French History Advance Access originally published online on November 20, 2008
French History 2009 23(1):47-68; doi:10.1093/fh/crn047
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Military justice under the Directory: the Armies of Italy and of the Sambre and Meuse
* The author is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He may be contacted at ian.germani{at}uregina.ca
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Abstract |
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The military justice records of the Armies of Italy and the Sambre and Meuse reveal that, despite their contrasting military fortunes during the campaigns of 1796–97, their experiences were very similar in many respects. The records of the conseils militaires of the year IV (1795–96) and the conseils de guerre of the following year reveal both conditions of service in the two armies and the circumstances and attitudes that regulated the relationship between soldiers and civilians in Italy and Germany. The conseils de guerre, instituted to remedy the perceived laxity of the conseils militaires, operated on similar principles to their much-maligned predecessors. Occasional instances of exemplary severity apart, these conseils frequently mitigated both charges and sentences, reserving the full severity of the law for soldiers who were not present to receive punishment. The councils protected miscreant soldiers more effectively than they did vulnerable civilians, but they nonetheless affirmed, if only in principle, the idea that revolutionary warfare should be contained within legal limits.