Napoleon's Lost Legions: French Prisoners of War in Britain, 1803–1814

Abstract

During the Napoleonic Wars, over 100,000 French prisoners of war were held captive in Britain. These prisoners remain a marginal group in the military history of the period, yet they represent a key turning point in the history of European prisoners of war, and their predicament offers insights into the nature of the French Revolution. This article considers the treatment and experiences of French prisoners, and in particular seeks to understand the circumstances surrounding their long-term captivity. Unlike eighteenthcentury prisoners of war, prisoners of the Napoleonic Wars remained captive for the duration of the conflict, unable to return home through the traditional means of prisoner exchange or officer parole. This radical departure from the past gave rise to the modern practice of interning prisoners of war for the entire duration of a war. This historic shift was, on the one level, a result of the actions of one man -Napoleon Bonaparte. Yet, as this article highlights, it must also be understood as part of the long-term social and cultural legacy of the French Revolution. 362 NAPOLEON'S LOST LEGIONS dramatically climbed, placing a growing burden on the British government and its prison system. In all, a staggering 102,000 French prisoners of war were held in Britain during the conflict. 1 Despite their numbers and the many problems that they posed the British government, these prisoners have not captured great historical interest. With the exception of Philippe Masson's study, Les Sépulcres flottants , dealing exclusively with the subject, it is necessary to go back to the early twentieth century to find histories -still valuable, but now somewhat dated -of war prisons and prisoners of war in Britain during the Napoleonic wars. 2 Denis Smith has recently written on prisoners, including French, held on the Spanish island of Cabrera during the Peninsular War, and Michael Lewis has studied the fate of British prisoners of war in Napoleonic France, but no comparable study of French prisoners in Britain has appeared in English. 3 Moreover, whilst Masson's study, like the early British works, provides a wealth of information about the treatment and daily lives of prisoners, it does not integrate its subject into the wider history of the Revolutionary-Napoleonic era. In turn, the history of French Napoleonic prisoners of war has not been absorbed into the general military historiography of the period. In recent decades, excellent histories have appeared on the Napoleonic wars, and on the French army and its conscript soldiers. 4 Detailed accounts have appeared of how French soldiers were recruited, trained and fought. Yet the experience of French prisoners of war rarely rate a mention in these studies. This absence is also apparent in works addressing the history of the war from the British perspective. 5 Once lost to the emperor on the battlefield or high seas, French prisoners of war in Britain have also been lost to the general history of the period.This article suggests that French prisoners of war in Brit...

Surprisingly gentle confinement: British treatment of Danish and Norwegian prisoners of war during the napoleonic wars

“…As we have noted, most people were simply released, but some were exchanged, some escaped, and some died. The number of prisoners exchanged was low, reflecting the post-French Revolution decline of the previous system whereby prisoner were exchanged routinely and rapidly (Daly 2004). But these prisoners were lucky, for they were imprisoned for 230 fewer days than would otherwise have been the case.…”

“…Hundreds of thousands were captured by Napoleon's lightning strikes into Italy, Prussia and ultimately Russia, and conversely hundreds of thousands of French soldiers and seamen fell into the hands of their adversaries. There were, for example, over 100,000 French prisoners of war in England alone (Daly 2004). Similarly, the British took 7,000 Danish and Norwegian sailors prisoner.…”

Archaeologies of Internment

“…The Napoleonic wars were the first time that captured troops were routinely held for the duration of the conflict, where preventing the men from returning home was an important strategic aim (Daly 2004). Later in the nineteenth century, large prison camps accommodated captured men and officers in the American Civil War, which has generated some archaeological interest (Prentice and Prentice 2000;Thoms 2004;Bush 2009).…”

Review of periodical literature published in 2004

“…Britain held 100,000 French long‐term prisoners of war during the French Wars. Hitherto, Daly argues, prisoners had been reciprocally repatriated; from the 1790s, however, French officers were paroled in Britain and non‐officers held in prisons and hulks (the latter exhibiting suspiciously low ‘official’ mortality rates). The French are held responsible for policy changes: Revolutionary governments disavowed the gentlemanly code of conduct that governed parole exchanges, while Napoleon believed that general exchanges would advantage Britain, despite the fact that French prisoners outnumbered British ones sevenfold.…”