ABSTRACT
More by accident than design the French Revolution produced a clutch of able young generals. In the early years of the Revolution a few military officers, drawn from the scions of the nobility, emigrated. When war began against the crowned heads of Europe, and when France became a republic, still more left. Those that remained saw their numbers diminish in action on the battlefield or in purges – sometimes because of military failure, sometimes because they were politically suspect, and sometimes they appear simply to have been fingered as necessary scapegoats. Into their shoes stepped a few men who, in the royal army, could rarely, if ever, have risen above the rank of non-commissioned officer. Lazare Hoche, born in 1768, began life as a stable-boy, was a corporal in 1789, and a general four years later. Michel Ney, born in 1769, was the son of a cooper. He enlisted as a hussar in 1788, was made a lieutenant at the beginning of war in 1792, and became a general in 1796. At the same time, young officers of the old regime army, who came from the nobility, showed loyalty to the Revolution, ability on the battlefield, and made the right connections, also found rapid promotion. One such was Napoleon Bonaparte.
