ABSTRACT
The election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to the French presidency would spell finis for the Second Republic. The record of the French soldier in European and colonial combat was unsurpassed, and drew the admiration of his rivals and potential enemies. The watershed year for the army, for the Second Empire, and even for French strategic planning was 1864. The French high command seems to have believed that harnessing a nation's railroad network for mobilization consisted merely of ordering a unit to board a train at X and to off-load at Y. The doctrine of "passive obedience" was specifically devised to insulate the officer corps from the seemingly endless changes of French political life. French regiments were rotated frequently, often yearly, to break any ties the soldiers might form with the community. It was far easier to move a regiment once a year than to transfer an entire division.
