Basis of Recruitment
The decree of 1 May 1854 establishing the Imperial Guard required line regiments to nominate experienced soldiers of good character for the new units. This followed the pattern established by Napoleon I, of creating a corps of veterans which could be relied on to provide an elite force that would provide a dependable reserve in battle and be politically loyal in peace. As the Guard was expanded some recruits had to be directly drawn from each annual intake of conscripts, to make up the numbers required. Guardsmen received higher rates of pay and enjoyed better conditions of service than their counterparts in other regiments.
Read more about this topic: Imperial Guard (Napoleon III)
Famous quotes containing the words basis of and/or basis:
“Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not by nature from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895)
“That food has always been, and will continue to be, the basis for one of our greater snobbisms does not explain the fact that the attitude toward the food choice of others is becoming more and more heatedly exclusive until it may well turn into one of those forms of bigotry against which gallant little committees are constantly planning campaigns in the cause of justice and decency.”
—Cornelia Otis Skinner (1901–1979)