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The Garde mobile ("Mobile Guard"; also called Garde nationale mobile though it had nothing to do with the Garde nationale) was intended to be a reserve force of all able-bodied men previously not drafted (such as single men and childless widowers), trained yearly, during the time of Napoleon III.^[1]^[2]

Length of service was intended to be five years, with a draft of 116,000 men per year.^[2] Napoleon III took up the idea and announced on 12 December 1866 that the Garde Mobile would eventually attain a strength of 400,000 troops, thus reaching the ruler's target of one million French troops.^[3] Adolphe Niel, Minister of War for France under Emperor Napoleon III, was in charge of implementing the plan.^[3]

Both the left and the right in the Corps Legislatif took issue with the proposal. Traditionalists wanted an all-professional army;^[3] liberals were opposed to Bonapartist militarism.^[1] But the law to create the Garde was passed in diluted form in January 1868 by 199 to 60 votes and came into force on February 1st of that year.^[3] Given the dilution, the Garde Mobile was not fully implemented as planned. It numbered some 90,000 men in 1870 and trained only 14 days per year, non-consecutively, instead of the intended 20 days consecutively.^[1] In some cases, the amount of training was even less: in 1869, one battalion trained only for seven days, the sessions lasting three hours each.^[2] Additionally, conscripts with any prior knowledge of drill and military education were excused altogether from training.^[3] The discipline and equipment of the Garde were regarded as quite bad, especially when compared to the regular army.^[1]

After Niel's death in 1869, his replacement Edmond Le Leboeuf regarded the Garde with disdain.^[3]

The Garde Mobile was called up on in July 1870, as part of the Franco-Prussian War, but arrived too late to Eastern France to be useful,^[1] presuming they could have been of use at all, considering how badly many senior officers considered their temperament and outfit.^[3]

Representation in Art

The Attack at Dawn (Alphonse de Neuville, 1877). Prussian troops advance on a French town; French troops including Algerian riflemen and members of the Garde Mobile rush to defend.^[4] The Walters Art Museum.