In October 1795, France's National Convention (the body that had been assembled for the purpose of drafting a new Republican constitution) was under threat from a Royalist uprising. Paul Barras, a former President of the Convention, persuaded it to place Napoleon Bonaparte (then a brigadier general in the Army of Italy, which was a unit of the French Army) in charge of its troops. In the early hours of 5 October, Napoleon ordered 40 cannons to be brought from the outskirts of Paris and placed in commanding positions. The Royalist assault began at around 10 a.m., and was met by a bombardment of grapeshot. The Royalist attack wavered, and Bonaparte ordered a counterattack. After some two hours, around three hundred Royalists lay dead on the streets of Paris.
It was actually the Scottish philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle who later recorded that on this occasion, Bonaparte had given his opponent a "Whiff of Grapeshot". According to Wikipedia, "The phrase is often ascribed to Bonaparte himself, but the words are probably Carlyle's."
The battle became known in France as 13 Vendemaire, this being the date in the new French revolutionary calendar. Carlyle wrote that "the thing we specifically call French Revolution is blown into space by it." In other words (says Wikipedia), "13 Vendémiaire marks the ending of the French Revolution." But for Napoleon Bonaparte it was a major factor in the rapid advancement of his career. He was given command of the army of the interior. After drawing up a plan for an Italian campaign, he was (again with Barras's help) made commander in chief of the army of Italy.
According to the Library of Brown University, Napoleon "quickly succeeded in transforming an ill–supplied army into a first–class fighting force. The brilliant success of his Italian campaign was based on three factors: his supply system, which he made virtually independent of the financially exhausted Directory by allowing the troops to live off the land; his reliance on speed and massed surprise attacks by small but compact units against the Austrian forces; and his influence over the morale of his soldiers."
Grapeshot (by the way) was a type of anti–personnel ammunition, commonly used in cannons in the 18th century. It was typically a mass of loosely–packed metal slugs, loaded into a canvas bag.
© Haydn Thompson 2024