The ask a Historical Question thread

[Mr T]

I ain't no Dutchman.

[Duuring]

Conscription aka forced service wasn't a Napoleonic invention. Massed conscription however, meaning that basically every able-bodied male citizens could and would be called up, was a whole new thing.

It was quite an interesting system though, that Napoleon used. You'd get a number, say, for example, 53, and they'd designate the 'call-up' for your specific year at something like 40, meaning that all the people who drew a number 40 or lower were immediately called up. If, in a later stage, more men were needed, they'd simply raise the number and all those under the new number were also called up.

You could switch numbers - many impoverished people who would draw a high number would trade it for a low one in exchange for a sum of money. And these were very serious amounts of money, which would often enable the soldier to start a farm or a business when he came back. If you had brothers already serving in the army, you would get basically get a 'get-out-for-free'-card, meaning you could never be called up. These 'cards' could also be traded, and the prices paid for those were extremely high - because it meant you had 100% certainty you would never have to serve.

There were some other reasons that would exclude you from service, like being the sole child of your parents, to make sure the conscription didn't have to much of an impact on society.

[joer5835]

I've also read that mutaliting yourself, such as cutting off fingers, also excluded you from conscription.

[Black Watch 1745]

  Some of the troops Elizabeth I sent to Ireland are often referred to as being 'conscripted':
http://www.tudorgroup.co.uk/Articles/Trayned_bands.html
(I remember the historian John Guy at a lecture I attended once said that conscription was used).
  As others have said though, it was not really till the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars when the idea of the 'Nation in Arms' came along and you began to see mass armies of conscripts. The Tudor system of conscription cannot really be compared with the Napoleonic one. Right up until the 19th century plenty of people were 'impressed' into service.
  As for mutilating yourself to avoid being called up, yes that happened. Mark Urban's book 'Fuziliers' about the 23rd Royal Welch Fuziliers in the American War of Independence has one example. When we were preparing more regiments to send out to America we gave prisoners the choice of either being sent to/remaining in prison or joining the army, most preferred prison. Two prisoners were told they were going to be forced to join the army so they cut their thumbs and index fingers off to avoid service.

[joer5835]

Ah, yes the imfamous press gangs. You've got to give the British credit, even without any proper conscription they still had their ways of getting a steady supply of new recruits though.

[The Mighty McLovin]

Imagine being drunk in a bar, and then you fall asleep... and then wake up in a ship. Those press gangs must of being scary.

[The Mighty McLovin]

Are there any good Napoleonic era movies apart from Waterloo?

[Mr T]

Master and Commander
The Duellists
Hornblower mini-series

[Sir-Legion]

Napoleon series (4 parts) 2002
Really good series

[Black Watch 1745]

  The Russians also did a movie (well it is more like four) of War and peace in the sixties. The Battle scenes are some of the largest ever put to film. It was directed by Sergei Bondarchuk, the same man who directed Waterloo a few years later. All four parts are up on YouTube. The BBC did a series in the early seventies although the battles are minuscule (understandable as they were producing very good dramas on a low budget). The BBC have also done a remake due to be shown sometime soon. The other one I remember, and which is sometimes shown on BBC 2, is the one done in the fifties.
  Despite the fact that the battles are not very big, Sharpe is still good. Sure, it has led to half the NA membership being in the 3 battalions of the 95th but even so it has lead to a renewed interest in the era.
  There was also a Hornblower film back in the fifties with Gregory Peck. I cannot remember the name but there was also a good one with Nelson that I remember seeing when I was young (not the one with Lawrence Olivier, a later one from the seventies). I remember it was shown on National Geographic and I remember some of the battle scenes fairly well and the opening and closing shots of Nelson arriving in harbour in the dead of night, although the last is of course after the battle as he is being brought back for burial.
  It is interesting that Stanley Kubrick was going to make a film about Napoleon but, thanks to Waterloo not doing too well at the box office, along with a few other factors, the studios decided that anything Napoleonic on such a large scale was a risk. Spielberg has now apparently decided to do a miniseries based largely upon what Kubrick researched and wrote.

[joer5835]

Despite the fact that the battles are not very big, Sharpe is still good. Sure, it has led to half the NA membership being in the 3 battalions of the 95th but even so it has lead to a renewed interest in the era.

I'd always recommend taking Sharpe with a big grain of salt. The novels were written as romantised action/adventure stories and the TV series follows that path. The historical accuracy of that series is a joke and it is heavily pro-British and anti-everything that isn't British (French are shown as incompetent fools and don't even get me started on what they did to the Prince of Orange). As said before, the 'large' battle scenes are so small that it is downright cringeworthy. But if you keep that in mind and none of that bothers you, you have quite an alright action/adventure series.

[Colonel Howe]

Sharpe was good for me

It was enjoyable to feel washed over in British propaganda

Rule Britannia

[OttoFIN]

I must post this for the Sharpe fans:

[Black Watch 1745]

  Well this video was interesting:

Spoiler

[close]

  Back to the original question, I also seem to remember one set in the Peninsular war where a British officer was attached to some Spanish partisans who were trying to move a cannon to attack a French held fortress. I think it was made in the fifties although I cannot remember the name. I remember some of the scenes, for example them ambushing some French soldiers by a bridge, hiding the cannon in a religious procession and finally storming the fortress.

[Bootvs]

I must post this for the Sharpe fans:

Love it.