The Ministry of War was the heir of the royal Department for War existing during the Ancien régime. On 27 April 1791, the National Constituent Assembly issued a decree organizing the six ministries of Justice, Interior, Finances, War, Navy and Foreign Affairs. The decree was signed into law on 25 May 1791 by King Louis XVI.[1]
The Committee of Public Safety suspended all six ministries in April 1794 and implemented instead twelve Executive Commissions ; this act dismembered the department into numerous commissions. The ministry was reinstated with the formation of the Directory in November 1795.[2]
In 1915, during the First World War, an Under Secretariat of State of the Military Aeronautics was created.[3] It would eventually become independent in 1928 as the Ministry of Air.
The ministry remained in place in all subsequent governments, with some temporary name changes, until its final merger with the Ministry of the Navy and the Ministry of Air into the Ministry of Defence on 31 October 1947.[4]
Director General of Reviews of Conscription (Jean-Gérard Lacuée, Comte de Cessac, 1806–10;, Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas, 1810–12; and Étienne d'Hastrel de Rivedoux, 1812–14)
6 x Inspectors in Chief of Reviews (Divisional Generals)
30 x Inspectors of Reviews (Brigade Generals)
100 x Sub-Inspectors of Reviews (Colonels)
Assistant Sub-Inspectors, 1st Class (Chefs de Bataillons) – posts created in 1811
Assistant Sub-Inspectors, 2nd Class (Captains)
War Commissaires
Post-Napoleonic Wars
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