Napoleonic wars

This article explores the irretrievable losses of the French army during the Napoleonic wars through analysis of the service records of soldiers stored in the French military archive (SHD, Vincennes, 20 YC). This source allows to estimate military losses much more accurately than individual reports, which help to sum up these losses. During the study, service records of the main part of the Napoleonic army, without guards and foreign regiments were reviewed. This is about 8,431 people.

The article shows the Anglo-French confrontation on the Iberian Peninsula as an important stage of the Second Hundred years’ War. The example of remote action of the British expeditionary force demonstrates the «English style» of war: the operation of army troops with the active support of the Royal Navy. The author comes to the conclusion that the Pyrenean wars of the beginning of the XIX century have a certain significance in the system of Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.