Transcriber’s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. Additional
notes will be found near the end of this ebook.
THE WAR DRAMA
OF THE EAGLES
[Illustration: PORTE-AIGLE, IMPERIAL GUARD, AND GRENADIER SERGEANT IN
PARADE UNIFORM.
From St. Hilaire’s _Histoire de la Garde Impériale_.]
THE WAR DRAMA
OF THE EAGLES
NAPOLEON’S STANDARD-BEARERS ON THE
BATTLEFIELD IN VICTORY AND DEFEAT
FROM AUSTERLITZ TO WATERLOO
A RECORD OF HARD FIGHTING, HEROISM
AND ADVENTURE
BY EDWARD FRASER
AUTHOR OF “THE ENEMY AT TRAFALGAR,” “FAMOUS
FIGHTERS OF THE FLEET,” “THE ‘LONDONS,’” ETC.
“These Eagles to you shall ever be your rallying-point. Swear
to sacrifice your lives in their defence; to maintain them by
your courage ever in the path of victory.”--_On the Day of the
Presentation on the Field of Mars._
“The soldier who loses his Eagle loses his Honour and his All!”
_Address to the 4th of the Line after Austerlitz._
“The loss of an Eagle is an affront to the reputation of its
regiment for which neither victory nor the glory acquired on a
hundred fields can make amends.”
_55th Bulletin of the Grand Army_: 1807.
NAPOLEON.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1912
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PREFACE
This book breaks fresh ground in a field of romantic and widespread
interest; one that should prove attractive, associated as it is with
the ever-fascinating subject of Napoleon. Incidentally, indeed, it
may also help to throw a new sidelight on certain characteristics of
Napoleon as a soldier.
I venture to hope at the same time that it will arouse interest
further as offering independent testimony to the valour of our own
soldiers, the Old British Army which, under Wellington, defeated on
the battlefield the veterans of the Eagles whose feats of heroism and
hardihood are described in the book. Magnificent as were the acts of
fine daring and heroic endurance of the men whom Wellington led to
victory, no less stirring and deserving of admiration were the deeds of
chivalrous valour and stern fortitude done for the honour of Napoleon’s
Eagles by the gallant soldiers who faced them and proved indeed foemen
worthy of their steel. All who hold in regard cool, self-sacrificing
bravery and steadfast courage in adversity and peril will find no lack
of instances in the stories of what the warriors of the Eagles dared
and underwent for the name and fame of the Great Captain.
The record of Napoleon’s Eagles in war has never before been set forth,
and the centenary year of Badajoz and Salamanca and the Moscow Campaign
seems to offer a befitting occasion for its appearance.
The world, indeed, is in the midst of a cycle of Napoleonic
centenaries. Our own centenary memories of Talavera--the victory of
which Wellington said, in later years, that if his Allies had done
their part, “it would have been as great a battle as Waterloo”--of
Busaco ridge and Torres Vedras, of heroic Barrosa and desperate
Albuhera,--these are only just behind us. Immediately ahead lie the
centenaries of yet greater events. In less than a twelvemonth hence
England will mark the centenary of Vittoria, Wellington’s decisive day
in Spain, the crowning triumph of the Peninsular War; and yet more
than that in its import and sequel for Europe. It was the news of
Vittoria that, in July 1813, decided Napoleon’s father-in-law to throw
Austria’s sword into the balance against the Man of Destiny, compelling
Napoleon, with what remained of the Grand Army, to stand at bay for the
“Battle of the Nations” on the Marchfeldt before Leipsic. Within six
months from then, the world, in like manner, will recall the Farewell
of Fontainebleau, and Elba; and finally, in the year after that, the
British Empire will commemorate the epoch-making centenary of the
greatest of all British triumphs in arms on land--
“Of that fierce field where last the Eagles swooped,
Where our Great Master wielded Britain’s sword,
And the Dark Soul the world could not subdue,
Bowed to thy fortune, Prince of Waterloo!”
--the triple-event, indeed, of Waterloo, the _Bellerophon_, St. Helena.
The stories told here exist indeed, even in France, only in more or
less fragmentary form, scattered broadcast amongst the memoirs left
by the men of the Napoleonic time. They have not before been brought
together within the covers of a book.
I have utilised, in addition to the personal memoirs of Napoleon’s
officers, French regimental records, bulletins, and despatches (noted
in my List of Authorities), other official military documents,
contemporary newspapers, both British and foreign, and information
kindly placed at my disposal by the authorities of Chelsea Royal
Hospital and the Royal United Service Institution, and by friends
abroad.
EDWARD FRASER.
CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF AUTHORITIES XV
CHAPTER I
NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR 1
CHAPTER II
THE DAY OF THE PRESENTATION ON THE FIELD OF MARS 16
CHAPTER III
IN THE FIRST CAMPAIGN:
UNDER FIRE WITH MARSHAL NEY 60
THE MIDNIGHT BATTLE BY THE DANUBE 80
CHAPTER IV
ON THE FIELD OF AUSTERLITZ 96
CHAPTER V
IN THE SECOND CAMPAIGN:
JENA AND THE TRIUMPH OF BERLIN 123
THE TWELVE LOST EAGLES OF EYLAU 150
CHAPTER VI
PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE:
THE “EAGLE-GUARD” 181
CHAPTER VII
BEFORE THE ENEMY AT ASPERN AND WAGRAM 197
CHAPTER VIII
“THE EAGLE WITH THE GOLDEN WREATH” IN LONDON 214
CHAPTER IX
OTHER EAGLES IN ENGLAND FROM BATTLEFIELDS OF SPAIN 240
CHAPTER X
IN THE HOUR OF DARKEST DISASTER:
AFTER MOSCOW: HOW THE EAGLES FACED THEIR FATE 263
AT BAY IN NORTHERN GERMANY--1813 291
CHAPTER XI
THAT TERRIBLE MIDNIGHT AT THE INVALIDES 316
CHAPTER XII
THE EAGLES OF THE LAST ARMY 345
CHAPTER XIII
AT WATERLOO:
“AVE CAESAR! MORITURI TE SALUTANT!” 375
HOW WELLINGTON’S TROPHIES WERE WON 388
THE LAST ATTACK AND AFTER: THE EAGLES OF THE GUARD 405
THE EAGLES ANNOUNCE VICTORY TO LONDON 424
CHAPTER XIV
AFTER THE DOWNFALL 432
INDEX 437
ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS
ILLUSTRATIONS
PORTE-AIGLE, IMPERIAL GUARD, AND GRENADIER SERGEANT IN PARADE
UNIFORM _Frontispiece_
From St. Hilaire’s _Histoire de la Garde Impériale_
FACING PAGE
MARSHAL MORTIER 90
MARSHAL SOULT 104
In the uniform of Colonel-in-Chief of the Chasseurs of the Guard
MARSHAL DAVOUT 134
MARSHAL NEY WITH THE REARGUARD IN THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW 282
From a picture by A. Ivon, at Versailles
Photo by Alinari
NAPOLEON AND THE “SACRED SQUADRON” ON THE WAY TO THE BERESINA 288
From the picture by H. Bellangé
NAPOLEON’S FAREWELL TO THE OLD GUARD AT FONTAINEBLEAU 312
From a print after H. Vernet, kindly lent by Messrs.
T. H. Parker, 45, Whitcomb Street
THE FIGHT FOR THE STANDARD 396
Sergeant Ewart of the Scots Greys taking the Eagle of the
45th at Waterloo
From the picture by R. Andsell, A.R.A., at Royal Hospital,
Chelsea
THE SQUARE OF THE OLD GUARD AT BAY AFTER WATERLOO 412
From the picture by H. Bellangé
LA REVUE DES MORTS 434
From a picture by R. Demoraine
MAPS
OUTLINE MAP OF NAPOLEON’S CONCENTRATION IN REAR OF ULM,
SEPTEMBER 27 TO OCTOBER 18, 1805 82
SKETCH PLAN OF THE POSITIONS OF THE ARMIES AT THE OPENING OF
THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ 98
SKETCH PLAN OF THE BATTLEFIELD OF EYLAU 154
PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF BARROSA 222
WATERLOO. THE CHARGE OF THE UNION BRIGADE 394
WATERLOO--THE FINAL PHASE. SKETCH PLAN TO SHOW THE ATTACK AND
THE DEFEAT OF THE COLUMNS OF THE GUARD 410
GENERAL MAP 436
LIST OF AUTHORITIES
ALISON: History of Europe.
AVRILLON, PION DES LOCHES, PELET, COMBES, DU ROURE DE PAULIN,
VIONNET, BERTIN, THIRION, NOEL, DUPUY, BLAZE, ST. CHAMANS,
VIGÉE-LEBRUN, ETC.: Souvenirs.
BARBOUX, GENERAL: War Services.
BARDIN: Dictionnaire de l’Armée. BARDIN: Memorial de l’Officier.
BEAMISH: The King’s German Legion.
BEAUVAIS: Victoires des Français, 1792–1815.
BERTHEZÉNE, GENERAL: Souvenirs Militaires.
BIGNON: Memoirs of Napoleon’s Campaigns.
BOUILLÉ: Les Drapeaux Français.
BOURRIENNE: Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte.
BUGEAUD, MARSHAL: Memoirs.
BYRNE, MILES: Memoirs.
Catalogue:--Heeres Museum--Wien.
Catalogue:--Real Armeria--Madrid.
CATHCART, HON. SIR C.: Commentaries--1812–13.
CAULAINCOURT: Recollections.
CHAMBRAY: History of the Russian Expedition.
CHAMPEAUX: Honneur et Patrie.
CHARBOUCLIÈRE: Dictionnaire de l’Armée.
CHARRAS: Campagne de 1815.
CHICHESTER and SHORT: Records and Badges of the British Army.
COLBORN: United Service Journal (_passim_): Regimental Histories
(British and French), etc.
Correspondance Militaire de Napoléon.
COTTON: A Voice from Waterloo.
DALTON: The Waterloo Roll Call.
Das Zeughaus zu Berlin.
DAVOUT, MARSHAL: Memoirs.
DE GONNEVILLE: Souvenirs Militaires.
DEMMIN: Weapons of War.
DESJARDINS: Recherches sur les Drapeaux.
DE SUZANNE, GENERAL: L’Infanterie Française.
DE SUZANNE, GENERAL: La Cavalerie Française.
DUCASSE: Visite à l’Hôtel des Invalides.
DUCOR: Aventures d’un Marin de la Garde.
DUMAS, M.: Souvenirs Militaires.
DUMAS, M.: Précis des Evènemens Militaires.
FANTIN DES ODOARDS, GENERAL: Journal.
FÉZENSAC: Journal of the Russian Campaign--1812–13.
FÉZENSAC: Souvenirs Militaires.
FOY, GENERAL: History of the War in Spain.
GARDNER, DARSEY: Quatre Bras, Ligny, Waterloo.
GLEIG: Narrative of the Battle of Leipsic.
GOURGAUD: Napoleon and the Grand Army in Russia.
GROSE: Military Antiquities.
HOME: Précis of Modern Tactics.
HOOPER: Waterloo: The Downfall of the First Napoleon.
HOUSSAYE: Napoléon, Homme de Guerre.
HOUSSAYE: Waterloo.
JEANNENEY: Le Glorieux Passé d’un Régiment.
JOMINI: L’Art de Guerre.
JOMINI: Life of Napoleon I.
JUNOT, MARSHAL: Memoirs.
JURIEN DE LA GRAVIÈRE: Guerres Maritimes.
LABAUME: History of the Campaign in Russia.
LACROIX, D.: Les Maréchaux de Napoléon.
LACROIX, D.: Histoire Anecdotique du Drapeau Français.
LALLEMAND: Les Drapeaux des Invalides--1814.
LAMARTINE: History of the Restoration.
LANFREY: History of Napoleon I.
LA VALETTE: Memoirs.
LEJEUNE: Memoirs.
LEMONNIER-DELAFOSSE: Campagnes de 1810–15.
LYDEN: Nos 144 Régiments de Ligne.
MACDONALD, MARSHAL: Recollections.
MACGEORGE: Flags and their History.
MARBOT: Memoirs.
MARBOT et DE NOIRMONT: Costumes Militaires Françaises.
MARMONT, MARSHAL: The Spirit of Military Institutions.
MASSON: Cavaliers de Napoléon. MASSON: Livre du Sacre de l’Empereur.
MASSON: Souvenirs et Recits des Soldats.
MAXWELL, SIR H.: Life of Wellington. MAXWELL, SIR H.: Victories of
the British Armies.
MAXWELL, W. H.: Peninsular War Sketches.
Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne.
MENÉVAL: Memoirs.
Military Costumes of Europe--1812.
MILNE: Standards and Colours.
MORVAN: Le Soldat Impérial.
NAPIER: History of the Peninsular War.
Narrative of Captain Coignet.
NEY, MARSHAL: Memoirs.
NIOX, GENERAL: Drapeaux et Trophées.
ODELEBEN: Napoleon’s Campaign in Saxony, 1813.
[Officially Published] Historiques des Régiments de l’Armée.
[Officially Published] Publications de la Réunion des Officiers.
OUDINOT, MARSHAL: Memoirs.
PARQUIN: Campagnes d’un Vieux Soldat.
PATTISON: Napoleon’s Marshals.
PENGUILLY L’HARIDON: Catalogue Musée d’Artillerie.
Potsdam und seine Umgebung.
RAPP, GENERAL: Memoirs.
REY: Histoire du Drapeau.
ROBERT, COLONEL: Catalogue, Musée d’Artillerie.
ROSE: Life of Napoleon I.
ST. HILAIRE: Histoire de la Garde Impériale. ST. HILAIRE: Histoire
Populaire de Napoléon I.
SAVARY: Memoirs.
SÉGUR: Au Drapeau. SÉGUR: History of the Expedition to Russia. SÉGUR:
Memoirs. SÉGUR: Procès Verbal de la Couronnement de Napoléon.
SERUZIER: Memoirs.
SHAW KENNEDY, SIR JOHN: Notes on Waterloo.
SHERER, MOYLE: Tales of the Wars.
SHOBERL: Narrative of the Battle of Leipsic.
SIBORNE: Campaign of Waterloo.
SIBORNE: Waterloo Letters.
SLOANE: Life of Napoleon I.
SOULT, MARSHAL: Memoirs.
SOUTHEY: History of the Peninsular War.
STENDHAL: Journal and Correspondence.
STOCQUELER: The British Soldier.
TAYLOR, SIR HERBERT: Waterloo.
THIÉBAULT, BARON: Memoirs.
THIERS: Consulate and Empire.
WELLINGTON: Despatches.
WILSON, SIR R.: Narrative of Events in Russia, 1812. WILSON, SIR R.:
Private Journal of the Russian Campaign.
WOOD, SIR EVELYN: Cavalry in the Waterloo Campaign.
(NOTE.--This list is approximately complete, representing about 90
per cent. of the total of authorities consulted and laid under
contribution.)
THE WAR DRAMA OF THE EAGLES
CHAPTER I
NAPOLEON ADOPTS THE EAGLE OF CAESAR
Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor, “by Divine Will and the Constitution
of the French Republic”--Imperator and hereditary Caesar of the
Republic--on Friday, May 18, 1804. Three weeks later it was publicly
announced in the _Moniteur_ that the Eagle had been adopted as the
heraldic cognisance of the new _régime_ in France.
Its selection for the State armorial bearing of the Empire was one
of Napoleon’s first acts. That the Roman lictor’s axe and fasces
surmounted by the red Phrygian cap, with its traditions of revolution,
which had supplanted the Fleur-de-Lis of the Monarchy, and had served
as the official badge on the standards of the Republic and the
Consulate, should continue under the Imperial _régime_, was obviously
impossible. But what distinctive emblem should be adopted in its stead?
Napoleon had the question debated in his presence at the first _séance_
of the Imperial Council of State. He had, it would seem, not made up
his mind in regard to it. At any rate, a few days before the meeting
of the Council, he had directed a Committee to draw up a statement and
offer suggestions.
The matter was brought forward at the first meeting of the Imperial
Council, held at the Château of Saint-Cloud on Tuesday, June 12,
1804, after a preliminary discussion on the arrangements for the
Coronation, when and where it should be held, and what was to be the
form of ceremonial. The Coronation, all agreed at the outset, must
take place in the current year. Rheims, Aix-la-Chapelle, and Paris, in
turn, were suggested as suitable places for the ceremony, Paris being
finally decided on; the scene of the event to be the Champ de Mars.
Napoleon himself proposed the Champs de Mars, with a threefold ceremony
there--the taking of the constitutional oath, the actual coronation,
the presentation of the Emperor to the assembled people. A brief
discussion followed on the form of the coronation ceremony, whether it
should be accompanied by religious rites. It was put forward that, as
Charlemagne had received his authority from the Pope, might not the
Pope now be induced to visit Paris and personally crown the Emperor?
Napoleon, intervening in the discussion, made a strong point of the
necessity of some kind of religious service on the occasion. He did not
care much, he cynically remarked, what religion was selected; only it
must be in accordance with the views of the majority of the nation. It
would be impossible to do without some sort of religious observance. In
all nations, said he, Ceremonies of State were accompanied by religious
services. As to asking the Pope to take part, from his point of view,
at the moment, the attendance of a Papal legate would be preferable.
If the Pope himself came to Paris, his presence would assuredly tend
to relegate the Emperor to a secondary position: “Tout le monde me
laisserait pour courir voir le Pape!” The matter, however, as the
discussion proceeded, seemed to present so many difficulties, that
the Council, after declaring themselves generally against having any
religious ceremony at all, decided to leave the question for further
consideration.
On that the Council turned to deal with the selection of the heraldic
insignia and official badge of the Empire.
[Sidenote: THE GALLIC COCK PROPOSED]
Senator Crétet, on behalf of the special Committee appointed by
Napoleon to prepare a statement for the Council, presented his report.
The Committee, he said, had decided unanimously to recommend the Cock,
the historic national emblem of Ancient Gaul, as the most fitting
cognisance for Imperial France. Should that not find favour with the
Council, either the Eagle, the Lion, or the Elephant, in the opinion
of the Committee, might well be adopted. Individual members of the
Committee, added Crétet, had further suggested the Aegis of Minerva, or
some flower like the Fleur-de-Lis, an Oak-tree, or an Ear of Corn.
Miot, one of the members of the Council, rose as Crétet sat down, and
protested against the re-introduction of the Fleur-de-Lis. That, he
said, was imbecility. He proposed a figure of the Emperor seated on his
throne as the best possible badge for the French Empire.
He was not seconded, however, and Napoleon interposed abruptly to
set aside the Committee’s suggestion of reviving the Gallic Cock. He
dismissed that notion with a contemptuous sneer. “Bah,” he exclaimed,
“the Cock belongs to the farmyard! It is far too feeble a creature!”
(“Le Coq est de basse cour. C’est un animal trop faible!”) Napoleon
spoke rapidly and vivaciously. He had not yet, in those early days,
acquired the impressive Imperial style that he afterwards affected.
“His language at these earlier Council meetings was still impregnated
with his original Jacobin style; he spoke frequently, spontaneously,
familiarly; monologued at the top of his voice (avec des éclats de
voix); apostrophised frequently, appearing at times as though overcome
with nervousness, now almost in tears, now breaking out in a frenzy of
passion, unrestrainedly emphasising his personal likes and dislikes.”
[Sidenote: THE LION--THE ELEPHANT--THE BEE]
Count Ségur, Imperial Grand Master of the Ceremonies, suggested the
Lion as the most suitable emblem: “parcequ’il vaincra le Léopard,” he
explained.
Councillor Laumond proposed the adoption of the Elephant instead; with
for a motto “_Mole et Mente_.” The Elephant had a great vogue at that
day among European heraldic authorities as being pre-eminently a royal
beast. There was a widely prevalent belief, on the authority of old
writers on natural history, that an Elephant could not be made to bow
its knees. Further, too, the elephant typified resistless strength as
well as magnanimity. And had not Caesar himself once placed the effigy
of the Elephant on the Roman coinage? Nobody else at the Council,
however, seemed to care for the Elephant.
Councillor Simon objected to Ségur’s proposition, on the score that the
Lion was essentially an aggressive beast.
Cambacérès, ex-Consul and Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, suggested a
swarm of Bees as the most suitable national emblem. It would represent
the actual situation of France, he explained--a republic with a
presiding chief.
Councillor Lacuèe supported Cambacérès. The Bee, he added, was the
more suitable, in that it possessed a sting as well as being a maker of
honey.
Cambacérès remarked that he favoured the idea of the Bee as typifying
peaceful industry rather than offensive power.
The other members took no interest in the idea of the Bee, and after
some discursive talk the Council fell back on the Committee’s original
suggestion of the historic Gallic Cock. The general voice favoured the
adoption of the Cock, and they unanimously voted for it.
That, however, would not do for Napoleon. He sharply refused once more
to hear of the Cock in any circumstances. He had for some minutes sat
silent, listening to the discussion until the vote was taken. On that
he rose and banned the Cock absolutely and finally.
“The Cock is quite too weak a creature,” he exclaimed. “A thing like
that cannot possibly be the cognisance of an Empire such as France. You
must make your choice between the Eagle, the Elephant, and the Lion!”
The Eagle, however, did not commend itself to the Council. That emblem,
it was pointed out by several members, had been already adopted by
other European nations. For France, such being the case, the Eagle
would not be sufficiently distinctive. The German Empire had the Eagle
for its cognisance. So had Austria. So had Prussia. So had Poland
even--the White Eagle of the Jagellons. The Council was plainly not
attracted by the Eagle.
Lebrun, the other ex-Consul, Arch-Treasurer of the Empire, now put in
a word again for the Fleur-de-Lis. It had been, he said, the national
emblem of France under all the previous dynasties. The Fleur-de-Lis,
declared Lebrun, was the real historic emblem of France, and he
proposed that it should be adopted for the Empire.
Nobody, though, supported him, one member, Councillor Regnaud,
condemning the idea of the Fleur-de-Lis as utterly out of date. “The
nation,” added Regnaud, with a sneer, “will neither go back to the cult
of the Lilies nor to the religion of Rome!”
[Sidenote: “YOU MUST CHOOSE THE LION!”]
At that point Napoleon lost patience. Interposing to close the
discussion, he curtly bade the Council to cease from wasting time.
They must decide on the Lion for the Imperial Emblem. His preference
was for the figure of a Lion, lying over the map of France, with one
paw stretched out across the Rhine: “Il faut prendre un Lion, s’étendu
sur la carte de France, la patte prête à dépasser le Rhin.” Napoleon
proposed in addition, by way of motto, beneath the Lion-figure, these
defiant words: “_Malheur à qui me cherche!_”
No more was said on the subject after that. The Council submitted
forthwith to Napoleon’s dictation, and, as it would appear, without
taking any formal vote, passed to the remaining business of the day:
the inscription on the new coinage and certain amendments to the
Criminal Code.
But even then, as it befell, the decision as to the national emblem was
not conclusive. Napoleon changed his mind about the Lion shortly after
the Council had broken up. The Lion as the designated cognisance of
the French Empire did not last twenty-four hours. Napoleon himself, on
the report of the Council meeting being presented for his signature,
definitely rejected the Lion. He cancelled his own proposition with a
stroke of his pen. With his own hand the Emperor struck out the words
“Lion couchant,” with the reference to the map of France and the Rhine,
writing over the erasure, “Un Aigle éploye”--an Eagle with extended
wings. So Napoleon independently settled the matter.
Napoleon, as it would appear, in making his ultimate choice of the
Eagle, had this in his mind. Charlemagne was ever in his thoughts at
that time as his own destined exemplar. The Eagle of Charlemagne, it
was now borne in upon his mind irresistibly, had a pre-eminent claim to
be recalled and become the national heraldic badge for the new Frankish
Empire of the West, as having been the traditional emblem of Imperial
authority in the ancient Frankish Empire, the prototype and historic
predecessor of the Empire of which he was head. Said Napoleon, indeed,
in justifying his final adoption of the Eagle: “Elle affirme la dignité
Impériale et rappelait Charlemagne.”
[Sidenote: WHERE THE ARTIST GOT HIS DESIGN]
A commission to design the new Imperial Eagle “after that of
Charlemagne” was forthwith given to Isabey (the elder Isabey--Jean
Baptiste), “Peintre et Dessinateur du Cabinet de l’Empereur,” whose
reputation was at that moment at its zenith. The artist, however,
had no Carlovingian model to draw from, and nobody, it would appear,
could give him any advice. He had to depict “Un Aigle éployé”--a
Spread-Eagle. Discarding heraldic conventionalism, he produced the
Napoleonic Eagle of history; an Eagle _au naturel_, shown in the act of
taking wing. The idea of it Isabey took from a sketch he himself had
made nine years before, in the Monastery of the Certosa of Milan, of an
eagle sculptured on one of the tombs of the Visconti.
Following on his adoption of the Eagle for the cognisance of the Empire
at large, Napoleon announced that the Eagle would in future be the
battle-standard of the Army. He had, though, as to that Eagle, yet
another thought in his mind. For his soldiers he desired the French
Eagle to represent the military standard of Ancient Rome, the historic
emblem of Caesar’s legionaries, with its resplendent traditions of
world-wide victory. That intention, furthermore, Napoleon went out
of his way to emphasise significantly through the place and moment
that he chose for the promulgation of the Army Order appointing the
Eagle of the Caesars as the battle-standard of the French Empire. The
Imperial rescript was dated from the Camp of the “Army of the Ocean” at
Boulogne; from amidst the vast array of soldiers mustered there for the
threatened invasion of England.
At the same time Isabey’s design for one Eagle would suffice as a
model for the other. It sufficiently suggested the Roman type. Like
Charlemagne, had not Napoleon led his army across the Alps? like
Caesar, was he not about to lead it across the Straits?
“The Eagle with wings outspread, as on the Imperial Seal, will be
at the head of the standard-staves, as was the practice in the
Roman army--(_placée au sommet du bâton, telle que la portaient les
Romains_). The flag will be attached at the same distance beneath
the Eagle, as was the Labarum.” So Napoleon wrote in his preliminary
instructions from Boulogne to Marshal Berthier, Head of the Etat-Major
of the “Army of England,” at that moment on duty at the War Office in
Paris.
The Eagle, Napoleon directed, was of itself to constitute the standard:
“_Essentiellement constituer l’étendard_,” were Napoleon’s words. He
set a secondary value on the flag which the Eagle surmounted. The flag
to Napoleon was a subsidiary adjunct.
[Sidenote: THE FLAG OF MINOR ACCOUNT]
Flags, of course, would come and go. They could be renewed, he wrote,
as might be necessary, at any time; every two years, or oftener. The
Eagle, on the other hand, was to be a permanency. It was to be for
all time the standard of its corps: also, to add still further to its
sacrosanct nature and _éclat_, every Eagle would be received only from
the hands of the Emperor.[1]
Every Battalion of Foot and Squadron of Horse was to have its Eagle,
which, on parade and before the enemy under fire, would be in the
special charge of the battalion or squadron sergeant-major, with
an escort of picked veteran soldiers; “men who had distinguished
themselves on the battlefield in at least two combats.”
Exceptional care, Napoleon laid down, was to be taken by regimental
commanders that no harm should befall the Eagle. In the event of
accident happening to it, a special report was to be made direct to
the Emperor. Should it unfortunately happen that the Eagle was lost in
battle, the regiment concerned would have to prove to the Emperor’s
satisfaction that there had been no default. No new Eagle would be
granted in place of one lost until the regiment in question had atoned
for the slur on its character by either achieving “_éclatante_”
distinction in the field, by some exceptionally brilliant feat of arms,
or by presenting the Emperor with an enemy’s standard “taken by its own
valour.”
The silken tricolor flag, as has been said, was in the eyes of Napoleon
of subordinate account. It was to be considered merely as a set-off
to the Eagle, as merely “_l’ornement de l’Aigle_.” The Eagle, and the
Eagle only, must be the object of the soldier’s devotion. Napoleon
paid little regard to the flag, beyond as being of use for displaying
the record of a regiment’s war career. He would have liked indeed, as
it would seem, to substitute another flag altogether, and went so far
as to have designs for a green regimental flag submitted to him.[2]
Prudence, however, forbade its introduction, and directions were
issued that the general pattern of tricolor standard in use under the
Consulate should be retained, with minor alterations of detail in the
design rendered necessary in consequence of the new constitution of the
State.
[Sidenote: THE LEGEND ON THE FLAG]
The regimental flags would consist of a white diamond-shaped centre,
with the corners of the flag alternately red and blue; according to the
pattern authorised two years previously by Napoleon as First Consul.
Thus the national colours would continue to be represented. For the
Infantry, in the centre of each flag would be, on one side, the words
“Empire Français,” with the legend, inscribed in letters of gold,
“L’Empereur des Français au --^e Régiment d’Infanterie de Ligne,” which
would take the place of the Republican inscription hitherto borne
there; the number of each corps being inscribed in the blank space and
in a laurel chaplet embroidered at each corner of the flag. For Cavalry
the inscription ran: “L’Empereur des Français au --^e Cuirassiers,” or
“au --^e Chasseurs”; and so on for other corps, Artillery, Dragoons,
and Hussars.
On the reverse, for corps of all arms, with the exception of the Guard,
was emblazoned the motto “Valeur et Discipline,” and beneath it the
number of the battalion or squadron in each regiment.
Below the numbers was added any Inscription of Honour which had been
granted to the corps, such as, in the case of one regiment, “Le 15^e
est couvert de la Gloire”; in the case of another, “Le Terrible 57^e
qui rien n’arrête”; with others, “Le Bon et Brave 28^e”; “Le 75^e
arrive et bât l’Ennemi”; “J’étais tranquille, le brave 32^e était là”;
“Il n’est pas possible d’être plus brave que le 63^e”; “Brave 18^e, je
vous connais. L’Ennemi ne tiendra pas devant vous”; and so on. These
were mostly quotations from “mentions in despatches” made by Napoleon
in regard to regiments in his famous “Army of Italy,” authorised by
him, at first of his own initiative, and later as First Consul, to be
recorded as Inscriptions of Honour on the regimental colours. The flags
of other corps bore names of victories of note in which the regiments
had taken part; as, for instance, “Rivoli,” “Lodi,” “Marengo.”[3]
[Sidenote: PROPOSED FOR CORONATION DAY]
Napoleon overlooked nothing that might add to the prestige of his
Eagles. Not only would he himself personally present its Eagle to
each regiment, but, further, there would be at the outset a general
presentation of Eagles in Paris to the whole Army, which would be
made a State event of significance, and form an integral part of
the ceremony of his Coronation. On that Napoleon had insisted, in
reply to a technical legal objection raised at one of the meetings
of the Council of State. It was not to be a Parisian popular show.
He was ready, indeed, he said, to transfer the ceremony to Boulogne.
“Je rassemblerais deux cent mille hommes au camp. Là j’aurais une
population couverte des blessures dont je serais sûr!” He gave
directions that the Presentation of the Eagles should take place on the
Field of Mars in front of the Military School, on the same day as the
Coronation, and should follow immediately after the religious service
and his actual crowning and consecration by the Pope in Notre Dame.[4]