Napoleonic Trivia: Generals

privatehudson

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A short article with trivia about this popular period :)

Napoleonic Trivia

Austria

Archduke Charles, the first man to defeat Emperor Napoleon on the field of battle was barely 5 feet tall and an epileptic.

Karl Swarzenberg, the man who would lead the combined allied armies to victory in 1813 and 1814 against Napoleon was actually quite well acquainted with him and France. He had served as ambassador to France on at least two occasions, commanded the corps of Austrians who served under Napoleon in Russia and arranged Napoleon’s marriage to Marie-Louise!

Britain

Wellington was not fond of where he was born in the slightest. When someone remarked about his Irish birth he replied that “Not everyone born in a stable is necessarily a horse”

Robert “Black Bob” Crauford, commander of the Light Division in the early peninsula wars was not known to suffer fools. When he noticed one of his officers being carried over a ford on the back of a private he exploded, ordering the private to drop the officer there and then. He then insisted on the officer crossing the river all over again!

Wellington spent most of Waterloo in the front lines, exactly where he needed to be at any one time. This lead to problems though, with him having to shelter in infantry squares during cavalry attacks for example. He risked his life so much that by the end of the battle, only one of his entire staff had not been killed or wounded. Wellington escaped without a scratch.

Henry Paget, Lord Uxbridge sat out much of the peninsula campaign because of a disagreement. He eloped with Wellington’s sister-in-law and Wellington refused to speak to him for years, even shunning him a great deal during the Waterloo campaign. The fact that Uxbridge was Britain’s finest cavalry general didn’t seem to sway Wellington in the slightest.

Thomas Picton didn’t much care for panache, in fact you could almost claim he was the opposite of Murat for dress sense. He often wore a greatcoat and round hat into battle, and once even wore a nightcap!

Prussians

Gebhard Blucher, whether by drink or mental illness became very unstable in later years. He once claimed to be pregnant with an elephant to a French grenadier! Blucher also had the distinction of fighting in three separate campaigns against Frederick the Great’s Prussia in the Swedish army before being captured and changing sides to the Prussian.

Augustus Gneisenau had an interesting early career, serving with the Austrians before joining the British in their fight against the American colonies. During his later time in the Prussian army he developed a mistrust of the British that exposed itself fully during the Waterloo campaign, almost to the cost of the allies. He initially opposed linking with Wellington after Ligny, and only agreed to when Blucher absolutely insisted. Even then he used clever staff work to move very slowly to Waterloo in order to see if the British would still be there.

Karl Steinmetz, a commander in the Franco-Prussian war famous for destroying virtually an entire flank of the Prussian army at Gravelotte St Privat served also during the 1813, 1814 and 1815 campaigns as a young soldier.


France

The hussar general, Antoine Lasalle was quite an unusual character, but with plenty of courage and talent. He once captured the city of Stettin from 5000 Prussians and 300 cannon with just 1000 light cavalry! He also was known for being brutal, once burning down a Spanish town when the citizens opposed him.

Jean Rapp was a remarkably frank man during the 100 days. Meeting Napoleon again when he returned from exile, he informed the emperor that if he had been in Marshal Ney’s shoes, he would have had Napoleon shot! Perhaps appreciating Rapp’s honesty, Napoleon gave him 20,000 troops and sent him to eastern France.

Jean-Androche Junot became Napoleon’s aide due to his rather remarkable courage under fire. Standing next to Napoleon on the beach at Toulon he was taking down Napoleon’s orders when a British shell exploded nearby, showering those present with sand. Most of the rest of the men around dived for cover, but Junot merely blew the sand off the paper and remarked that “Ah good, this page will not need to be blotted” His battlefield performances though left a lot to be desired and in 1813, this once possible Marshalate candidate killed himself.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was, depending on how you look at it either a political pragmatist or a traitor and hypocrite. Despite having “death to tyrants” tattooed on his arm and being from a poor family, he founded the dynasty that rules Sweden to this day. Despite serving in the French army for some time and under Napoleon as a Marshal for 5 years, he later brought Sweden into the 1813 campaign against him.

The youngest of the original Marshalate, Louis Davout was probably one of the least liked amongst his peers and by his master. Napoleon argued a number of times with Davout in the field and his fellow marshals were jealous of his talent and angered by what they saw as his excessive caution, but in reality was his incredible care for his men’s well being. Nevertheless, Davout was a brilliant soldier with results to show for the talent, despite being extremely short sighted!

The Eldest of the Marshals, Francois Kellerman had served with the army over 50 years by the time of his appointment, seeing action in the 7 years war. His promotion didn’t exactly lead to much action though, he spent the majority of his marshalate training the national guard.

The first marshal to fall in battle, Jean Lannes was just about the only one Napoleon considered to be a friend. After his leg was smashed by a cannonball and amputated, he died of fever. Napoleon was said to have wept.

The last marshal to die did so in exile but became immortalised. Auguste Marmont, Duke of Raguser was a fine artilleryman and good general, but in 1814 had seen the way the war was going and surrendered his command to the allies without consulting Napoleon. He also later refused to support Napoleon and voted for Ney’s execution. He returned to the country under the king, but was later exiled after the 1830 revolution. And what of that immortality? His actions towards Napoleon saw to it that a new verb entered the French language, raguser, meaning “to betray”.

Josef Poniatowski, the only truly foreign Marshal had previously served in the Austrian army before fighting Russians in various Polish uprisings. He then turned to raising troops for Napoleon in the mistaken belief that this would bring Polish independence. Despite the fact that Napoleon had no real intention of offering this, Poniatowski and his troops remained loyal throughout the wars.

Nicolas Soult would have almost certainly been a perfect choice to lead the left wing of the French army in the Waterloo campaign. Soult had immense respect and understanding for the British and their commander, and proved capable of outfoxing both on occasion. He once remarked in frustration about British soldier’s courage that he had beaten them, they just did not know they had been beaten

Russia

Kutuzov, the one eyed old soldier that lead Russia’s armies at Borodino and elsewhere was not a favourite of Czar Alexander I by far. The two argued almost all the time and Kutuzov was frequently right. Their last argument centred around the choice of whether, having removed Napoleon from Russia, it was wise to help liberate Europe. Kutuzov argued it was not, and continued to do so even on his death bed. Just before his death Alexander I came to him and asked his pardon for his bad attitude to the old general. Kutuzov said :"Of,course, I forgive you, but will Russia forgive you, Your Majesty?" Kutuzov died, and Russia did help liberate Europe.
 
Not really, it's a history article I knocked up quickly when I was writing a post for the useless history trivia thread :D
 
About Lannes : he was the only marshal who continue to say "tu" to Napoleon after he became emperor, the other said "vous"

(note: in English, you have only "you". In French "tu" is used between friends, and "vous" is for formal relationship, a bit like "thou" in English).
 
Interesting, bears out what I was saying about him, thanks Steph :)
 
Guess it wasn't so... interesting as I thought then :lol:
 
privatehudson said:
The first marshal to fall in battle, Jean Lannes was just about the only one Napoleon considered to be a friend. After his leg was smashed by a cannonball and amputated, he died of fever. Napoleon was said to have wept.

Nicolas Soult would have almost certainly been a perfect choice to lead the left wing of the French army in the Waterloo campaign.

@lannes loss was tough for the french--he was a good commander

@soult got a staff job the same way murat was left out of the 100 days campaign, politics. loyality, not skills dictated choices
 
Exactly, which left talented commanders like Soult and Davout playing second fiddle to Marshals who's best form was as corps commanders :sad:
 
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