Cannon fodder
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Cannon fodder is an informal, derogatory term for combatants who are regarded or treated by government or military command as expendable in the face of enemy fire. The term is generally used in situat
Chateaubriand, who wrote the first attested use of the expression
François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who influenced French literature of the 19th century. Descended from an old aristocratic family from Bri
Cannon fodder
…powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better [men]...." The first attested use of the expression "cannon fodder" is by a French writer, François-René de Chateaubriand. In his anti-Napoleonic pamphlet "De Bonaparte et des Bourbons", published in 1814, he criticized the cynical attitude towards recruits that prevailed…
The Château de Combourg, where Chateaubriand spent his childhood
Young Chateaubriand, by Anne-Louis Girodet (c. 1790)
Chateaubriand in the army of Condé