 Undoubtedly by 1793 the armies of the French Republic were in a state of disruption; experienced soldiers of the Ancien Régime fought side by side with raw volunteers, urged on by revolutionary fervor from the special representatives, agents of the legislature sent to insure cooperation among the military. Many of the old officer class had emigrated, and the cavalry in particular suffered from their departure. The artillery arm, considered by the old nobility to be an inferior assignment, was less affected by emigration, and survived intact. The problems would become even more acute following the introduction of mass conscription, the levée en massee, in 1793. French commanders walked a fine line between the security of the frontier and clamor for victory (which would protect the regime in Paris) on the one hand, and the desperate condition of the army on the other, while they themselves were constantly under suspicion from the representatives of the new regime. The price of failure or disloyalty was the guillotine.
