Bourbon Restoration Information?

Does anyone know of any good sources of information on the Bourbon Restoration, particularly the military? Note, I can read basic French but my primary language is English.
Thanks.
 
Revolutionary France, 1770-1880 by François Furet. Available in English. Deals more with the politics of the time period in broad streaks, but it very helpful. Novels published in the period, such as Stendhal's The Red and the Black can provide some useful information of society at the time. Les Miserables (unabridged) has several chapters that deal with Restoration France, such as how Paris was in the 1820s that are pretty helpful for understanding the period.

Other books: France under the Bourbon Restoration by Frederick Artz (possibly available online for free), France 1814-1914 by Robert Tombs (another great book). Both should be available in English. The latter is at least.

I don't think there's much available on the military. The Bourbons really made no change to the system built up Napoleon, except cosmetically. Radical officers were demobilized on half-pay, and former aristocrats tended to move up in the ranks, severely hampering morale. Aside from that and the renaming of regiments and the restoration of the royal guard, there were no real changes. Even the national guard was retained. The only big change I can think of is the 1818 reform that re-organised into regiments a system of 86 “Departmental Legions,” but it was abandoned by 1820.
 
I'll defiantly try to look these up. I don't supposed you if the restoration army used the napoleonic army rank names?
Thanks.
 
I'll defiantly try to look these up. I don't supposed you if the restoration army used the napoleonic army rank names?
Thanks.

They did, as Napoleonic ranks were pretty much the same as Ancien régime's ones. The only difference (coming back actually) was naming the first flag rank, général de brigade, maréchal de camp, as pre-1790 and the second one, général de division, lieutenant general, also as pre-1790. A good source are the Almanachs royaux, which listed every field officer in the army, such as the one of 1816 http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k2039123/f480.image.
 
The Court of France 1789-1830
By Philip Mansel, is good as it gives details about the court life at the Tuileries along with the interactions and roles of the various nobles at court.
 
I'll defiantly try to look these up. I don't supposed you if the restoration army used the napoleonic army rank names?
Thanks.

Yes, they did. Like Cornelis said, the ranks in the former Ancien Régime army didn't differ very much.

The Général de Brigade replaced the maréchal de camp and the brigadier des armées: it commanded a brigade, but was a two star rank. The old brigadier des armées was more like a senior colonel or junior commander, as it was only a one star rank. In 1815, Général de Brigade simply became the maréchal de camp once again. Same with the Général de Division, it simply resumed it's former pre-revolutionary name as Lieutenant General, which was theoretically the highest rank in the military hierarchy of the ancien régime.

The army briefly had white uniforms with regimental colors as facings, but they were abandoned in 1820 when the Departmental Legions were disbanded. They resumed using blue uniforms, although the Swiss regiments maintained their red coats as you can see here. You can see some of the infantry uniforms c. 1822 here.

Here is a link that provides some more info on the Restoration army.
 
Top