un grand chaos.” To
the Minister of War, General Clarke, Duc de Feltre, Napoleon sent a
stinging letter of rebuke.
With the letter went the draft of yet another decree, to be
communicated to every corps in the service.
[Sidenote: NAPOLEON’S FINAL ORDER]
“I only give,” wrote Napoleon now, “one Eagle per regiment
of infantry, one per regiment of cavalry, one per regiment of
artillery, one per regiment of special gendarmerie. None to the
departmental companies or guards of honour.
“No corps may possess an Eagle which has not been bestowed by my
own hand.
“All regiments, further, of whatever denomination, if they did not
receive the Eagle they are authorised to possess from the hand of
the Emperor in person, either directly on parade, or through a
regimental deputation, must return it to the Ministry of War for
the will of his Majesty to be declared as to that Eagle.
“All other corps are to carry ‘fanions,’ ordinary flags. Infantry
regiments reduced below 1,000 men in strength, and cavalry
regiments of less than 500 men, cannot retain their Eagle, and must
return it to the dépôt. They will be accorded a standard [drapeau]
without the Eagle.
“All the infantry regiments now in possession of an Eagle per
battalion, and cavalry with one per squadron, are to send the
extra-regulation Eagles at once to Paris, to be kept [_déposées_]
at the Invalides until they can be placed in the ‘Temple of Glory’
[the Church of the Madeleine, then being rebuilt].” “Jusqu’à ce
qu’elles puissent être misées dans le Temple de la Gloire,” was
what Napoleon wrote.
Three of the British trophy-Eagles now at Chelsea, it may be remarked
in passing, bear the number “82.” They came into our hands in February
1809, at the surrender of Martinique to a conjoint British military
and naval expedition. The 82nd was one of the regiments referred to as
out of the way of direct inspection; in garrison across the Atlantic.
It had not obeyed the order of 1808 to return its Second and Third
Battalion Eagles to Paris--with the result that three Eagles at Chelsea
represent the misfortune of this one regiment.
“The First Battalion,” ordered Napoleon in his decree of 1811, “is to
carry the Eagle: the other battalions will have each a fanion, quite
plain, as follows: 2nd Battalion, White; 3rd, Red; 4th, Blue. Where
certain regiments may possess additional battalions, these are to have,
the 5th a Green fanion, the 6th a Yellow fanion.”[21]
In 1813, in Napoleon’s conscript army levied to replace the
host destroyed in Russia, the newly raised Line regiments, and
“Provisional-Regiments,” made up of the amalgamated dépôt battalions of
various corps, had to earn their Eagles on the battlefield. “No newly
raised regiment,” ordered Napoleon, “is to receive an Eagle until after
his Majesty has been satisfied with its service before the enemy.”
[Sidenote: THE ONLY NAMES ALLOWED]
The flags issued in 1808, and after that, to go with the Regimental
Eagles, were much more elaborate than those of the Champ de Mars. They
had white diamond-shaped centre panels, similar to those in the flags
presented on the Field of Mars, but with Imperial crowns embroidered in
gold on the red and blue upper corners of the flag, and golden Eagles
on the lower corners. Gold embroidered wreaths of laurel, encircling
the Imperial monogram “N.” divided off the crowns above from the Eagles
below. A border of gold fringe round the entire flag, embroidered
with bees, was another new enrichment. In these flags the regimental
battle-honour inscriptions on the reverse side of the white centre
space in the former flags appeared in a revised from. Only victories of
importance since the institution of the Empire, and at which Napoleon
had commanded in person, were admitted. Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena, Eylau,
Friedland, Eckmühl, Essling, Wagram, constituted the full list from
which selection was made. One regiment alone was allowed to record an
earlier victory:--the Imperial Guard. They preserved their “Marengo”
honour. Inscriptions such as “Le 75e arrive et bât l’ennemi,” “J’étais
tranquille, le 32e était là,” and the others which had been allowed on
the flags of the Field of Mars, recalling deeds of the Army of Italy,
disappeared from the revised pattern of 1808. A new inscription was
specially authorised for the flag of one regiment, in honour of a feat
of great distinction during the Wagram campaign. The 84th of the Line
was permitted to inscribe “Un contre dix--Grätz, 1809”--but that only
lasted for three years; the inscription was ordered to be taken off in
1811.
The design of the flag introduced in 1808 held until 1814. A less
elaborate design was adopted for the Eagle-standards of the “Hundred
Days,” two specimens of which are in this country--the Waterloo
trophies at Chelsea.
Attractive and handsome as the new flag was, the Army, as before,
looked on it as but an appendage, as merely “l’ornement de l’Aigle.”
The Eagle at the head of the staff, by itself, was all that nine
soldiers out of ten troubled about. Not a few regiments, indeed, when
on service, removed the flags altogether from their Eagle-poles and
displayed as their standard the Eagle only. Particularly was this the
case in Spain, where many regiments were in the field continuously,
in some instances, for over six years--from 1808 to 1814. Asked one
day after the Peninsular War about the inscription and battle-honours
on the flag of his regiment, an infantry _chef de bataillon_ frankly
confessed that he had “never set eyes on it!” The silken flag, he
explained, “had been removed from the Eagle-pole before he first
joined as a lieutenant, and had always, as he understood, been kept
at the dépôt of the corps in France, rolled up and locked away in the
regimental chest. The Eagle on its bare pole was all he had ever seen.”
Said another officer: “We never spoke of the regiment’s ‘colours,’ and
never saw them. We spoke only of ‘the Eagle.’”
[Sidenote: WHEN NAPOLEON MET AN EAGLE]
This may be added. Napoleon was scrupulously exact in showing respect
to the Eagle of a regiment whenever he passed one; whether on the line
of march, or in bivouac, under a sentry, with the Eagle-Guard near at
hand, resting horizontally on a support of piled muskets with bayonets
fixed. If on horseback, Napoleon always uncovered and bowed low; if on
the line of march, he sometimes stopped his carriage in passing, and
got out, saluted the Eagle, and said a few words about the regiment’s
battle record to the Eagle-Guard.
Between the review on the Field of Mars in 1804 and the overthrow on
the plains of Leipsic in 1814 the number of regiments in the Grand Army
increased continuously, requiring the presentation of many new Eagles.
Forty-four were presented in the period to the infantry alone; to the
regiments of the Line bearing numbers from the 113th to 156th; besides
others to the regiments of the “Middle Guard” and “Young Guard,” and
to two additional regiments of Cuirassiers. In every case Napoleon,
in accordance with the stipulation that he so insisted on, made the
presentation in person, with his own hand.
In not a few instances, indeed, the ceremony took place on campaign;
and for one of these exceptionally interesting occasions we have
available the notes of an eye-witness. It was at the presentation of
the Eagle of the 126th Regiment of the Line, in Germany, in 1813.
Napoleon made his appearance in his campaigning uniform, the dark
green undress of the Chasseurs of the Guard, and mounted as usual on
a grey charger. His staff, all brilliant in full dress, attended him.
Approaching the scene at a canter, they all slowed down to a walk as
they neared where the regiment stood, with its battalions parading
every available man, and drawn up to form three sides of a hollow
square. The new Eagle, enveloped in the leather casing in which it had
been brought from France, lay on a pile of drums on one flank of the
First Battalion, and a little in advance. The fourth, or open, side of
the square was for the Imperial staff, who drew up there, while the
Emperor by himself rode into the middle of the square. As Napoleon
reined up, the regimental drums beat the _Appel_, and the officers of
the regiment stepped to the front, with swords at the carry, and formed
in line before the Emperor.
Marshal Berthier, Chief of the Head-quarter Staff, then rode across to
where the Eagle lay. He dismounted to receive it at the hands of the
First Porte-Aigle, the Eagle being uncased at the same time. Berthier
saluted the Eagle; then, holding it erect with both hands, the
marshal bore it ceremoniously along in front of the row of officers,
who saluted with lowered swords as the Eagle passed, the drums of the
regiment now beating a long roll. Halting close in front of Napoleon,
Berthier inclined the Eagle forward in salute, and the Emperor, on his
side, uncovered and bowed in return. Then, drawing his glove from his
left hand, Napoleon raised his hand and extended it towards the Eagle.
He held the reins, according to his custom, in his right hand. Napoleon
began his address to the corps in a deep, impressive tone:
[Sidenote: AT A PRESENTATION IN THE FIELD]
“Soldiers of the 126th Regiment of the Line, I entrust to you the Eagle
of France! It is to serve to you ever as your rallying-point. You swear
to me never to abandon it, but with life! You swear never to suffer an
affront to it for the honour of France! You swear ever to prefer death
for it to dishonour! You swear!” The last words were pronounced with a
peculiar stress, in a very solemn tone, with intense energy.
Instantly the officers of the regiment replied. Holding their swords on
high, with one voice they shouted: “We swear!”
The next moment the words were taken up and repeated enthusiastically
by the men: “We swear!”
Berthier, on that, formally handed the Eagle over to the colonel of the
regiment, and the Emperor, raising his hand to his hat in salute to
the Eagle, turned to rejoin the Staff and ride off elsewhere.
On the afternoon before the three days’ battle of Leipsic opened, on
October 15, 1813, Napoleon, on the Marchfeldt, in the very presence of
the enemy, presented with these formalities new Eagles to three newly
raised regiments.