• Source: Army of Helvetia

The Army of Helvetia, or (French: Armée d'Helvétie), was a command of the French Revolutionary Army. It was formed on 8 March 1798 from the remnants of the first unit to be known as the Army of the Rhine. It was officially merged into the command structure of the Army of the Danube on 29 April 1799, although it continued to operate in the Swiss theater until 1801. The Army's initial campaigning in the old Swiss Confederation resulted in severe setbacks and defeats at Feldkirch, Lusiensteig, and Zurich.




Background



From October 1797 until 1–2 March 1798, when the French crossed the Rhine into Germany, the signatories of the Treaty of Campo Formio had avoided armed conflict. Several diplomatic incidents undermined this agreement: the reluctance of the Austrians to cede the designated territories; the ineptitude of Second Congress of Rastatt to orchestrate the transfer of additional territories that would compensate the German princes for their losses; the refusal of Ferdinand of Naples to pay tribute, followed by the Neapolitan rebellion; and the subsequent establishment of the Parthenopaean Republic. Other factors contributed to the rising tensions as well. On his way to Egypt, Napoleon had stopped on the Island of Malta and forcibly removed the Knights of Malta from their possessions, angering Tsar Paul I of Russia, who was the honorary head of the order. The French Directory, furthermore, was convinced that the Austrians were conniving to start another war. The weaker the French Republic seemed, the more the Austrians, the Neapolitans, the Russians and the English were discussing this possibility.




= The Fall of the Swiss Confederation

=

On 12 April 1798 121 deputies of the various cantons established the Helvetic Republic by proclamation as "One and Indivisible". The new regime abolished both cantonal sovereignty, or the practice of particular local governance, and feudal rights, and established a centralized state based on the ideas of the French Revolution. This change in governing structure was backed up by military force, through the presence of French soldiers.




Composition


Regiments which served in the army included:
Cavalry

7th Regiment of Mounted Hunters 7éme Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval (Picarde)
12th Regiment of Mounted Hunters 12éme Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval (Ardennes)
7th Regiment of Hussars 7éme Régiment de Hussards
8th Regiment of Hussars 8éme Régiment de Hussards
9th Regiment of Hussars 9éme Régiment de Hussards
11th Regiment of Hussars 11éme Régiment de Hussards
9th Regiment of Dragoons 9éme Régiment de Dragons
13th Regiment of Dragoons 13éme Régiment de Dragons (Monsieur)
16th Regiment of Dragoons 16éme Régiment de Dragons (Orleans)
3rd Regiment of Cavalry 3éme Régiment de Cavalerie (Commisaire Général) – Later 3rd Cuirassiers
18th Regiment of Cavalry 18éme Régiment de Cavalerie (Normandie) – Later 27th Dragoons
Infantry

3rd Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 3éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
17th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 17éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
18th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 18éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
23rd Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 23éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
31st Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 31éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
36th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 36éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
37th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 37éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
38th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 38éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
44th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 44éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
57th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 57éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
76th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 76éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
84th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 84éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
97th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 97éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
100th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 100éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
103rd Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 103éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
105th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 105éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
106th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 106éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
109th Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 109éme Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
5th Light Demi-Brigade 5éme Demi-Brigade Légère
14th Light Demi-Brigade 14éme Demi-Brigade Légère
16th Light Demi-Brigade 16éme Demi-Brigade Légère
18th Light Demi-Brigade 18éme Demi-Brigade Légère
20th Light Demi-Brigade 20éme Demi-Brigade Légère
Swiss Troops

1st Swiss Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 1ére Suisse Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
2nd Swiss Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 2éme Suisse Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
3rd Swiss Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 3éme Suisse Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
4th Swiss Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 4éme Suisse Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
5th Swiss Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 5éme Suisse Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
6th Swiss Demi-Brigade of Line Infantry 6éme Suisse Demi-Brigade d'Infanterie de Ligne
1st Swiss Legion 1ére Légion Helvétique – Disbanded 6 September 1799
2nd Swiss Legion 2éme Légion Helvétique – Disbanded 6 September 1799




Commanders


Commanders of the army included:

8 March 1798–27 March 1798 Général Guillaume Marie-Anne Brune
28 March 1798–10 December 1798 Temporarily Général Alexis Henri Schauenburg
11 December 1798–4 April 1799 Général Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
5 April–16 April 1799 Général Philippe Romain Ménard
17 April–18 April 1799 Général André Masséna




References


Citations

Bibliography
Charles Clerget, Tableaux des Armées Français pendant les Guerres de la Révolution, R. Chapelot Military Bookshop, Paris, 1905.
Digby Smith, Napoleon's Regiments: Battle Histories of the Regiments of the French Army, 1792–1815, 2000 Greenhill Books, London, United Kingdom. ISBN 1-85367-413-3.
Blanning, Timothy, The French Revolutionary Wars, New York, Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-340-56911-5
Gallagher, John, Napoleon's enfant terrible: General Dominique Vandamme, Tulsa, University of Oklahoma Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8061-3875-6
Jourdan, Jean-Baptiste, A Memoir of the operations of the army of the Danube under the command of General Jourdan, taken from the manuscripts of that officer, London, Debrett, 1799.
Phipps, Ramsey Weston, The Armies of the First French Republic, volume 5: "The armies of the Rhine in Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Egypt and the coup d'etat of Brumaire, 1797–1799," Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1939.
Rothenberg, Gunther E. (2007). Napoleon's great adversaries: Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army 1792–1914. Stroud, Gloucestershire: Spellmount. ISBN 978-1-86227-383-2.
Thiers, Adolphe, The history of the French revolution, New York, Appleton, 1854, v. 4.
Young, John, D.D., A History of the Commencement, Progress, and Termination of the Late War between Great Britain and France which continued from the first day of February 1793 to the first of October 1801, in two volumes. Edinburg, Turnbull, 1802, vol. 2.

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