Napoleon's Conscripts: Conscription and the French Army, 1798-1815

Over the course of the Napoleonic wars, the French emperor mobilised over two million fighting men – most of them conscripts. Napoleon’s Conscripts tells their story. Exploring the system of conscription and soldiers’ experiences of service, it sheds light on the lives of ordinary men who marched beneath the emperor’s eagles.

From its introduction in 1798 until the fall of the empire in 1815, conscription provided Napoleon with the manpower for the almost incessant military campaigns that sa...