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ericbabe -> RE: Captured Officer: ransom, execution, betraying (8/17/2005 5:55:05 PM)
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The most common thing I think was for officers to go on parole: their name would be taken down and they would be released with a pledge not to fight for the remainder of the war (or for a set duration). In Britain, British officers who broke parole were stripped of their rank and put in prison or even sent by the British back to France! Sometimes officers captured would be put on parole but kept in enemy territory. England had about 50 scattered locations that were designated as Parole Towns for French officers. Officers had quite a lot of freedom to move about town during the daylight and were not permitted to go far from their designated town. French officers on parole would dine and dance with the locals, often with their own servants and in full French uniform -- though in some cases the locals were not so hospitable. There was a fairly high level of escape from British parole: the Parole Town of Leek had 346 recorded officers on parole, of whom 41 had escaped.
Officers executed during the war were mainly those who switched sides between Napoleon and the Bourbons (or vice-versa) from what I can remember.
An officer exchange might not be that hard to program. I don't think that summary executions, however, are in the Napoleonic style. (We could offer it, but I think it should be the sort of thing that would outrage Europe... similar to the execution of the Duc d'Enghien.)
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