Minor Campaigns of 1815 - French Deployments

French Deployments

Upon assumption of the throne, Napoleon found that he was left with little by the Bourbons and that the state of the Army was 56,000 troops of which 46,000 were ready to campaign. By the end of May the total armed forces available to Napoleon had reached 198,000 with 66,000 more in depots training up but not yet ready for deployment.

By the end of May Napoleon had deployed his forces as follows:

• I Corps (D'Erlon) cantoned between Lille and Valenciennes.
• II Corps (Reille) cantoned between Valenciennes and Avesnes.
• III Corps (Vandamme) cantoned around Rocroi.
• IV Corps (Gerard ) cantoned at Metz.
• VI Corps (Lobau) cantoned at Laon.
• Cavalry Reserve (Grouchy) cantoned at Guise.
• Imperial Guard (Mortier) at Paris.

The preceding corps were to be formed into L'Armée du Nord (the "Army of the North") and led by Napoleon Bonaparte would participate in the Waterloo Campaign. For the defence of France, Bonaparte deployed his remaining forces within France observing France's enemies, foreign and domestic, intending to delay the former and suppress the latter. By June they were organised as follows:

• V Corps – Armée du Rhin(Chandler 1981, p. 180) (Rapp), cantoned near Strasbourg, 46 guns and 20,000–23,000 men

More troops guarded the south east frontier from Basel to Nice, and covered Lyons:

• VII Corps – Armée des Alpes (Suchet) Based at Lyons, this army was charged with the defence of Lyons and to observe the Austro-Sardinian army of Frimont, 42–46 guns and 13,000–23,500 men

• I Corps of Observation – Armée du Jura (Lecourbe) Based at Belfort and commanded by General Claude Lecourbe. This army was to observe any Austrian movement through Switzerland and also observe the Swiss army of General Bachmann. Its composition in June was:
• 38 guns, and 5,392–8,400 men

• II Corps of Observation – Armée du Var 10,000 men, (Brune)

There were two other major deployments:

• 8,000 men under Clausel cantoned around Toulouse and Decaen cantoned around Bordeaux guarded the Pyrenean frontier.
• Lamarque led 10,000 men into La Vendée to quell a Royalist insurrection in that region.