Toward an army of honor: The moral evolution of the french army, 1789-1815

Abstract

As he spoke these words before the Corps Legislatif on the evening of 19 May 1802, Mathieu Dumas urged that body to create a new institution, the Legion of Honor. Dumas believed Virtue and Honor were compatible and that Honor should be achieved through Virtue. His logic, however, disguised the essentially incompatible natures of Virtue and Honor under the rule of Napoleon. In terms of Dumas's rhetorical metaphor, the First Consul constructed his temple to Honor on the ruins of the temple to Virtue. But this edifice was not made of stone; it was composed of men. It was his army. In this article I argue that after 1794, Revolutionary Virtue gave way to Napoleonic Honor as the official, and to a significant degree, real basis of martial motivation. The Revolutionary government expected its soldiers to fight without concern for personal reward and to