Military Commissar
Saint-Just made the proposal that deputies from the Convention should directly oversee all military efforts, which was approved on 10 October 1793. Amid worsening conditions at the front in the fall of that year, several deputies were sent to the critical area of Alsace to shore up the disintegrating Army of the Rhine. Results were not sufficiently forthcoming, so at the end of the month Saint-Just himself was sent there along with an ally from the Convention, Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas. The two men were charged with "extraordinary powers" to impose discipline and reorganize the troops.
| " Soldiers, we have come to avenge you, and to give you leaders who will marshal you to victory. We have resolved to seek out, to reward, and to promote the deserving; and to track down all the guilty, whoever they may be.... All commanders, officers, and agents of the government are hereby ordered to satisfy within three days the just grievances of the soldiers. After that interval we will ourselves hear any complaints, and we will offer such examples of justice and severity as the Army has not yet witnessed." |
| – Saint-Just's first proclamation to the Army of the Rhine, 1793 |
From the start, Saint-Just dominated the mission. He was relentless in demanding results from the commanders as well as sympathetic to the complaints of common soldiers. On his first day at the front, he issued a proclamation promising "examples of justice and severity as the Army has not yet witnessed." Within a short time, many officers were dismissed and many more were executed by firing squad, including at least one general. The entire army was placed immediately under the harshest discipline.
Among soldiers and civilians alike, Saint-Just repressed opponents of the Revolution but he did not agree to the mass executions ordered by some of the other deputies on the mission. He vetoed much of the deputies' work and had many of them recalled to Paris. Local politicians were even more vulnerable to him: even the powerful Eulogius Schneider, the revolutionary leader of Alsace's largest city and called the "Marat of Strasbourg", was arrested by Saint-Just's orders and rapidly dispatched to the guillotine. Saint-Just worked closely only with General Charles Pichegru, a reliable Jacobin whom he respected. Under Saint-Just's unblinking surveillance, Pichegru and General Lazare Hoche ably secured the frontier and began an invasion of the German Rhineland.
With the army revitalized, Saint-Just returned briefly to Paris where his success was applauded. However, there was little time to celebrate. He was quickly sent back to the frontlines, this time in Belgium where the Army of the North was experiencing the same problems of discipline and organization. Again he delivered results ruthlessly and effectively, but after less than a month the mission was cut short. As Paris convulsed in political violence, his assistance was required by Robespierre.
Read more about this topic: Louis Antoine De Saint-Just
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