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Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789 - 1815

From 1789 - 1815, the French Army had over 2,000 general officers. Although over 90% of these generals were Frenchmen, many of them were not. Casualties among all generals in the French Army were quite high. Between the 1804 - 1814, more than 180 generals and marshals were killed, while another 737 were wounded. This was almost a 50% casualty rate. To fill the gap caused by these high casualties, deserving officers were promoted.

This study is divided into two parts. The first part provides short biographical sketches of over 2000 general officers. The second part examines the 100 Days in 1815, when between the period March 1815 and June 1815 Napoleon promoted sixty two new General de Brigade, seventeen former Generals de Brigade were promoted to General de Division and one General de Division to Marechal. As George Six's work ends in 1814 many of those listed in my 1815 study are not included in Six. A number of these officers had been promoted to the rank of General de Brigade prior to March 1815 but their rank was not confirmed until Napoleon's return from Elba. Some sources used give the ranks as Marechal de Camp and Lieutenant-Generaux these ranks were used prior to the Revolution and ceased being used by the Decree of 21 February 1793 being replaced by the ranks of General de Brigade and General de Division. I have carried on using the ranks of General de Brigade and General de Division for these articles.

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