Hat 8108 French Pontoon

At the beginning of the wars of revolutionary France (1792-1796), organized military transport in the French army either did not exist or functioned very poorly. It was assumed that the army would feed itself at the expense of the country in which it was fighting. In 1796, however, the so-called brigades of coachmen (French charretiers), which, however, were military only in name, because they served civilian workers, remunerated for their work, but not subject to military discipline or orders of officers. Moreover, they were organized by private enterprises (among which the Breidt company / firm became of great importance over time), which were driven by profit rather than sacrifice of their employees. These brigades usually consisted of 25 cars with 24 people as "crews". Noticing the shortcomings of this solution, Napoleon ordered in February 1803 to create an auxiliary transport at the regiment level, and in 1807, during the campaign in Poland, he established a military transport train (French: train des equipages). This service consisted of 8 battalions and was already a fully military unit. In 1807, Napoleon also broke all contracts and agreements with private transport companies providing services for the Great Army - including the Breidt company. In 1808, the organization of this unit was clarified and selected officers and non-commissioned officers from cavalry and artillery units were assigned to it. Over time, the military transport train grew to exceed 20 battalions.