CONCLUSION 489
INDEX 507
Illustrations
Page
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE "SNUFF-BOX" PORTRAIT _Frontispiece_
BONAPARTE AT THE SIEGE OF TOULON 11
BONAPARTE ESCAPES CAPTURE AT LONATO 27
BONAPARTE AT THE BRIDGE OF ARCOLA 43
BONAPARTE AT THE BATTLE OF RIVOLI 59
BONAPARTE AND THE SLEEPING SENTINEL 75
BONAPARTE AT THE BATTLE OF ST. GEORGE 91
SIEGE OF MANTUA 107
BONAPARTE AS GENERAL-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMY OF ITALY 123
BATTLE OF THE PYRAMIDS 139
BONAPARTE AT THE SIEGE OF ACRE 155
RETURN OF THE FRENCH ARMY FROM SYRIA 171
NAPOLEON CROSSING THE ALPS 187
FRENCH TROOPS CROSSING THE GREAT ST. BERNARD 203
CAPITULATION OF GENERAL MACK AT ULM 219
BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ 235
MEETING BETWEEN NAPOLEON AND FRANCIS II. OF AUSTRIA 251
NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF JENA 267
ENTRY OF NAPOLEON INTO BERLIN 283
NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF EYLAU 299
THE 14TH LINE AT EYLAU 315
NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF FRIEDLAND 331
REVIEW OF TROOPS IN THE PLACE DU CARROUSEL, PARIS 347
INSURRECTION IN MADRID 363
NAPOLEON AT THE BATTLE OF WAGRAM 379
ARRIVAL OF THE GRAND ARMY AT MOSCOW 395
RETREAT FROM MOSCOW, "1812" 411
DEPARTURE OF NAPOLEON FOR PARIS 427
RETURN OF NAPOLEON FROM ELBA 443
NAPOLEON ON THE HEIGHTS AT LIGNY 459
PREPARATIONS FOR THE ADVANCE OF THE OLD GUARD AT
WATERLOO 475
NAPOLEON AT WATERLOO 491
Military Career
OF
Napoleon the Great
An Account of the Remarkable
Campaigns of the "Man
of Destiny"
I
BOYHOOD DAYS AND EARLY CAREER
When Napoleon was a pupil of the Military School at Brienne, as a
pensioner of the king, he wrote to his mother in Corsica:
"With Homer in my pocket, and my sword by my side, I hope to carve my
way through the world!"
Bonaparte was then a youth of but ten years of age. For nearly
thirty-five years from this time his life was a series of achievements,
the success of which has rarely been equalled,--from a military
standpoint, never.
His infancy was only different from that of most other boys in that he
showed great animation of temper, and an impatience of inactivity, by
which children of quick perception and lively sensibility are usually
distinguished.
It has been said that the name "Napoleon" was given to the new-born
infant of Madame Bonaparte, according to a common custom among
Catholics, of naming the child after the saint on whose festival it is
baptized, and that the 16th of August, the day of young Bonaparte's
baptism, was the festival of St. Napoleon, (Napoleone), a saint then
peculiar to Corsica.
On the confirmation of young Bonaparte at the Paris Military School the
archbishop who officiated, manifesting some astonishment at the name
"Napoleon," said he did not know of any such saint, and that there was
no such name in the calendar.
"That should be no rule," replied Napoleon quickly, "since there are an
immense number of saints, but only three hundred and sixty-five days!"
While an exile at St. Helena Napoleon said to O'Meara, his surgeon,
"Saint Napoleon ought to be much obliged to me, and place all his credit
in the other world to my account. The poor devil! No one knew him once,
he had not even a day in the calendar. I procured him one, and persuaded
the pope to assign to him the 15th of August, my birthday."
It has frequently been said of Napoleon that he was born to command.
From his earliest youth he chose arms for his profession, and in every
study likely to be of service to the future soldier he distinguished
himself above his contemporaries. With the mathematical tutors he was
always a great favorite. His ardor for the abstract sciences amounted to
a passion, and was combined with a singular aptitude for applying them
to the purposes of war, while his attention to pursuits so interesting
in themselves was stimulated by his natural ambition and desire of
distinction in this science.
Even before Napoleon began his systematic training for a military
career, and while but nine years of age, he developed a fondness for
mimic warfare that frequently astonished his older companions, many of
whom were his superiors both in strength and endurance; but none of whom
were able to cope with him in strategy, or whose resources, when put to
test, were so versatile. At Ajaccio, the place of his birth, the city
boys were often engaged in personal encounters with the youths from the
country. At first these contests were but the natural outcome of a
jealousy which is so often found to exist between city and country boys,
who meet upon the same playground. At length this feeling of rivalry
became more bitter, and on some occasions, especially on holidays, when
the country lads were in the habit of "coming to town," as many as a
score of them were often to be found on each side engaged in pitched
battles with sticks and stones.
[Illustration: From a Drawing by F. Grenier
BONAPARTE AT THE SIEGE OF TOULON]
The country youths had for a time been eminently successful in these
encounters, and were disposed to braggadocio manners. They went about
the streets with their heads lifted high, and as a result, the older
folks soon began to take an interest in the outcome of the assaults. On
several occasions, too, the parents of the youths were interested
spectators of the contests, and although the flying missiles were
extremely likely to injure the onlooker, no suggestion of putting an end
to the battles was ever proposed by the older heads.
Young Bonaparte was much chagrined at these defeats, and sought to find
reasons for them. When not an active participant he would often withdraw
to some secluded spot, and there watch the movements of either side,
hoping, no doubt, to detect some flaw in their manner of fighting that
he might take advantage of it at a later date, and thus recover the good
name of his city comrades. It could not be in numbers that defeat lay
for they were almost always equally divided, and besides, there seemed
to be an unwritten law between them that "Man against man" must in
common honor be observed.
Finally Bonaparte hastily gathered about him a few of his chosen
friends, in whom he had the most confidence, and laid before them a
plan, which, if followed, he assured them would not only humiliate their
hated rivals, but would also result in their complete overthrow. With
shouts of approval his plan was at once declared "a tip-top one" and his
lieutenants proceeded to carry out his orders. He directed that a
certain number of boys be formed into a company, whose duty it should be
to supply ammunition. A "defi" was then sent to the conquerors who
promptly replied that they had nothing to fear. It soon became noised
about among the inhabitants of Ajaccio that a "final contest" was to be
fought on a certain day, and hours before the time set, hundreds of
spectators were on hand to witness the contest which was destined to
re-establish the prestige of the city boys. At length the fated hour
arrived and the country boys made their appearance on the battlefield,
armed with short sticks,--their usual weapons,--and full of confidence.
For a short time Napoleon and his followers maintained their position
against these sturdy warriors, although, as heretofore, they found
themselves overmatched by mere force of brute strength.
Napoleon now gave the signal agreed upon to retreat. Slowly his forces
gave way, endeavoring at the same time to keep up an appearance of
fighting to the best of their ability. To reassure the country chaps
that they were overpowering their contestants purely on their fighting
merits, an occasional rally was ordered by the city leader; but this
show of resistance was always followed by him with another retreat more
pronounced than that which preceded it. At length Napoleon found himself
with his followers on the shore of the sandy beach and the country lads
believed themselves conquerors once more. "Victory!" "Victory!" they
cried, as they came rushing up, expecting a complete surrender. In their
haste to make a final assault the pursuers had not noticed that each of
the city boys had laid down his stick and had his hand upon the ground.
In it was grasped tightly a stone which was still partially covered by
the sands of the beach.
"Ready! Fire!" shouted Napoleon, and immediately the air was filled with
swift-flying stones, each of which was followed by a second and that by
a third missile, all landing with terrific force on the unprotected
heads and shoulders of the over-confident country lads. They had cried
victory before the battle was won.
In another moment they found themselves disorganized and the victims of
shouts of derision that came from the spectators who had followed the
retreating forces to see the final outcome of the battle. Sticks at a
distance of 20 or 30 feet were no match for the new weapons of the city
lads, and reluctantly they turned and fled, having themselves no stones
to throw.
Now it was Napoleon's forces who were the pursuers; but the ranks of the
sturdy country lads were sadly depleted and their resistance was brief.
That night Napoleon was a hero in Ajaccio. With the older folks gathered
about him he told and retold how he and his followers had spent the
preceding night burying stones in the sand, that they might have them
for weapons on the morrow when Napoleon's plan, which included retreat
to this point on the beach, might be turned into the victory they had
been assured would follow their arrival there.
The student of Napoleon's military campaigns will detect in this
manoeuvre a striking similarity to more sanguine contests on the
battlefield where human lives were at stake.
Throughout his life Napoleon's stronghold was strategy, and never was it
more clearly illustrated than in this harmless contest of his youth, and
to which he often recurred when passing an hour or two with his marshals
and generals while preparing for contests on which the fate of France
depended.
Up to a few years ago,--it may to this present time,--an interesting
relic of Napoleon's childhood was preserved in his native place. It was
a small brass cannon, weighing about thirty pounds, and it is said he
would leave all other amusements for the pleasure of firing off this
dangerous plaything. His favorite retreat was a solitary summer house,
among the rocks on the sea shore, about a mile from Ajaccio, where his
mother's brother had a villa. The place is now in ruins; it afterwards
came to be known as "Napoleon's Grotto." Nothing interested him more
during these early years, than to hear his mother tell the story of her
exciting hardships as she fled from one part of the island to another
before the conquering French. Thus, unconsciously, she no doubt nurtured
in her second son that warlike spirit which was manifested in him to
such a marked degree in after years.
During the time Napoleon attended school, young men were taught that the
only fame worth striving for was that won by military achievements.
Napoleon's parents, therefore, exerted all the influence they could
command to gain scholarships for the education of their two oldest
sons,--Joseph and Napoleon. Their prayers were at last granted owing to
the invaluable aid of Monsieur de Marboeuf, Bishop of Autun and nephew
of the governor of Corsica. Joseph was to take orders and to be placed
in the college of Autun; Napoleon, intended for the navy, was to go to
the school at Brienne, having previously gone through a course at Autun
so as to learn sufficient French to be able to follow the lectures. They
started on this journey, which was to have so much influence on their
future lives, on December 15, 1778. After a halt at Florence to procure
papers showing the ancient nobility of the Bonaparte family, and which
were necessary to Napoleon before entering the school at Brienne, they
proceeded to Autun. The herald declared that, "Young Napoleon Bonaparte
possessed the nobility necessary for admission into the ranks of the
gentlemen who are educated by his Majesty in the royal schools." Charles
Bonaparte had been able to satisfy the authorities that his patent of
nobility was authentic and privileged him to sign his name "de
Bonaparte."
Napoleon arrived at Brienne, on the 23d of April, 1779, having in three
months at Autun "learned sufficient French to enable him to converse
easily and to write small essays and translations."
At Brienne Bourrienne, whose friendship for him commenced thus early,
describes him as follows: "Bonaparte was noticeable at Brienne for his
Italian complexion, the keenness of his look, and the tone of his
conversation with masters and comrades. There was almost always a dash
of bitterness in what he said. He had very little of the disposition
that leads to attachments; which I can only attribute to the misfortunes
of his family ever since his birth and the impression that the conquest
of his country had made on his early years."
The fact that he was a brave, manly boy, all biographers agree in
recording. His poverty subjected him to mortification among his
comrades, who also ridiculed him on account of his country and twitted
him with the obsolete saint whose name he bore. These taunts he allowed
himself to settle with the offenders openly and never descended to
report them to his tutors. On one occasion, with Bourrienne, who became
his private secretary in later years, he suffered several days'
imprisonment rather than reveal the names of the real offenders who had
neglected their duties.
Napoleon's promptitude of reply was displayed on many occasions during
his attendance at this school. One day as he was undergoing an
examination by a general officer, he answered all the questions proposed
with so much precision, and accompanied by such a depth of penetration,
that the general, the professors and the students, were astonished. At
length, in order to bring the interrogatories to a close, Napoleon was
asked the following question:
"What line of conduct would you adopt in case you were besieged in a
fortified place and was destitute of provisions?"
"So long as there were any in the camp of the enemy, I should never be
at a great loss for a supply," came the answer quickly, amid the
applause of the pupils.
One of the most delightful winters of Napoleon's early life was that of
1782, spent at this military school. He was just at that age when a boy
most keenly enjoys new scenes and new excitements. It was the
thirteenth winter of his life. He was older than most boys are at
thirteen. His mind and his muscles were better developed. But,
nevertheless, he was still a boy.
It happened that this winter was one of the coldest and most severe in
the history of France, so memorable by the quantity of snow that fell
and which accumulated upon the roads in great quantities. The snow came
early and stayed late, and the students could find but little amusement
without doors. Napoleon was the first to suggest that it be used to
develop their practical knowledge, and at the same time to beguile the
weary hours they would otherwise be compelled to spend within doors. He
said one day:
"Let us divide into two hostile forces and battle, while the snow lasts,
for the possession of the play ground."
The proposition was received with favor and was unanimously accepted. By
common consent Napoleon, whose authority no one questioned, was chosen
to command the projected mimic war, the school being divided into two
equal armies. Extensive fortifications of snow were at once erected by
busy hands who then armed themselves for the coming fray. So complete
were the arrangements that even the inhabitants of the village gave up
all other pursuits to witness the battles. For fifteen days, while the
snow lasted, they built forts and counter-forts, dug trenches,
constructed bastions and made or met sallies with snowball battles,
neglecting for the nonce their less interesting studies.
It is related that Napoleon was greatly enraged one day to find that the
other side had tried to get the best of his men by putting a round stone
into each snowball, but when someone advised him to imitate the tactics
of the foe he indignantly refused, saying that he would win without
doing so or be beaten.
The fort of the enemy was at last captured after Napoleon had gone
through the formalities of a siege, in which he displayed much of the
quickness of combination for which he was noted on the battlefield in
after years. His soldierly methods electrified his fellow students and
astonished the professors as well. "This little sham war," says
Bourrienne, "was carried on for the space of a fortnight, and did not
cease until a quantity of gravel and small stones having got mixed with
the snow of which we made our bullets, many of the combatants, besiegers
as well as besieged, were seriously wounded. I well remember that I was
one of the worst sufferers from this sort of grape-shot fire."
In 1783 Bonaparte, on the recommendation of the inspector of the twelve
military schools, was sent from Brienne to the Royal Military School at
Paris to have his education completed in the general school,--an
extraordinary compliment to the genius and proficiency of a boy of
fifteen. He was one of three to receive that honor, a tribute paid to
the precocity of his extraordinary mathematical talent, and the
steadiness of his application. The entry made at that time in the
military records says:
"Monsieur de Bonaparte (Napoleon) born August 15th, 1769; in height
four feet, ten inches, ten lines; of good constitution, health
excellent, character mild, honest and grateful; conduct exemplary; has
distinguished himself by application to mathematics; understands history
and geography tolerably well; is indifferently skilled in merely
ornamental studies, as well as in Latin; would make an excellent
sailor; deserves to be passed to the Military School at Paris."
The young student did not arrive in Paris in the guise of the future
conqueror of the world. On the contrary, he looked like a "new-comer;"
he gaped at everything he saw, and gazed about in a dazed sort of way.
As a Corsican compatriot who met him as he was getting out of the coach
has said: "His appearance was that of a youth whom any scoundrel would
try to rob after seeing him, if indeed he had anything worth taking!"
However, it should not be forgotten that he was but a youth of fifteen,
felt his poverty keenly, and was about to enter into the noise and
extravagant life of the rich students of this royal military school. As
he himself said in 1811: "All these cares spoiled my early years; they
influenced my temper and made me grave before my time."
At the Paris school Napoleon labored hard, as he had done at Brienne for
five years, being especially proficient, as before, in mathematics.
Everything was very luxurious here, and Bonaparte complained in a
memorial, which he presented to the superintendent of the establishment,
that the mode of life was too expensive and delicate for "poor
gentlemen" and could not properly prepare them either for returning to
their "modest homes," or for the hardships they would encounter in war.
He proposed that instead of a regular dinner of two courses daily, the
students should have ammunition bread and soldiers' rations, and be
compelled to mend and clean their own stockings and shoes. "If I were
king of France," he said one day to a companion, "I would change this
state of things very quickly!" This memorial is said to have done him
no service, for every third boy that looked on him was a duke from his
cradle, while the Young Corsican was still a "pensioner of the king;"
but the schools established by him after he became Emperor were on that
severe plan. "Although believing in the necessity of show and
magnificence in public life," says Meneval, his second private
secretary, "Napoleon remained true to these principles, while lavishing
wealth on his ministers and marshals: 'In your private life' said he,
'be economical and even parsimonious; in public be magnificent.'"
On being reproved one day by an uncle of the Duchess d'Abrantes for
ingratitude as a "pensioner of the king," he broke out furiously with an
expression of indignation. "Silence!" said the gentleman at whose table
he was sitting; "It ill becomes you, who are educated by the king's
bounty, to speak as you do."
"I am not educated at the _king's_ expense," replied Bonaparte, his face
flushed with rage, "but at the expense of the _nation_!"
Young Napoleon made but poor advancement in the German language while at
this school, and by reason of it offended M. Bauer his tutor. One day,
not being in his place, M. Bauer inquired where he was, and was told
that he was attending his examination in the class of artillery.
"Oh! so he does learn something," said the professor ironically.
"Why, sire, he is the best mathematician in the school," was the reply.
"Ah, I have always heard it remarked and I have always believed, that
none but a fool could learn mathematics!"
"It would be curious," said Napoleon, who related this anecdote when he
was Emperor, "to know whether M. Bauer lived long enough to ascertain my
real character, and to enjoy the confirmation of his own judgment."
Napoleon had not been in the Military School of Paris a year,--during
which time his father had died,--and had barely completed his sixteenth
year, when he successfully passed the examination, in August 1785,--for
a commission in a regiment of artillery.
On September 1st the decree was signed which assigned Bonaparte as
Second-Lieutenant in the company of bombardiers of the regiment of La
Fere garrisoned at Valence. At the time of the examination there were
thirty-six vacant places. M. de Feralio, one of the professors of the
military school charged with this examination, is said to have inscribed
on the margin, opposite to the signature of Napoleon, the following: "A
Corsican by character and by birth. If favored by circumstances this
young man will rise high." This professor was very fond of his young
pupil, and when at school is said to have occasionally supplied him with
pocket money. After his death Napoleon granted a handsome pension to his
widow.
Napoleon's corps was at Valence when he joined it. Arriving there he was
an occasional frequenter of the drawing room of Madame du Colombier, and
it is said he made love to her daughter; but when not so engaged, he was
devoted to his military studies, and read frequently from the Lives of
Plutarch, a volume of which he generally carried about him. He also
occupied himself in writing a "History of Corsica" which, when
completed, the Abbe Raynal and other friends praised very highly; but he
was unable to find a publisher for it.
At Valence Napoleon found the officers of his regiment divided, as all
the world then was, into two parties; the lovers of the French monarchy,
and those who desired its overthrow. Napoleon openly sided with the
latter. "Had I been a general," said he, in the evening of his life, "I
might have adhered to the king; being a subaltern I joined the
patriots."
In the beginning of 1792 Napoleon became captain of artillery,
unattached, and happening to be in Paris, witnessed the lamentable
scenes of the 20th of June, when the revolutionary mob stormed the
Tuileries, and Louis XVI. and his family, after undergoing innumerable
insults and degradations, with the utmost difficulty preserved their
lives. As he was strolling about with Bourrienne he saw the mob,
numbering between five and six thousand, ragged and ridiculously armed,
coming from the outskirts and making for the Tuileries. "Let us follow
these scoundrels," he said. They went with the crowd into the garden
before the palace, and when the king appeared at one of the windows on
the balcony, surrounded by Revolutionists, and with the red cap of
liberty, the emblem of the Jacobins, on his head, Napoleon could no
longer suppress his contempt and indignation. "Poor driveller!" said he,
loud enough to be heard by those near him; "how could he suffer this
rabble to enter? If he had swept away five or six hundred with his
cannon, _the rest would be running yet_!" Napoleon always abhorred
anarchy. He said there was no remedy for mobs but grape-shot, and
believed thoroughly in the theory of shooting first and listening to
peace negotiations afterwards.
He was also a witness of the still more terrible 10th of August, in the
same year, when the palace being once more invested, the National Guard
assigned for its defense took part with the assailants. This time the
royal family were obliged to take refuge in the National Assembly, and
the brave Swiss Guards were massacred almost to a man.
Bonaparte was a firm friend of the Assembly, to the charge of a part of
which, at least, these excesses must be laid; but the spectacle
disgusted him. The yells, screams, and pikes with bloody heads upon
them, formed a scene which he afterwards described as "hideous and
revolting." But with what a different feeling of interest would he have
looked on that infuriated populace, those still resisting though
overpowered Swiss, and that burning palace, had any seer whispered to
him: "Emperor that shall be, all this blood and massacre is but to
prepare your future Empire!"
He mingled little in society; but he saw much of the people and took
sides irrevocably with the cause of the nation. At this time he was
without employment and very poor, wandering idly about Paris, and living
chiefly at cheap restaurants. As yet he had been but a spectator of the
Revolution, destined to pave his own path to sovereign power; but it was
not long before circumstances called him to play a part in this tragic
drama which was then attracting the attention of the civilized world.
It was shortly after these stirring scenes in Paris, that Bonaparte
visited his mother in Corsica, arriving there with his sister Eliza on
September 17th, 1792. For the first time in thirteen years the family
was reunited, and their joy would have been complete had their
circumstances not been so sad. Their resources were diminishing day by
day and the recovery of what was due them became constantly more
difficult, owing to civil discords. The only fund upon which they could
rely seems to have been Napoleon's pay as an artillery officer.
The following year, while Bonaparte was still enjoying the leave of
absence from his regiment, an expedition arrived from France to deprive
General Paoli, governor of Corsica, of his control, he having denounced
the National Assembly as the enemy of France. Paoli endeavored to enlist
Napoleon in his cause; among other flatteries he patted him on the back
and said: "You were cast in an antique mould; you are one of Plutarch's
men. The whole world will talk of you," but the young Corsican was loyal
to France, and was not to be deceived by either entreaties or flattery.
He declared his belief that Corsica was too weak to maintain
independence, that she must fall under the rule either of France or
England, and that her interests would be best served by adhering to the
former. Napoleon then tendered his sword to Salicetti, one of the
Corsican deputies to the Convention, and was appointed provisionally to
the command of a battalion of National Guards.
The first military service on which he was employed for his native
country was the reduction of a small fortress, called the Torre di
Capitello, near Ajaccio. He took it, but was soon besieged in it, and he
and his garrison, after a gallant defense, and living for some time on
horseflesh, were glad to evacuate the tower, and escape to the sea.
Paoli was soon reinforced by England, and the Bonapartes were among
those who were banished from the country. During this Corsican
revolution the inhabitants were much divided as to the rights of England
and France in the island. An officer in the French troops, who sided
with England, was much scandalized at the position taken by the
Bonapartes,--Joseph, Napoleon and Lucien. One day, in the hearing of
Napoleon, the officer made use of some very harsh language towards them,
and was especially bitter against Napoleon. At this a friend defended
him with much warmth and finished by saying to the officer: "Sir, you
are not worth a pair of Napoleon's old boots!"
In the year 1800, Napoleon then being First Consul of France, the
officer who had defended him, and who had for some time followed his
standard, and had been raised to distinction by him, happening to meet
Bonaparte among a large party at dinner at the house of the First
Consul's mother, was drawn aside before the company placed themselves at
the table, and with his finger over his mouth, Napoleon said in a
half-joking, half-serious manner: "My dear sir, not a word, I entreat
you, about the old boots!"
As a result of the insurrection in Corsica Napoleon saw Ajaccio in
ashes, and the home of his childhood pillaged and burned ere he took his
departure. His mother and sisters took refuge first at Nice, and
afterwards at Marseilles, where for some time they suffered all the
inconveniences of poverty and exile. At that period nothing was more
deplorable than Bonaparte's prospects; nothing more uncertain than the
future. But he believed that fortune would not always abandon him.
France was in the hands of men who acted largely from self-interest, and
here he apparently saw a chance to carve his way to fame by getting in
the vortex of the Revolution. It was probably on this occasion that he
repeated the well-known words: "In a revolution a soldier should never
despair if he possesses courage and genius."
Napoleon now resolved to rejoin his regiment; he had chosen France for
his country, and ever afterwards it was his home until exiled to St.
Helena.
During the night of August 27th, 1793, Toulon was delivered to the
English, and its subsequent siege and retaking was destined to be the
first incident of importance which enabled Bonaparte to distinguish
himself in the eyes of the French Government, and of the world at large.
The head of Louis XVI had rolled from the block, and a month afterwards
the Convention had declared war against England.
Early in September France was attacked on every side, and a third of her
provinces had rebelled against the government established at Paris,
which enforced its supremacy by a regime carried on under a Reign of
Terror. Among the provinces in open insurrection were all those of the
south. An army corps invested Lyons, while another, after subduing
Marseilles, marched against Toulon, the great arsenal and seaport, and
delivered by the Bourbons into the hands of England. Adjutant Cervoni
was at once dispatched to Marseilles to ascertain if he could find in
that town some artillery officer of distinction to whom might be
intrusted the chief command of the siege batteries before Toulon.
While strolling through the streets Cervoni met with a captain of
artillery who was, like himself, perambulating the thoroughfares. This
captain was a Corsican and a compatriot; his name was Napoleon
Bonaparte. He was covered with the dust of the road along which he had
been walking; for he had just arrived from Avignon, whither he had
escorted a convoy of ammunition, and was on his way to Nice. Cervoni
thought that Bonaparte would be just the man to watch over the
movements of the army before Toulon: he appeared very young,--he was
only twenty-four years of age--but it was stated that a month before the
Republican army was on the point of beating a retreat in front of
Avignon when he, with two field-pieces and eighty men, bombarded the
town in the rear so effectively that the inhabitants and federal troops
were overcome with fright and, convinced that they had been betrayed,
abandoned the place to the Republicans who entered victorious, thanks to
the boldness and foresight of Captain Bonaparte.
[Illustration: From a Painting by Lafit
BONAPARTE ESCAPES CAPTURE AT LONATO]
Cervoni invited him to enter a café; Bonaparte accepted, and the two men
had a chat over a bowl of punch. The young captain doffed his hat, so
that his features were lighted up by the blue flame of the liquor; his
complexion was sallow and his head large, measuring as it did
twenty-three inches round. If the size of his skull was large, the space
between the two cheek-bones was enormous. The hair grew low on his
forehead; the well-arched brows disclosed large eyes, sharp as steel,
cold, clear and piercing; the aquiline nose was of the most delicate
shape, the lower lip strong and receding, while the chin and the jaws
were as well developed as the skull.
After a conference Napoleon departed for Toulon where he was promoted to
the rank of Brigadier-General of Artillery, with the command of the
artillery during the siege. The arsenal was filled with military stores,
and twenty-five English and Spanish battleships were then riding in the
harbor to protect it. Three months had passed, during which time no
apparent progress had been made towards the recapture of the town, and
when Napoleon arrived he was invested with the command of the artillery
train.
A strong fort commanded the harbor, and after a careful examination
Napoleon said the only way to retake Toulon was to neglect the body of
the town, carry "Little Gibraltar," and the city would surrender in two
days. Napoleon's brother Lucien visited him about this time. They went
together one morning to a place where a fruitless assault had been made,
and two hundred Frenchmen were dead upon the ground. On beholding them
Napoleon exclaimed: "If I had commanded here all these brave men would
still be alive!" A moment later he added: "Learn from this example,
young man, how indispensable and imperatively necessary it is for those
to possess knowledge who aspire to the command of others."
Napoleon's own account of his experiences here is extremely interesting,
and was thus related by him during his exile at St. Helena:
"I reported, as I had been ordered to do," he said, "to General Cartaux,
(a portrait painter of Paris) who was in charge of the revolutionary
forces. He was a tall man, all covered with gilt decorations, and a type
of the militia officer. I saw at once that he was utterly incompetent to
the task that had been laid out for him. I said: 'I have been directed
to assist, under your order, in the taking of Toulon.' He replied: 'We
need no assistance in taking Toulon; but since they have sent you here
you may enjoy yourself as best you can and see the siege.' Then he gave
orders to have me treated with courtesy.
"Well, the next morning I went out with the general to look at the
preparations for bombarding the stronghold. He called an aid-de-camp and
asked in a business-like manner: 'Are the red-hot shot ready?' I was
surprised, but said nothing. The subordinate replied: 'Oh, yes, the men
have been busy all night heating them.' I was now more surprised than
ever, but still kept silent. What followed would have made me believe
they were trying to guy me if their manner had not been so serious.
General Cartaux asked how they were going to get the red-hot shot over
to the guns. That seemed to puzzle the aid-de-camp. The General himself
didn't know what to do. After a great deal of speculation, and some
swearing, he asked me what I would do under the circumstances. I said:
"'You will find it an excellent idea to try the range of your guns with
cold shot first. If the range isn't right the hot-shot will be of no
service.'
"He laughed merrily and agreed with me. The order was given to try the
range. The result was that the cold shot didn't carry more than a third
of the distance. The bombarding of the fort was put off another day.
"Luckily Gasparin, the direct representative of the people with plenary
powers, came riding up that night, and I told him what I had seen and
heard. He agreed that the man in command was incompetent, and put me in
charge. You all know the rest. I began the attack on the outlet of
Toulon and was successful. Gasparin consoled Cartaux by telling him that
I was only a subordinate, and that all the glory would go to him
anyhow."
During this siege of the "Little Gibraltar Castle" Bonaparte showed his
extensive knowledge of mankind, and which enabled him to discover and
attach to him those men whose talents were most distinguished, and most
capable of rendering him service. Several who afterwards became marshals
and generals under the Empire, first made Napoleon's acquaintance at
Toulon. Among these were Duroc and Junot. During one of the days of
this long siege Napoleon, in passing one of the trenches, called for
some one to write an order from his dictation, and in obedience to this
request a young and handsome soldier stepped out of the ranks, and
resting his paper on the breastwork, began to write as directed.
Scarcely had he done so when a cannon ball fell at his feet and covered
both commander and private with dirt. The soldier laughingly held up his
paper and said: "Thank you, now I shall need no sand."
Napoleon was so pleased with his bravery, and ready wit, that he
immediately promoted him. The name of this fortunate man was General
Junot; he subsequently became Duke of Abrantes and was one of the most
distinguished generals of the Empire under Napoleon. An apparent total
insensibility to fatigue was observed in the young Corsican officer at
this time. He worked through daylight, and slept nights wrapped in a
blanket under his guns till his batteries were ready to begin
operations.
During the siege Paris was very restless, and after a few weeks had
passed it became almost the sole topic of conversation at the capital;
the newspapers contained innumerable suggestions for the ending of the
siege, and hundreds of letters were addressed to the officers at Toulon,
telling them how to drive the English from the shores of France. One day
fifteen carriages arrived at Toulon containing sixty young men who had
journeyed thither from the capital; they were gorgeously arrayed and
asked to be presented to the commander-in-chief.
Bonaparte received the party courteously and asked what he could do for
them. "Citizen Bonaparte," said the spokesman, "we come from Paris. The
patriots there are indignant at your indecision and delay. The soil of
the Republic has been violated. She trembles to think that the insult
still remains unavenged. She asks, 'Why is Toulon not yet taken? Why is
the English fleet not yet destroyed?' In her indignation she has
appealed to her brave sons. We have obeyed her summons and burn with
impatience to fulfill her expectations. We are volunteer gunners from
Paris. Furnish us with arms. To-morrow we will march against the enemy!"
Early on the following day Napoleon conducted the "volunteers" to the
seashore. During the night he had ordered a number of cannon placed in
position and as he pointed to the black hull out at sea he said: "Sink
that ship!"
At some distance from the shore lay an English frigate, upon whose deck
were to be seen a formidable array of cannon, all pointed shorewards.
"But there is no shelter here!" said the volunteers in chorus. At this
moment a broadside was fired by the gunners on the frigate and the
brilliantly decorated patriots from the capital fled in every direction,
amid the smiles of the commander-in-chief who at once gave orders for
his own gunners to return the fire of the enemy.
Toulon was at last retaken on December 17th, the siege having lasted
four months.
When Bonaparte at last raised the French emblem over the city, and as it
floated with the breezes over a scene of desolation long remembered by
those who witnessed it, he said to Dugommier: "Go to sleep; we have
taken Toulon!"
It was here that Napoleon was first severely wounded. When his body was
being prepared for burial at St. Helena there was found upon his left
thigh so deep a scar that it was nearly possible to place one's finger
in it. This had been caused by a bayonet thrust received during this
engagement, and in consequence of which he nearly lost his leg. In
addition to the wound he had a number of horses shot under him. Another
of the dangers which he incurred was of a singular character. An
artilleryman being shot at the gun which he was serving, while Napoleon
was visiting a battery, the commander took up the dead man's rammer, and
to give encouragement to the soldiers, charged the gun with his own
hands. The gunner had been afflicted with a skin disease which Napoleon
contracted from the weapon, and for a number of years afterward he
suffered from its ravages.
Soon after the retaking of Toulon Bonaparte accompanied General
Dugommier to Marseilles. Some one struck with his appearance asked the
general _who that little bit of an officer was, and where he picked him
up_?
"That officer's name," replied the general, "is Bonaparte: I picked him
up at the siege of Toulon, to the successful termination of which he
eminently contributed; and you will probably see, one day, _that this
little bit of an officer_ is a greater man than any of us!"
Napoleon was now rapidly rising in reputation. His science
as an artillery officer and his valor had saved France from
humiliation--taught her enemies to respect her--had suppressed the
spirit of insurrection in the southern provinces, and had given the
government of the Convention control of the whole army.
It has been said that Napoleon's fame first came to the knowledge of
Barras, a member of the Directory, through a letter taken by his young
protegé to Paris not long after this siege. It was a commendatory letter
addressed to Carnot in which Barras thus expressed himself: "I send you
a young man who has distinguished himself very much during the siege,
and earnestly recommend you to advance him speedily: _If you do not, he
will most assuredly advance himself!_"
Bonaparte's name was on the list of those whom the veteran Dugommier
recommended for promotion, and he was accordingly confirmed in his
provisional situation of chief of battalion and appointed to hold that
rank in Italy. He therefore proceeded to join the headquarters of the
French army then lying at Nice. Here he suggested a plan by which the
Sardinians were driven from the Coe di Tendi. Saorgio, with all its
stores, soon surrendered, and the French obtained possession of the
maritime Alps, so that the difficulties of advancing into Italy were
greatly diminished. Of these movements, however, Napoleon's superior
officers reaped as yet the honor. While directing the means of attaining
these successes Bonaparte acquired a complete acquaintance with that
Alpine country in which he was shortly to obtain victories in his own
name, not in that of others who were now rapidly acquiring reputation by
acting on his timely suggestions.
One of his favorite methods of planning manoeuvres he originated at this
time while studying his maps and plans of the Alpine country. He had so
familiarized himself with the locality that no point of importance was
unknown to him. With this data before him, Bonaparte would sit for
hours, intent on studying the maps of the country, and upon which he had
stuck pins, the heads of which he had covered with wax of various
shades. One color was used to designate the French, another the enemy,
and by changing the location of the pins on the map he formed various
intricate plans of attack and retreat that some years later were most
valuable to him. This ingenious scheme is often used at the present day
by large wholesale houses to designate the territory of their salesmen
while travelling about the country.
While in Nice Napoleon was suddenly arrested and thrown into prison on
an order sent from Paris by the Committee of Public Safety. He had been
sent there with secret instructions from the government "to collect
facts that would throw light upon the intentions of the Genoese
government respecting coalition, etc.," and although he acquitted
himself with all the care necessary to success, his excess of zeal came
nearly ending fatally to him, for it was a time when it was safe to have
secrets from no one. It was a time, too, when revolutionists owed it to
themselves to arrest their predecessors, and as there had been a change
in the government, Napoleon's secret journey was unknown to Salicetti
and Albitte, who had succeeded Ricord.
Young Robespierre, who received the order of arrest, was much astounded
at it. The document added that the prisoner was to be at once brought
under a strong escort to Fort Carré near Antibes and there imprisoned
and tried "for treason against the Republic." Robespierre asked Napoleon
to come into his room, and showed him the document, which might mean
death. Then he said: "You must not go away yet. I will put you under
arrest, and then I will write to my brother, who has some influence with
the committee. He may be able to get the order rescinded."
Napoleon refused to get agitated over his arrest. Junot, Sebastiani and
Marmont, his young aides-de-camp, had formed a plan of escape and
advised him to choke the guard, steal a small boat, and flee to the
Corsican coast, where he could hide himself in the mountains. Bonaparte,
knowing his innocence, refused to try to escape, but addressed the
following letter to Junot, et al: "I fully recognize your friendship, my
dear Junot, in the proposition you make me: you have long known the
sincerity of mine for you, and I hope that you trust in it. Men may be
unjust towards me, my dear Junot, but for me my innocence is sufficient.
My conscience is the tribunal before which I summon my conduct. This
conscience is calm when I question it. Do nothing, therefore; all
friendly greetings. BONAPARTE.
_Under arrest at Fort Carré, Antibes._"
It was only when told that he was dismissed from the army, and declared
unworthy of public confidence, that he addressed a spirited letter to
Albitte and Salicetti, the committee that ordered his arrest, and which
caused them to reconsider their resolution.
In his dramatic communication to this committee, Bonaparte said in part:
"You have suspended me from my functions, arrested and declared me
suspected. Therein you have branded me without judging,--or rather
judged without hearing. * * * Hear me; destroy the oppression that
environs me, and restore me in the estimation of patriotic men. An hour
after, if villains desire my life, I shall esteem it but little; I have
despised it often."
In a few days the influence of the great Robespierre had made itself
felt; a message was consequently received rescinding the order and
Napoleon was honorably discharged from custody. His papers had been
examined, and as nothing was found in them to implicate him, he was set
at liberty at once. In those stormy times more than one innocent man had
been sent to the guillotine on a less flimsy accusation than this,
and Napoleon had, therefore, good reason to be thankful for the
interposition of Robespierre.
At this time the young warrior was most studious, and is said to have
thus early acquired the habit of taking short snatches of sleep, which
seemed to refresh him fully as much as the longer periods required by
others. While at Nice one of his friends, on a particular occasion, went
to Napoleon's apartments long before daybreak, and not doubting that he
was still in bed, knocked gently at the door, fearful of disturbing him
too abruptly. Upon entering his chamber he was not a little astonished
at finding Bonaparte dressed as during the day, with plans, maps and
various books scattered around him.
"What!" exclaimed the visitor, "not yet in bed?"
"In bed," replied Napoleon, "I am already risen."
"Indeed, and why so early?"
"Oh, two or three hours are enough for any man to sleep!" was the
general's reply.
Some years later, when Bonaparte was forming the "_Code Napoleon_," he
astonished the Council of State by the readiness with which he
illustrated any point in discussion by quoting the Roman Civil Law, a
subject which might seem entirely foreign to him, since the greater part
of his life had been passed on the battlefield. On being asked how he
had acquired so familiar a knowledge of law affairs he replied: "When I
was lieutenant I was put under arrest, unjustly, it is true, but that is
nothing to the point. The little room which was assigned for my prison
contained no furniture but an old chair and an old cupboard: in the
cupboard was a ponderous volume, older and more worm-eaten than all the
rest. It proved to be a digest of the Roman law. As I had neither
paper, pens, ink or pencil, you may easily imagine that this book was a
valuable prize to me. It was so voluminous and the leaves were so
covered with marginal notes in manuscript that, had I been confined one
hundred years I could never have been idle. I was only deprived of my
liberty ten days; but, on recovering it, I was saturated with Justinian
and the decisions of the Roman legislators. _Thus, I picked up my
knowledge of the Civil Law._"
Bonaparte did not resume his functions at Nice, after his release from
imprisonment, but repaired to Marseilles where his mother was living in
distressed circumstances. Before the end of the year he again came to
Paris to solicit employment. At first he met with nothing but repulses.
Aubry, president of the military committee, objected to his youth, at
which Bonaparte replied rather sharply: "One ages quickly on
battlefields, and I have just left one." The president, who had not seen
much actual service himself, thought he was insulted, and treated
Napoleon very coldly in consequence.
Shortly afterwards Bonaparte was offered the command of a brigade of
infantry which he refused, declaring that nothing could induce him to
leave the artillery. Writing to Sucy, a friend, on this subject,
Napoleon said: "I have been ordered to serve as a general of the line in
La Vendée. I will not accept. Many soldiers could direct a brigade
better than I, and few have commanded artillery with greater success."
His refusal was followed by the erasure of his name from the list of
general officers in employment. Some time later he asked for a
commission to Turkey to form a barrier against the encroachments of
Russia and England, but it was not granted. No answer was returned to
his memorial, over which he conversed for some weeks with great
enthusiasm. "How strange it would be," he said to his friends, "if a
little Corsican should become king of Jerusalem." Already he was
contemplating greatness, and firmly believed in his "Star of Destiny."
At length he was nominated to the command of a brigade of artillery in
Holland. The long-deferred appointment was, no doubt, very welcome; but
in the meantime his services were called for in a more important field.
When the National Guard sided with the enemies of the Convention, and
took up arms against the Government, a man of force and decision was
needed to defend them from the insurgents. A collision had taken place
on October 3rd, 1795, when the troops of the Convention were withdrawn
by that body. The insurgents, who represented the forty-eight sections
of Paris, were prepared to attack the Palace of the Tuileries next
morning with upwards of 40,000 men, and take the Government in their own
hands. The nation, and especially the superior classes, aided by the
Royalists, were indignant at the conduct of the members of the
Convention,--who schemed to perpetuate themselves in office,--and formed
a most formidable opposition to the measures of the existing Government.
General Bonaparte was at the theatre when informed of the events that
were passing. He at once hastened to the Assembly where he found the
members in the heat of debate and greatly exercised over their
approaching danger.
Deliberating with Tallien and Carnot, Barras, who had been present at
Toulon during the siege, said: "There is but one man who can save us. I
have the man whom you want; _it is a little Corsican officer who will
not stand upon_ _ceremony!_" Napoleon was sent for and notified that he
had been chosen to defend the Government as second in command under
Barras. Unknown to the Assembly, he had been present at their meeting,
and heard all that had been said of him. He deliberated on the best
course to pursue for more than half an hour, and at last decided to take
up their cause, if allowed to do so in his own way. When Barras
presented Napoleon to the Convention as a fit man to be intrusted with
the command, the President asked:
"Are you willing to undertake the defense of the Convention?"
"Yes," was the reply.
"Are you aware of the magnitude of the undertaking?"
"Perfectly; and I am in the habit of accomplishing that which I
undertake. I accept, but I warn you that, once my sword is out of the
scabbard, I shall not replace it until I have established order."
He refused, however, to accept the appointment unless he received it
free from all interference. The trembling Convention quickly yielded,
and although Barras enjoyed the title of "Commander-in-chief," Bonaparte
was actually in control of the troops.
Upon consultation with Menou, who was then in prison, and whom he
succeeded, Napoleon quickly obtained the information desired. He learned
that the available defense consisted of but 5,000 soldiers of all
descriptions, with 40 pieces of cannon then at Sablons and guarded by
only one hundred and fifty men. Without the loss of a moment Napoleon
began his preparations for the morrow which was to decide whether the
mob was to triumph, and France lose all the fruits of her Revolution, or
law and order be established. His first act was to dispatch Murat, then
a major of chasseurs, to Sablons, five miles off, where the cannon were
posted. The Sectionaries sent a stronger detachment to seize these
cannon immediately afterwards; and Murat, who passed them in the dark,
would have gone in vain had he received his orders but a few moments
later, or had he been less active.
When the reveille sounded on the morning of October 4th, over 32,000
National Guards advanced by different streets to the siege of the
palace; but its defense was in firmer hands than those of Louis
XVI.--the hero of Toulon was now at the helm.
At the Church St. Roche the column which was advancing along the Rue St.
Honoré, found a detachment of Napoleon's troops drawn up in line with
two cannon to dispute their passage. It is unknown which side began the
firing, but in an instant Napoleon's artillery swept the streets and
lanes, scattering grape-shot among the National Guards, and producing
such confusion that they were soon compelled to give way. The first shot
was a signal for opening all the batteries which Bonaparte had
established, the quays of the Seine opposite the Tuileries being
commanded by his guns below the palace and on the bridges.
In less than an hour the action was over. The insurgents fled in all
directions, leaving the streets covered with the dead and wounded. The
troops of the Convention then marched into the various Sections,
disarmed the terrified inhabitants, and before nightfall everything was
quiet. The sun went down as calmly over the helpless city as though
nothing had happened. That same evening the theatres were opened and
illuminated, and there were general rejoicings on almost every hand.
Napoleon's star rose that night above the horizon; all Paris rushed to
catch a glimpse of the young commander, and for many years afterwards
France continued to look to him for protection,--and not in vain.
On the night of the 13th Vendemiaire Napoleon wrote to his brother
Joseph, saying: "At last all is finished and I hasten to send you news
of myself. The Royalists, formed into Sections, were becoming daily more
threatening. The Convention gave orders for the disarmament of the
Lepelletier Section which resisted the troops. Menou, who commanded,
was, it is said, a traitor, and was immediately disgraced. The
Convention appointed Barras to command the armed forces; the committee
named me to command them under him. We placed our troops; the enemy came
to attack us at the Tuileries. We killed many of them, and lost thirty
killed and sixty wounded of our men. We have disarmed the Sections, and
all is peace again. As usual I am unhurt. P.S. Fortune is on my side.
Love to Eugenie and Julie."
Within five days from the defeat of the Sections Napoleon was named
second in command of the Army of the Interior, and shortly afterwards
Barras, finding his duties as director sufficient to occupy his time,
gave up the command to his "little Corsican officer."
After his inauguration as general of the armed force of Paris, Bonaparte
waited on each of the five directors. While on a visit to Carnot a
celebrated writer was there by invitation,--it being presentation
day,--and as the young commander entered, was singing at the piano forte
accompanied by a young lady. The entrance of Napoleon, then a short,
well-made, olive-complexioned youth, amidst five or six tall young men
who seemed to pay him the greatest attention, was a very surprising
contrast, and made something of a stir.
On Bonaparte's entrance Carnot bowed with an air of perfect ease and
self-possession, and as he passed by the author the latter inquired of
the host who the gentlemen were.
The director answered: "The general of the armed force of Paris and his
aides-de-camp."
"What is his name?" said the author.
"Bonaparte."
"Has he any military skill?"
"So it is said."
"What has he ever done to render himself conspicuous?"
"He is the officer who commanded the troops of the Convention on the
Thirteenth Vendemiaire." (Day of the defeat of the Sections).
A shade passed over the visage of the inquirer, who happened to be one
of the electors of the Vendemiaire, and he retired to one of the dark
corners to observe the new visitor in thoughtfulness and in silence.
Carnot then took occasion to predict that the young general would soon
take another step to fame and glory.
It was about this time that a lady asked Napoleon: "How could you fire
thus mercilessly upon your countrymen?"
"A soldier," he replied calmly, "is only a machine to obey orders!"
A few years before, while at a party given in the drawing rooms of M.
Neckar, a celebrated financier, the Bishop of Autun commended Fox and
Sheridan for having asserted that the French army, by refusing to obey
the orders of their superiors to fire upon the populace, had set a
glorious example to all the armies of Europe; because, by so doing, they
had shown themselves that men, by becoming soldiers, did not cease to be
citizens.
[Illustration: From a Painting by H. Vernet
BONAPARTE AT THE BRIDGE OF ARCOLA]
"Excuse me, if I venture to interrupt you;" said Napoleon quickly, "but
as I am an officer, I must claim the privilege of expressing my
sentiments. I sincerely believe that a strict discipline in the army is
absolutely necessary for the safety of our constitutional government and
for the maintenance of order. Nay, if our troops are not compelled
unhesitatingly to obey the commands of the executive, we shall be
exposed to the blind fury of democratic passions which will render
France the most miserable country on the globe!"
The action of the Assembly in placing Napoleon in command of the troops
in Paris had caused his name to appear frequently in the newspapers, and
thenceforth it emerged from obscurity. As commander his first act was to
intercede for and gain the acquittal of Menou, his predecessor, who was
then in prison, principally because of his failure to put down the
rioters.
Bonaparte now began to hold military levees, at one of which an incident
occurred which gave at once a new turn in his mode of life, and a fresh
impetus to the advance of his fortunes. A beautiful boy about twelve
years old appeared before Napoleon and said: "My name is Eugene
Beauharnais. My father, Viscount, and a General of the Republican
armies, has died on the guillotine, and I am come to pray you, sir, to
give me his sword." Bonaparte caused the request to be complied with,
and the tears of the boy, as he received and kissed the relic, excited
the commander's interest. The next day the youth's mother, Josephine
Beauharnais, came to thank Napoleon for his kind treatment of her son,
and her beauty and singular gracefulness of address made a strong
impression upon him. Some time later he offered Josephine his hand; she,
after some hesitation, accepted it, and the young general by his
marriage, which was celebrated on March 5th, 1796, thus cemented his
favorable connection with the society of the Luxembourg, and in
particular, with Tallien and Barras, at that time the most powerful men
in France.
The first meeting with Eugene, and its influence upon Napoleon's
marriage with Josephine, has been sometimes questioned by historians,
many of whom have seemingly neglected the Exile's own verification of
the story at St. Helena, in which, after relating the incident of
Josephine's visit, he said to Dr. O'Meara: "I was much struck with her
appearance (Josephine's), and still more with her _esprit_. This first
impression was daily strengthened, and marriage was not long in
following."
Tranquility was now restored in Paris, and the Directors had leisure to
turn their attention to the affairs of the Army of Italy, which was then
in a most confused and unsatisfactory condition. They determined to
place it under it a new general, and Bonaparte, then but twenty-six
years of age, was appointed to the command of the Army of Italy. It is
said that when the command was given Napoleon by Carnot (grandfather of
the late Sadi-Carnot, president of the present French Republic), the
latter told him it was to the command of men alone that he could be
appointed, the troops being destitute of everything but arms. Bonaparte
replied, that provided he would let him have men enough, that it was all
he wanted; he would answer for the rest, a promise that was soon
fulfilled, for instead of an army wanting everything, it became, at the
enemy's expense, one of the best appointed in Europe.
It was afterwards a matter of dispute between Carnot and Barras as to
which of them had first proposed his appointment to this command. It is
admitted in one of Josephine's letters that Barras had promised to
procure the position for Bonaparte before his marriage took place.
One of the Directors hesitated and said to Napoleon, "You are too
young."
"In a year," he answered, "I shall be either old or dead!"
II
BONAPARTE'S CAMPAIGN IN ITALY, 1796-7
When Napoleon set out from Paris on the 21st of March 1796, to take
command of the Army of Italy, after a honeymoon of but three days, he
traversed France with the swiftness of a courier, turning aside but a
few hours at Marseilles with his mother and family, whom he was now able
to provide for in an adequate manner. His letters to Josephine were full
of passionate expressions of tenderness, and regret at their separation.
But after paying his tribute to the affections, his heart was speedily
filled with exultation and triumph. For the first time he was chief in
command; the power within him was now free to direct his actions,
unhampered by the restraint he had so long felt in the capital. He was
extremely anxious to commence the career to which Fate called him, by
placing himself at the head of the Army of Italy at once.
It would not be difficult to imagine with what delight this young
general--then scarcely twenty-six years old--advanced to an independent
field of glory and conquest, confident in his own powers, and in the
perfect knowledge of the country which he had previously acquired. He
had under his command such men, already distinguished in war by success
and bravery as: Augereau, Massena, Serrurier, Joubert, Lannes, Murat, La
Harpe, Stengel and Kilmaine, all of whom were astonished at the youthful
appearance of their new commander.
It was not without some discontent that the old generals beheld a young
man, lately their inferior, taking the command over their heads,--to
which each supposed he had a prior claim, and reaping the benefits of a
plan of operations they did not imagine to have originated with himself.
As he rode along the ranks the soldiers observed that he did not sit
well on horseback, and complained that a "mere boy" had been sent to
command them. The young general, however, soon obtained that respect for
his character, which had been denied to his physical constitution. The
firmness he exhibited, soon put a stop to the insubordination which had
prevailed in the army; and, even before they had conquered under him,
the troops became as submissive as at any subsequent period, when his
character was fully established.
Some years before, when Bonaparte was conversing at Toulon with M. de
Volney, the well-known Corsican traveler and literary man, at a dinner
given to the two friends by Turreau, then in command of the military
force at Nice, a campaign in Italy was suggested. After the dessert was
brought in Napoleon said to Turreau: "Don't you think it's altogether
too bad to have 10,000 men lying idle here at Nice when the Republic
could make such excellent use of them in Italy?"
"Possibly," replied Turreau, "but we can do nothing; we have no order to
move from the Committee of Public Safety."
"Then," said Napoleon, "it is your duty to make the committee ashamed of
its inactivity."
"What would you do if you could act as you pleased?" asked Turreau.
Napoleon promised to give a reply the next evening. At the time fixed he
came prepared with a complete plan of campaign written out and
classified under seventeen heads. It involved the invasion and conquest
of Italy on almost the same lines that he was now about to undertake,
and the outgrowth partially of that meeting, for Turreau forwarded the
plan to the Committee of Public Safety at Paris on condition that it be
put in the hands of Carnot, in whose judgment Napoleon had confidence.
Carnot looked over the plan and was delighted. He was unable to secure
immediate action, but two years later, when the invasion of Italy was
determined upon, he had sufficient influence to see that Napoleon was
put in charge of it.
Bonaparte arrived at the headquarters of the army at Nice on the 27th of
March, 1796. The French Army of Italy, which amounted to 31,000
available men, had endured great hardships and privations, were
destitute of shoes, clothing, and almost everything which their comfort
demanded. The cavalry was wretchedly mounted and they were very
deficient in artillery. To silence their complaints, and reconcile them
to their situation, as well as to endear them to himself, Napoleon lived
familiarly with his soldiers, participated in their hardships and
privations, and redressed many of their grievances. "My brave fellows,"
he said to them on one occasion, while endeavoring to revive their
spirits; "although you suffer great privations, you have no reason to be
dissatisfied; everything yields to power; if we are victorious, the
provisions and the supplies of the enemy become ours; _if we are
vanquished, we have already too much to lose_."
The allies, Austrian and Sardinian, were a greatly superior force,
numbering as they did 80,000 men, were well equipped with supplies, and
occupied in their own, or a friendly country, all the heights and passes
of the Alps. Berthier, then on Napoleon's staff as major-general, took
great pleasure in showing as a curiosity in after years a general order
by which three louis-d'or were granted as a great supply for an outfit
to each general of division, and dated on the very day of the victory at
Albinga.
On the 8th of April Napoleon wrote to the Directory: "I found this army,
not only destitute, but without discipline; their insubordination and
discontent were such that the malcontents had formed a party for
the Dauphin, and were singing songs opposed to the tenets of the
Revolution. You may, however, rest assured that peace and order will be
re-established; by the time you receive this letter, we shall have come
to an engagement."
It was under such circumstances that Bonaparte proposed forcing a
passage to Italy and converting the richest territory of the enemy into
the theatre of war. "Soldiers," said he to his destitute and
disheartened men, "you are naked and ill-fed; the Republic owes you
much, but she has nothing with which to pay her debts. Your endurance
and patience amidst these barren rocks deserves admiration; but it
brings you no glory. I come to lead you into the most fertile plains the
sun shines upon. Rich provinces, and great cities will soon be in your
power; there you will reap riches and glory--they will be at your
disposal. Soldiers of Italy! with such a prospect before you, can you
fail in courage and perseverance?"
This was the commander's first address to the army, and the words of
encouragement which he gave them shot martial enthusiasm through their
veins like electric fire. Under the incompetent management of Scherer
the army, which had obtained some success against the Austrian general,
De Vins, had been without glory, although their battalions were headed
by valiant officers whose leader had neglected to improve his good
fortune. The French soldiers were thirsting for a commander capable of
leading them on to fame and glory, the conquest of Italy, therefore,
seemed reserved for General Bonaparte.
Napoleon's system of tactics, although then unknown even to his
officers, were a fixity with him. They appear to have been grounded on
the principle that "the commander will be victorious who assembles the
greatest number of forces upon the same point at the same moment,
notwithstanding an inferiority of numbers to the enemy when the general
force is computed on both sides." He eminently possessed the power of
calculation and combination necessary to exercise these decisive
manoeuvres.
Napoleon's career of victory began, as it continued, in defiance of the
established rules of warfare, and what distinguished him above all his
contemporaries was his ability to convert the most unfavorable
circumstances into the means of success. He perceived that the time was
come for turning a new leaf in the history of war. With such numbers of
troops as the impoverished Republic could afford him, he soon saw that
no considerable advantages could be obtained against the vast and
highly-disciplined armies of Austria and her allies unless the
established rules of etiquette and strategy were abandoned. It was only
by such rapidity of motion as should utterly surprise the superior
numbers of his adversaries that he could hope to concentrate the entire
energy of a small force, such as he commanded, upon some point of a much
greater force, and thus defeat them. He knew he would have to deal with
veteran soldiers and experienced generals--men who had learned the art
of war before he was born. He therefore resolved that every movement
should be made with celerity, and every blow be leveled where it was
least expected.
To effect such rapid marches as he had determined upon, it was necessary
that the soldiery should make up their minds to consider tents and
baggage as idle luxuries; and that instead of a long and complicated
chain of reserves and stores, they should dare to rely wholly for the
means of sustenance on the countries into which their venturesome leader
might conduct them.
The objects of Napoleon's expedition were to compel the king of
Sardinia, who maintained a powerful army in the field, to abandon the
alliance of Austria; to compel Austria to concentrate her forces in her
Italian provinces, thus obliging her to withdraw them from the bank of
the Rhine where they had long hovered. It was hoped, also, to humble the
power of the Vatican and break the prestige of its Jesuitical diplomacy
forever. He had as yet achieved no fame in the field and not a general
in Europe would have blamed him if he had only succeeded in holding the
territory of Nice and Savoy, which France had already won.
Napoleon's plan of reaching the fair regions of Italy differed from that
of all former conquerors; they had uniformly penetrated the Alps at some
point of access in that mighty range of mountains; he judged that the
same end might be accomplished more easily by advancing along the narrow
strip of comparatively level country that intervenes between those
enormous barriers and the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and forcing a
passage at the point where the last or southern extremity of the Alps
melt, as it were, into the first and lowest of the Appenine range.
No sooner did he begin to concentrate his troops towards this region
than Beaulieu, the Austrian general, took measures for protecting
Genoa and the entrance of Italy with a powerful, disciplined and
well-appointed army. He posted himself with one column at Voltri, a town
on the sea some ten miles west of Genoa; D'Argenteau, with another
column occupied the heights of Montenotte, while the Sardinians, led by
General Colli, formed the right of the line at Ceva. This disposition
was made in compliance with the old system of tactics; but it was
powerless before new strategy. The French could not advance towards
Genoa but by confronting some one of the three armies and these Beaulieu
supposed were too strongly posted to be dislodged.
On the morning of the 12th of April, 1796, when D'Argenteau advanced
from Montenotte to attack the column of Rampon, he found that by
skillful manoeuvres during the night Napoleon had completely surrounded
him--a man who had fancied there was nothing new to be done in warfare.
On the previous day the Austrians had driven in all the outposts of the
French and appeared before the redoubt of Montenotte. This redoubt, the
last of the intrenchments, was defended by 1,500 men commanded by Rampon
who made his soldiers take an oath, during the heat of the attack, to
defend it or perish in the intrenchments, to the last man. The repeated
assaults of the French were without avail, their advancement was checked
and they were kept the whole night at the distance of a pistol shot, 400
men being killed by the fire of their musketry alone.
At daybreak, the following morning, Bonaparte then being at the head of
the French forces, and having introduced two pieces of cannon into the
redoubt during the night, the action was recommenced with great vigor
and with varying success. The contest had continued for sometime, when
Bonaparte, with Berthier and Massena appearing suddenly with the centre
and left wing of the army upon the rear and flank of the enemy, at once
commenced a furious attack, filled them with terror and confusion, and
decided the fate of the day. D'Argenteau, who commanded the rear, had
fought gallantly, but seeing that to continue the battle would only end
in total destruction, he fled, leaving his colors and cannon, a thousand
killed and two thousand prisoners.
Thus was the centre of the great Austrian army completely routed before
either its commander-in-chief at the left, or General Colli at the
right, knew that a battle had begun. It was from this battle, the first
of Napoleon's victories, that the French Emperor told the Emperor of
Austria, some years later, that he dated his nobility. "Ancestors?" said
Napoleon, "I, sir, am an ancestor myself; my title of nobility dates
from Montenotte!"
This victory enabled the French, under La Harpe, to advance to Cairo,
and placed them on that side of the Alps which slopes toward Lombardy.
Beaulieu now fell back on Dego, where he could open his communication
with Colli, who had retreated to Millessimo, a small town about nine
miles from Dego. Here the two commanders hoped to unite their forces.
They were soon strongly posted, and dispatching couriers to Milan for
reinforcements, intended to await their arrival before risking another
battle. It was their object to keep fast in these positions until succor
could come from Lombardy; but Napoleon had no intention of giving them
such a respite; his tactics were not those of other generals.
The morning after the victory of Montenotte Bonaparte dispatched
Augereau to attack Millessimo; Massena to fall on Dego, and La Harpe to
turn the flank of Beaulieu.
Massena carried the heights of Biestro at the point of the bayonet,
while La Harpe dislodged the Austrian general from his position, which
separated him hopelessly from the Sardinian commander and put him to
precipitate flight. By these movements Bonaparte was in such a position,
that, though they had not traversed, his army had at all events scaled
the Alps.
Meanwhile Augereau had seized the outposts of Millessimo and cut off
Provera, with 2,000 Austrians who occupied an eminence upon the mountain
of Cossaria, from the main body of Colli's army. Provera took refuge in
a ruined castle which he defended with great bravery, hoping to receive
assistance from Colli.
The next morning Napoleon, who had arrived in the night, forced Colli to
battle and compelled him to retreat towards Ceva. Provera imitated the
gallant example of Colonel Rampon in his defense, but not with the same
success. He was compelled to surrender his sword to Bonaparte at
discretion, after a loss of 10,000 in killed and prisoners, twenty-two
cannon and fifteen standards. The French found on the summit of the Alps
every species of ammunition and other necessities which the celerity of
their march had prevented them from carrying.
Dego, situated at the summit of the Alps, secured the entrance of the
French into Italy, cut off the communications between the Austrian and
Sardinian armies, and placed the conqueror in a situation to crush them
in succession one after the other. Beaulieu, fully sensible of the
danger of his situation, collected the best troops in his army, and at
break of day on the 15th of April, retook Dego at the head of 7,000 men.
The Austrians stood two attacks headed by Napoleon, but at the third
Causse rushed forward, holding his plumed hat on the point of his sword,
and Dego was soon again in possession of the French. For this piece of
gallantry he immediately received the rank of brigadier-general. Here
also, Lannes, who lived to be a marshal of the Empire, first attracted
the notice of Napoleon, and was promoted from lieutenant-colonel to
colonel. The triumph, however, was purchased with the life of the brave
General Causse. He was carried out of the mêlée mortally wounded.
Napoleon passed near him as he lay. "Is Dego retaken?" asked the dying
officer. "It is ours," replied Napoleon. "Then long live the Republic!"
cried Causse, "I die content."
Hotly pursued by the victors, Colli rallied his fugitives at Mondovi,
where they again yielded to the irrisistible onset of the French, the
Sardinian commander leaving his best troops, baggage and cannon on the
field. The action was a most severe one in which, among others, the
French general, Stengel, a brave and excellent officer, was killed, and
the cavalry would have been overpowered but for the desperate valor of
Murat.
The Sardinians lost ten stands of colors and fifteen hundred prisoners,
among whom were three generals. The Sardinian army had now ceased to
exist, and the Austrians were flying to the frontiers of Lombardy.
Napoleon, following up his advantage, entered Cherasco, a strong place
about ten miles from Turin, as a conqueror. Here he dictated the terms
by which the Sardinian king could still wear a crown. From the castle
where he stood, and looking off on the garden-fields of Lombardy--which
had gladdened the eyes of so many conquerors--with the Alps behind him,
glittering in their perennial snows, Napoleon said to his officers:
"Hannibal forced the Alps--we have turned them." To his soldiers, whom
he addressed in a proclamation, he said: "In fifteen days you have
gained six victories, taken twenty-one stands of colors, fifty-five
pieces of cannon, several fortresses, and conquered the richest part of
Piedmont: you have made 15,000 prisoners, killed or wounded upwards of
10,000 men. Hitherto you have fought for barren rocks, rendered famous
by your valor, but useless to your country. Your services now equal
those of the victorious army of Holland and the Rhine. You have provided
yourselves with everything of which you were destitute. You have gained
battles without cannon! passed rivers without bridges! made forced
marches without shoes! bivouacked without strong liquors and often
without bread! Republican phalanxes, Soldiers of Liberty, only, could
have endured all this. Thanks for your perseverance! If your conquest of
Toulon presaged the immortal campaign of 1793, your present victories
presage a still nobler. But, soldiers, you have done nothing while so
much remains to be done; neither Turin or Milan are yours. The ashes of
the Conquerors of the Tarquins are still trampled by the assassins of
Basseville."
To the Italians Napoleon said: "People of Italy! The French army comes
to break your chains. The people of France are the friends of all
nations--confide in them. Your property, your religion and your customs
shall be respected. We make war with those tyrants alone who enslave
you."
The French soldiers, flushed with victory, were eager to continue their
march, and the people of Italy hailed Napoleon as their deliverer. The
Sardinian king did not long survive the humiliation of the loss of his
crown--he died of a broken heart within a few days after signing the
treaty of Cherasco.
In the meantime the couriers of Napoleon were almost every hour riding
into Paris with the news of his victories, and five times in six days
the Representatives of France had decreed that the Army of Italy
deserved well of their country.
Murat was sent to Paris bearing the news of the capitulation of the king
of Sardinia, and twenty-one stands of colors. His arrival caused great
joy in the capital.
The consummate genius of this brief campaign could not be disputed, and
the modest language of the young general's dispatches to the Directory
lent additional grace to his fame. All the eyes of Europe were fixed in
admiration on his career.
In less than a month's campaign Napoleon laid the gates of Italy open
before him; reduced the Austrians to inaction; utterly destroyed the
Sardinian king's army, and took two great fortresses called "the keys to
the Alps!"
To effect the rapid movements required for such results, everything was
sacrificed that came in the way, not only on this occasion, but on every
other. Baggage, stragglers, the wounded, the artillery--all were left
behind, rather than the column should fail to reach the destined place
at the destined time. Napoleon made no allowance for accidents or
impediments. Things until now reckoned essential to an army were
dispensed with; and, for the first time, troops were seen to take the
field without tents, camp equipage, magazines of provisions, and
military hospitals. Such a system naturally aggravated the horrors of
war. The soldiers were, necessarily, marauders, and committed terrible
excesses at this first stage of the campaign; but every effort was made,
and with much success, to prevent this evil after conquest had put the
means of regular supply within the power of the commander-in-chief. The
wounded were frequently left behind for want of the means of conveyance.
According to one authority, the loss by the disorders inseparable from
this means of war was four times as great as by the fire or the sword of
the enemy.
The army, nevertheless, adored its fortunate general, and it still doted
upon him even when undeceived respecting his providence for it. "To be
able to solve this enigma," says General Foy, "it was requisite to have
known Napoleon, the life of camp and of glory, and, above all, one must
have a French head and heart." With the sufferings of the army, he
never failed to show an active sympathy when it did not tend to the
compromise of his plans. The hours, too, spent by Napoleon on the field
after a battle, endeared him to his followers. He visited the hospitals
in person and made his officers, after his example, take the utmost
interest in this duty. His hand was applied to the wounds; his voice
cheered the sick. All who recovered could relate individual acts of
kindness experienced from him by themselves or their comrades.
It was at this period that a medal of Napoleon was struck at Paris as
conqueror of Montenotte. The face is extremely thin, with long, straight
hair. On the reverse, a figure of Victory is represented flying over the
Alps, bearing a palm branch, a wreath of laurel and a drawn sword. It
was the first of the splendid series designed by Denon to record the
victories and honors of France's great warrior.
Napoleon determined to advance without delay, giving Tuscany, Venice,
and the other Italian States no time to take up a hostile attitude.
After accomplishing so much, a general of less enterprise might have
thought it right to rest awhile and wait for reinforcements before
attempting further conquest, but not so with Napoleon. The French army,
to which recruits were now flocking from every hospital and depot within
reach, was ordered to prepare for instant motion.
It was after one of the successful movements of this period that an old
Hungarian officer was brought prisoner to Bonaparte, who entered into
conversation with him, and among other matters asked what he thought of
the state of the war. "Nothing," replied the prisoner, who did not
know he was addressing the commander-in-chief, "nothing can be worse.
Here is a young man who knows absolutely nothing of the regular rules of
war; to-day he is in our rear, to-morrow on our flank, the next day
again in our front. Such violations of the principles of the art of war
are intolerable sir, and we do not know how to proceed!"
[Illustration: From a Painting by F. Philippoteaux
BONAPARTE AT THE BATTLE OF RIVOLI]
To secure the route to Milan it was necessary to drive the Austrians
from the banks of the Adda, behind which they had retired after a heavy
loss at Fombio. Lannes upon that occasion gave proofs of his astonishing
intrepidity; at the head of a single battalion, he attacked between
seven and eight thousand Austrians, and not content in causing their
flight, he pursued them ten miles, following the trot of their cavalry
on foot.
Having collected an immense quantity of artillery and the main division
of his army at a narrow wooden bridge erected across this stream at the
town of Lodi, General Beaulieu awaited the arrival of the French,
confident of defending the passage of the Adda and arresting their
progress. Beaulieu had placed a battery of thirty cannon so as to
completely sweep every plank of the bridge. Had he removed the
structure, which was about 500 feet in length, when he changed his
headquarters to the east bank of the river, he might have made the
passage much more formidable than even his cannon made it.
Well aware that his conquest would never be consolidated till the
Austrian army was totally vanquished, and deprived of all its Italian
possessions, Bonaparte hastened to pursue the enemy to Lodi. Coming up
on the 10th of May, he easily drove the rear-guard of the Austrian army
before him into the town, but found his further progress threatened by
the tremendous fire of thirty cannon stationed at the opposite end of
the bridge so as to sweep it completely. The whole body of the enemy's
infantry drawn up in a dense line, supported this appalling disposition
of the artillery.
Bonaparte's first care was to place as many guns as he could get in
direct opposition to the Austrian battery. He was determined that no
obstacle should oppose his victorious career, and at once resolved to
pass the bridge.
Exposed to a shower of grape-shot from the enemy's batteries, Napoleon
at last succeeded in planting two pieces of cannon at the head of the
bridge on the French side, and to prevent the enemy from destroying it a
column was immediately formed from the troops that at once appeared,
determined to carry the pass. The French now commenced a fearful
cannonading. Bonaparte himself appeared in the midst of the fire,
pointing with his own hand two guns in such a manner as to cut off the
Austrians from the only path by which they could have advanced to
undermine the bridge.
Observing, meanwhile, that Beaulieu had removed his infantry to a
considerable distance backwards, to keep them out of the range of the
French battery, Napoleon instantly detached General Beaumont and his
cavalry, with orders to gallop out of sight, ford the river, and coming
suddenly upon the enemy, attack them in the rear. When that took place
Napoleon instantly drew up a body of 3,000 grenadiers in close column
under the shelter of the houses, and bade them prepare for the desperate
attempt of forcing a passage across the narrow bridge, in the face of
the enemy's thickly-planted artillery.
A sudden movement in the flanks of the enemy now convinced Napoleon that
his cavalry had arrived and charged the enemy's flank, and he instantly
gave the word. In a moment the brave grenadiers wheeled to the left and
were at once upon the bridge, rushing forward at a charge step, and
shouting: "Vive la République!"; but the storm of grape-shot from the
enemy's guns checked them for a moment. It was a very sepulchre of death
and a burning furnace of destruction pouring out its broadsides of fire
in defense of its position; a hundred brave men fell dead. The advancing
column faltered under the redoubled roar of the guns and the rattle of
grape-shot.
Lannes, Napoleon, Berthier and L'Allemand now hurried to the front,
rallied and cheered the men, and as the column dashed across and over
the dead bodies of the slain which covered the passageway, and in the
face of a tempest of fire that thinned their ranks at every step, the
leaders shouted: "Follow your generals, my brave fellows!"
Lannes was the first to reach the other side, Napoleon himself being
second.
The Austrian artillerymen were bayoneted at their guns before the other
troops, whom Beaulieu had removed too far back in his anxiety to avoid
the French battery, could come to their assistance. Beaumont pressing
gallantly with his horse upon the flank, and Napoleon's infantry forming
rapidly as they passed the bridge, and charging on the instant, the
Austrian line at once became involved in inextricable confusion. The
contest was almost instantly decided; the whole line of Austrian
artillery was carried; their order of battle broken; their troops routed
and put to flight.
The slaughter of Austrians amounted to vast numbers, while the French
lost but 200 men. Thus did Bonaparte execute with such rapidity and
consequently with so little loss "the terrible passage," as he himself
called it, "of the bridge of Lodi." It is justly called one of the most
daring achievements on record.
The victory of Lodi had a great influence on Napoleon's mind. He
declared subsequently that neither his success in quelling the
"Sections," nor his victory at Montenotte, made him regard himself as
anything superior; but that after Lodi, for the first time the idea
dawned upon him that he would one day be "a decisive actor," as he
himself put it, on the stage of the military and political world. That
he was a fatalist is well-known, it being a frequent expression with him
that "every bullet is marked."
On this occasion the soldiers conferred on him the nick-name of "Little
Corporal." The original cause of the appellation, as applied to
Bonaparte, has been related by Napoleon himself. He says that when he
commanded near the Col di Tende the army was obliged to traverse a
narrow bridge, on which occasion he gave directions that no women should
be allowed to accompany it, as the service was particularly difficult,
and required that the troops should be continually on the alert; to
enforce such an order he placed two captains on the bridge with
instructions, on pain of death, not to permit a woman to pass. He
subsequently repaired to the bridge himself, for the purpose of
ascertaining whether his orders were being scrupulously obeyed, when he
found a crowd of women assembled, who, as soon as they saw him, began to
revile him, exclaiming: "Oh, then, _petit corporal_, it is you who have
given orders not to let us pass!"
Some miles in advance Napoleon was surprised to see a considerable
number of women with the troops. He immediately ordered the two captains
to be put under arrest and brought before him, intending to have them
tried immediately. They protested their innocence, asserting that no
women had crossed the bridge. Bonaparte caused some of the females to be
brought before him, and learned with astonishment, from their own
confession, that they had emptied some casks of provisions and concealed
themselves therein, by which means they had passed over unperceived.
After every battle the oldest soldiers convened a council in order to
confer a new rank on their young general, who, on making his appearance,
was saluted by his latest title. Bonaparte, therefore, was nominated
_corporal_ at Lodi, and _sergeant_ at Castiglione. It was "Little
Corporal," however, that the soldiery constantly applied to him ever
afterwards.
The fruits of this splendid victory at Lodi were twenty pieces of
cannon, and between two and three thousand killed, wounded and
prisoners, and the loss by the enemy of an excellent line of defense.
When Europe heard of the battle they named the conqueror "The Hero of
Lodi."
Beaulieu contrived to withdraw a part of his troops, and gathering the
scattered fragment of his force together, soon threw the line of the
Mincio, a tributary of the Po, between himself and his enemy. The great
object, however, he had attained,--he was still free to defend Mantua.
The French following up their advantages at Lodi, pursued the Austrians
with great celerity. They advanced to Pizzighitone, which immediately
surrendered. Pushing on to Cremona they met with like success, and the
vanguard, having taken the route to Milan, entered this city on the 14th
of May, having on their march received the submission of Pavia, where
they found most of the magazines of the Austrian army. The tri-colored
flag now waved in triumph from the extremity of the Lake of Como and the
frontiers of the country to the gates of Parma.
The Austrians having evacuated Milan, when the French prepared to enter
it, a deputation of the inhabitants laid the keys of its gates at their
feet. A few days later, although the archduke had fled from his capital,
overwhelmed with sorrow and mortification, the people collected in vast
multitudes to witness the entry of the French, whom they hailed as their
deliverers. The imperial arms were taken down from the public buildings
and at the ducal palace this humorous advertisement was posted up:
"A HOUSE TO RENT.
Inquire for the keys at
CITIZEN SALICETTI'S,
The French Commissioner."
The entry of Bonaparte into Milan under a triumphal arch and surrounded
by the grenadiers of Lodi, among whom some generals were conspicuous,
was eminently brilliant. The splendid carriages of the nobility and
aristocracy of the capital went out to meet and salute him as the
"Deliverer of Italy," and returned in an immense cavalcade, amidst the
shouts and acclamations of an innumerable multitude, and accompanied by
several bands playing patriotic marches, the procession stopping at the
palace of the archduke, where Bonaparte was to take up his headquarters.
The ceremonies of the day were concluded by a splendid ball at which the
ladies showed their Republican feeling by wearing the French national
colors in every part of their dress. On the same day Bonaparte entered
Milan the treaty with the king of Sardinia and the Directory was signed
at Paris.
Napoleon now addressed himself again to his soldiers, reminding them of
their victories and responsibilities yet to come. "To you, soldiers," he
said, "will belong the immortal honor of redeeming the fairest portion
of Europe. The French people, free and respected by the whole world,
shall give to Europe a glorious peace, which shall indemnify it for all
the sacrifices it has borne the last six years. Then by your own
firesides you shall repose, and your fellow-citizens, when they point
out any one of you, shall say: 'HE BELONGED TO THE ARMY OF ITALY!'"
From that period the Army of Italy was no longer a tax upon France, but
on the contrary was a great source of revenue to her, and assisted in
paying her other armies. Six weeks after the opening of the campaign,
independent of ten million of francs placed at the disposal of the
Directory, Bonaparte sent upwards of two hundred thousand francs to the
Army of the Alps, and a million to the Army of the Rhine, thereby paving
the way to his future greatness.
Bonaparte remained but six days in Milan; he then proceeded to pursue
Beaulieu, who had planted the remains of his army behind the Mincio. The
Austrian general had placed his left on the great and strong city of
Mantua, which had been termed "the citadel of Italy," and his right at
Peschiera, a well-known Venetian fortress. The Austrian veteran occupied
one of the strongest positions that it is possible to imagine, and
Bonaparte hastened once more to dislodge him.
The French Directory, meanwhile, had begun to entertain suspicion as to
the ultimate designs of their young general, whose success and rising
fame had already reached so astonishing a height. That they were
exceedingly jealous of him there seems to be no doubt, and they
determined to check, if they could, the career of a man of whom they
seemed to be in fear. Bonaparte was therefore ordered to take half his
army and lead it against the pope and the king of Naples, and leave the
other half to terminate the conquest with Beaulieu at Mantua, under the
orders of Kellerman. He answered by offering to resign his command. "One
half of the Army of Italy cannot suffice to finish the matter with the
Austrians," said he. "It is only by keeping my force entire that I have
been able to gain so many battles and to be now in Milan. You had better
have one bad general than two good ones!"
The Directory did not dare to persist in displacing the chief whose name
was considered as the pledge of victory, and he continued to assume the
entire command of the Army of Italy.
Another unlooked-for occurrence delayed for a few days the march upon
Mantua. The success of the French and their exactions where victorious,
had fostered the ire of a portion of the populace throughout Lombardy.
Reports of new Austrian levies being poured down the passes of Tyrol
were spread and believed. Insurrections against the conqueror now took
place in various districts, placing thirty thousand men in arms. At
Pavia the insurgents were entirely triumphant; they seized the town and
compelled the French garrison to surrender. This flame, had it been
suffered to spread, threatened immeasurable evil to the French cause.
Lannes instantly marched to Binasco, stormed the place, burnt it and put
many of the insurgents to the sword. Napoleon appeared before Pavia,
blew the gates open, took possession and later caused the leaders to be
executed. At Lugo, where another insurrection took place, the leaders
were tried by court martial and condemned.
These examples quelled the insurrectionists, and the French advanced on
the Mincio. Bonaparte made such disposition of his troops that Beaulieu
believed he meant to cross that river, if he could, at Peschiera.
Meanwhile the French had been preparing to cross at another point, and
on the 30th of May actually forced the passage of the Mincio, not at
Peschiera, but further down at Borghetto. The Austrian garrison at this
point in vain destroyed one arch of the bridge. Bonaparte quickly
supplied the breach with planks, and his men, flushed with so many
victories, charged with a fury not to be resisted. While the French were
laboring to repair the bridge, under the fire of the enemy's batteries,
impatient of delay, fifty grenadiers threw themselves into the river,
holding their muskets over their heads with the water up to their chins,
General Gardanne, a grenadier in courage as well as in stature, being at
their head. The Austrians who were nearest, recollecting the terrible
column at Lodi, fled. When the bridge was repaired the French entered
Vallegio, where Beaulieu's headquarters had been stationed a short time
previous. The latter was obliged to abandon the Mincio as he had the
Adda and the Po, and to take up the new line of the Adige.
The left line of the Austrian force, learning from the cannonade that
the French were at Borghetto, hastened to ascend the Mincio with a view
of assisting in the defense of the division engaged with the enemy. They
arrived too late, however, to be of assistance, as the commander at
Borghetto had retreated before they arrived. They came, however,
unexpectedly, and at a moment when Bonaparte and a few friends,
believing the work of the day to be over and the village safe from the
enemy, were about to sit down to dinner, as they thought, in security.
Sebetendorff, who commanded the division, came up rapidly into the
village, but with no idea what a prize was within his grasp. Bonaparte's
attendants had barely time to shut the gates of the inn, and alarm their
chief by the cry, "To arms!" They defended the house with obstinate
courage while Bonaparte threw himself on horseback and galloping out by
a back passage, effected the narrowest of escapes, proceeding at full
speed to join Massena's forces.
It was shortly after this that Bonaparte met with an experience that
gave him the idea of the "Imperial Guard of Napoleon" and which
throughout his military career he ever afterwards maintained as a
personal guard. It was the duty of this body, consisting of veterans who
should number at least ten years of active service, to remain always
near the person of the commander-in-chief, and who were only brought
into action when important movements or desperate emergencies required
their utmost energies. They were placed under the command of Bessieres
at this time, and were known as "Le Corps de Guides."
During the same campaign Bonaparte again narrowly escaped being taken a
prisoner. Wurmser, who had been compelled to throw himself into Mantua,
having suddenly debouched on an open plain, learned from an old woman
that not many minutes before the French general, with only a few
followers, had stopped at her door and fled at the sight of the
Austrians. Wurmser immediately dispatched parties of cavalry in all
directions to whom he gave orders that if they came up with Napoleon he
should not be killed or harmed; fortunately, however, for the French
commander, destiny and the swiftness of his horse saved him.
In their different engagements, the grenadiers had learned to laugh and
sport at death; they despised the Austrian cavalry and nothing could
equal their intrepidity but the gaiety with which they performed their
forced marches, singing alternately songs in praise of their country and
of love. Instead of sleeping they amused themselves during most of the
night, each telling a tale, or forming his own plans of operation for
the following day.
Sebetendorff was soon assaulted by a French column and retreated, after
Beaulieu's example, on the line of the Adige. The Austrian commander
had, in effect, abandoned for a time the open country of Italy. He now
lay on the frontier, between the vast tract of rich province, which
Napoleon had conquered, and the Tyrol. Mantua, which possessed immense
natural advantages, and into which the retreating general had flung a
garrison of full fourteen thousand men, was, in truth, the last and only
Italian possession of the imperial crown, which, as it seemed, there
might be a possibility of saving.
Beaulieu anxiously awaited the approach of new troops from Germany, to
attempt the relief of this great city; and Bonaparte, eager to
anticipate the efforts of the imperial government, sat down immediately
before it.
Mantua lies on an island, being cut off on all sides from the main land
by the branches of the Mincio, and approachable only by five narrow
causeways of which three were now defended by strong and regular
fortresses or intrenched camps; the other two by gates, drawbridge and
batteries. The garrison was prepared to maintain the position, was
well-nigh impregnable and the occupants awaited the hour to discover
whether Napoleon possessed any new system of attack capable of
shortening the usual operations of a siege as effectually as he had
already done by the march and the battle.
It was a matter of high importance that Napoleon should reduce this
place quickly, for a large army under Field-Marshal Wurmser, one of the
most able and experienced of the Austrian generals, was about to enter
Italy. His commencement gave cause for much alarm to those within the
fortress. Of the five causeways, by sudden and overwhelming assaults, he
obtained four; the garrison was cut off from the main land except at the
fifth causeway, the strongest of them all, named from a palace near it,
"La Favorita." It seemed necessary, however, in order that this blockade
might be complete, that the Venetian territory, lying immediately behind
Mantua, should be occupied by the French, and the claim of neutrality
was not allowed to interfere with Napoleon's plans.
"You are too weak," said Bonaparte, when a Venetian envoy reached his
headquarters, "to enforce neutrality on hostile nations such as France
and Austria. Beaulieu did not respect your territory when his interest
bade him violate it; nor shall I hesitate to occupy whatever falls
within the line of the Adige."
Garrisons were placed forthwith in Verona and all the strong places of
that domain. Napoleon now returned to Milan to transact important
business, leaving Serrurier and Vaubois to blockade Mantua.
The king of Naples, utterly confounded by the success of the French, was
now anxious to secure peace on whatever terms proposed, and Bonaparte,
knowing that it would result in a withdrawal of some valuable divisions
from the army of Beaulieu, arranged an armistice which was soon followed
by a formal peace, and the Neapolitan troops, abandoning the Austrian
general, began their march to the south of Italy. This was followed by
peace arrangements with the Pope of whom Napoleon demanded, and
obtained, as a price of the brief respite from invasion, a million
sterling, one hundred of the finest pictures and statues in the papal
gallery, a large supply of military stores and the cession of Ancona,
Ferrara and Bologna, with their respective domains. The siege of the
citadel of Milan, rigorously pressed, was at length successful. The
garrison capitulated on the 29th of June, and by the 18th of July, one
hundred and forty pieces of cannon were before Mantua.