NAP718
First Legion
The French Grande Armee, 1807-1813.
The French soldiers made war all over the continent of Europe against all major powers of the age. Featured here are Napoleon's "Beautiful Daughters", the artillery of the La Grande Armee. The most destructive force on any Napoleonic battlefield was the artillery. Handled properly, the artillery could smash an enemy battleline to open the way for the main assault force of infantry and cavalry or provide devastating firepower to hold the line at the decisive point of attack.
As an artilleryman himself, Napoleon recognized the importance of his artillery arm and as the quality of the French troops declined over the course of the Napoleonic Wars through casualties from continuous campaigning and the drafting of the "Marie Louises", he came to lean ever more on the sheer destructive capacity of his "beautiful daughters" to tip the scales of battle and open the path for victory.