The III Corps of the Grande Armée were few military units during the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

. The III Corps came to prominence between 1805 and 1809 under the command of Marshal

Marshal of France

The Marshal of France is a military distinction in contemporary France, not a military rank. It is granted to generals for exceptional achievements...

 Louis Nicolas Davout

Louis Nicolas Davout

Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...

, when it repeatedly scored impressive victories single-handedly or in conjunction with other French forces. Napoleon called it "My tenth legion", in reference to Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....

's finest unit, the X Equestris

Legio X Gemina

Legio decima Gemina , was one of the four legions used by Julius Caesar in 58 BC, for his invasion of Gaul. There are still records of the X Gemina in Vienna in the beginning of the 5th century. The legion symbol was a bull...

. Then troops from that Corps took part in many battles in Poland (1807) e.g. Czarnowo, Pultusk, Golymin, Eylau, in Bavaria at Teugen-Hausen, Ekhmuhl and in Austria 1809 at Wagram. These troops later were reorganized as I Corps and included French/German/Polish units. It also included the 127th to 129th "régiment d'infanterie de ligne" from the north German countries of Oldenburg, Bremen and Hamburg that were annexed shortly before and thus counted as French.

Size

By the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, III Corps was reorganized and went under the command of Marshal Ney

Michel Ney

Michel Ney , 1st Duc d'Elchingen, 1st Prince de la Moskowa was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon I...

. It consisted of French, Wurttemberg, Portuguese and Croats units and like the rest of Napoleon's forces, suffered heavy casualties as the campaign progressed: at the crossing of the Niemen River in 1812, the III Corps' size was estimated at around 44,000 men; by the Battle of Smolensk

Battle of Smolensk (1812)

The Battle of Smolensk, the first major battle of the French invasion of Russia took place on August 16–18, 1812, between 175,000 men of the Grande Armée under Napoleon Bonaparte and 130,000 Russians under Barclay de Tolly, though only about 50,000 and 60,000 respectively were actually engaged...

, only 22,000 men remained.

Battles

The III Corps participated in a number of battles, including Austerlitz

Battle of Austerlitz

The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of Napoleon's greatest victories, where the French Empire effectively crushed the Third Coalition...

, Auerstadt

Battle of Jena-Auerstedt

The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt were fought on 14 October 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today's Germany, between the forces of Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Prussia...

, Eylau

Battle of Eylau

The Battle of Eylau or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, 7 and 8 February 1807, was a bloody and inconclusive battle between Napoléon's Grande Armée and a Russian Empire army under Levin August, Count von Bennigsen near the town of Preußisch Eylau in East Prussia. Late in the battle, the Russians...

, Teugen-Hausen

Battle of Teugen-Hausen

The Battle of Teugen-Hausen or the Battle of Thann was fought on 19 April 1809 between the French III Corps led by Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout and the Austrian III Armeekorps commanded by Prince Friedrich Franz Xaver of Hohenzollern-Hechingen. The French won a hard-fought victory over their...

 and Eckmuhl

Battle of Eckmühl

The Battle of Eckmühl fought on 21 April – 22 April 1809, was the turning point of the 1809 Campaign, also known as the War of the Fifth Coalition...

. The III Corps also fought at Borodino

Battle of Borodino

The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...

.

Commanders

• Corps commanders: Marshal Louis Nicolas Davout
  Louis Nicolas Davout
  Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
  
   (1805 through 1809);
  • Divisional commanders:
    • General Louis Friant
      Louis Friant
      Louis Friant was born in the village of Morlancourt, 8 km south of Albert near the river Somme. The village would later suffer the misfortune of lying along the Western Front trench-lines of World War I....
      
      
    • General Etienne Gudin
      Charles-Étienne Gudin de La Sablonnière
      Charles-Étienne Gudin de La Sablonnière, count, was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.-Early career and Revolutionary Wars:...
      
      
    • General Charles Morand
    • General Saint-Hilaire
      Louis Vincent Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire
      Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond, comte de Saint-Hilaire was a French general during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.-Early career:...
      
      
  • Corps cavalry under general Montbrun

Marshal Michel Ney

Michel Ney

Michel Ney , 1st Duc d'Elchingen, 1st Prince de la Moskowa was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon I...

(1812)

• • Divisional commanders:
    • General Ledru
    • General Razout
    • General Royal Prince of Wurttemberg, later General of Division Marchand
  • Corps cavalry under General-major Wollwrath