Hello
I am currently researching for a novel based in Prussia over the period of 1806 - 1818
I am hoping some of these forums might be able to assist with answers to the following questions 1. Would it have been likely for a middle class young man to volunteer for the army in 1806
2. In 1806 were the Prussian army general soldiers still brutalised or had a more modern training system come into play at that time
3. Once France had defeated the Prussians, what level of occupation was there of Prussia ,the bits that remained Prussia, by the French
4. What was the level of plunder that was carried out by the French, thinking here not so much on the reparations that were dictated by the Treaty but rather what the common townsfolk would expect to suffer.
Hi Scott,
This isn't directly relevant to your subject but it might be worth taking a look at Alexander Mikaberidze's Russian Eyewitness Accounts of the Campaign of 1807. It is a collection of reports, letters, diaries etc. written by Russian officers during the Eylau and Friedland campaigns that have been translated into English by Mikaberidze. Whilst it is obviously principally concerned with the Russian rather than the Prussian army it does give a great insight into the life of a soldier at the time, including ways that impecunious young men, lacking connections at court, went about trying to gain a commission. It also brings home the stark realities of warfare and the effect it had on local populations. Essentially, if the soldiers were hungry then the people starved. If an army encamps for any time then the villages all around cease to exist because the soldiers first pillage all the food and then dismantle all the buildings to use as fire wood. One officer even writes of an occasion where he set two villages on fire to illuminate the darkness in case the French should attempt a night attack.
Best wishes
Stephen
There was no kind of middle class volunteer in the Prussian Army of 1806 - those Volunteers or Freiweillige Jäger only apprear in 1813 and in case you can read German there are some great memoirs in it.
What do you mean by brutalisation of the Prussian Army? It was by all means no more brutal like the Austrian and in my view much less brutal than the British one. The Prussian Army had one of the most sophisticated training up to 1806, its deficiency was that it was a peace time army along with all the pitfalls of such an institution
. In case you like to learn more about the training, and how sophisticated the instructions of like York were for the Jäger or the Füsiliere I recommend to read the chaptor I did write in the multi author book published by Helion : Glory is Fleeting, The Prussian Light Infantry in 1806 pages 90 - 127 where I listed some sources which may be of interest to your questions.
The plunder was the usual one food, cloth, watches, jewelry whatever a soldier may find usefull, Boney was among one of the worst - stealing the sword and hat of Frederik the Great, as well as the Quadriga from the Brandenburg gate.