After the disaster of 1806, there was a widespread sense of outrage at the way in which the Prussian army had been humiliated. Public and political pressures caused the King, Frederick William III, to make some move towards setting up a board of enquiry to determine the causes of defeat and with the wider object of reforming the army.
The first serious steps towards these objectives were taken on July 15th, 1807, when the King requested Graf Lottum and Major General von Scharnhorst to head the newly established Military Reorganisation Commission. Under their influence, the places within the Commission were soon filled with a mixture of reactionaries and visionaries including Konen, von Massenbuch, von Borstell, von Bonikowski and, more significantly, Boyen, Gneisenau and a young captain of artillery named Clausewitz.
One of the initial tasks of the Commission was to investigate the old officer corps. Out of 6,500 officers who had participated in the 1806 campaign, some 250 were eventually found guilty of 'degrading the uniform', and all of the fortress commanders, only the redoubtable old Blucher was found to be innocent.
The Commission quickly fell under the dominant influence of Scharnhorst and his notable report, dated July 31st, 1807, dealt with the national capacity to support an army. He estimated that a force of between 130 - 150,000 men could easily be maintained by the population of the reduced state, but in the light of financial difficulties, he accepted that this figure was too high and consequently set a target of 65 - 70,000 men divided into sixteen regiments of infantry and eight of cavalry, sixteen battalions of garrison infantry, a Royal Guard, the requisite artillery and the other various necessary services.
On September 25th, 1807, these proposals were modified and it was decided that the new army would be structured upon three Army Corps based on Prussia, Silesia and Brandenburg-Pommerania. Each Corps would contain two Divisions, having a total of 8 Regiments of Infantry, 4 Regiments of Cavalry, and 8 Companies of Artillery; 4 X 6pdr. Foot, 2 X 6pdr. Horse, and two reserve batteries, one horse and one 12pdr. foot.
