Demi-brigade

A demi-brigade (English: Half-brigade) is a military formation used by the French Army since the French Revolutionary Wars. The Demi-brigade amalgamated the various infantry organizations of the French Revolutionary infantry into a single unit. Each one was headed by a chef de brigade.

The term "Demi-brigade" was chosen to avoid the feudal ancien régime connotations of the term "Régiment". Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the term to be abandoned in 1803, and the demi-brigades were renamed "régiments". The term was reused by certain later units in the French Army, such as the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade, the only permanent demi-brigade in the modern French Army.

The French Legislative Assembly voted to declare war on Austria on 20 April 1792, and Prussia joined the war against France. 1792 ended well for France, having conquered the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) and parts of Germany. However, by early 1793, having guillotined Louis XVI of France on 21 January, France found itself at war with a coalition including Great Britain, the German States, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and Spain in addition to Austria and Prussia.

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