Obeying an artilleryman? The French controversy on the right to command in chief as documented in the Spanish military press (1845)

Abstract

The Spanish Army during Isabella II's time is often described as a monolithic and homogeneous block, backward and closed in on itself, in which the numerous officers seemed overly concerned with intervening in the country's politics. However, this vision does not reflect the reality of an army in which different ways of understanding the military profession, as well as internal fractures and different groups were present simultaneously. The following pages will focus on the latter. Through the analysis of a discussion on the right to command in chief that originated in France, it will be possible to discern, firstly, to what extent the Spanish military was aware of similar debates raised in foreign armies; secondly, it will be possible to approach the way in which the officers of the different Corps and Arms saw themselves and the rest of the army, the relations between the different groups and the values and competences considered essential for a nineteenth-century general. Thus, this field of research would be included within social studies and the analysis of military mentality in the late modern period.

Through the study of different primary sources (such as Galdosian novels or opinion pieces from diverse mid-nineteenth century military media) and secondary sources, it is concluded that the Spanish Army was divided between the general arms (Infantry and Cavalry), which used to perceive optional corps (Artillery and Engineers) as privileged and arrogant. On the other side, artillerymen saw themselves as humble. In addition, there was an additional gap regarding military education: those who decided to acquire a higher education were viewed with a certain disdain and suspicion, as if study were of no use for soldiers whose life was, above all, a life of action.