The Formation of the Grand Armee
The French Armies, after the revolution, were moderately trained, but, it was not good enough for Consul Richelieu. Richelieu could see the coming storm, and could see that the monarchs of europe would begin marching armies across the rhine and into france, or over the alps and into france, desperate to keep their power legitimate. They feared this upstart republic, and Richelieu made full use of that fact.
Quickly regiments and battalians were merged together to form corps, for greater flexibility and manueverability in battle.
Corps would be led by Marshalls, generals of the French army, andthey would be trained and drilled for fast movement across large spaces of land and to bring the enemy into desicive battles, and to utterly crush them.
Richelieu standardized weaponry and uniforms, to bring a sense of cohesian and union to the French armed forces. He also geared France's Industry towards equipping its large armies . Soldiers were trained in amazingly short amounts of time, yet came out as highly trained as any of their British counterparts. Soldiers trained on the march, and were provided weaponry and uniforms while moving to the front.
Weapons and uniforms travelled in mobile supply trains that followed corps towards the fields of battle.
Cavalry and Infantry were used in large and mobile corps in grandiose operations on a scale never seen before.
Armies were not used to occupy territory, rather they were used to force the enemy into alliegance with France, and to gain strong surrender terms in favor of the republic.
Rapid marches of large masses of men were used across the French countryside, quickly overwhelming enemies. Warfare on this scale has not been seen since the days of the Roman Empire.
Richelieu adopted a new doctrine of warfare:
The Doctrine of Preemptive Strike.
Consul Richelieu leads the dreaded cuirassiers across the fields of France.