Napoleon's first military exploit was in the civil war of his native
island. In the year 1793, he was despatched from Bastia, in possession
of the French party, to surprise his native town Ajaccio, then occupied
by Paoli or his adherents. Bonaparte was acting provisionally, as
commanding a battalion of National Guards. He landed in the Gulf of
Ajaccio with about fifty men, to take possession of a tower called the
Torre di Capitello, on the opposite side of the gulf, and almost facing
the city. He succeeded in taking the place; but as there arose a gale of
wind which prevented his communicating with the frigate which had put
him ashore, he was besieged in his new conquest by the opposite faction,
and reduced to such distress, that he and his little garrison were
obliged to feed on horse-flesh. After five days he was relieved by the
frigate, and evacuated the tower, having first in vain attempted to blow
it up. The Torre di Capitello still shows marks of the damage it then
sustained, and its remains may be looked on as a curiosity, as the first
scene of _his_ combats, before whom
--"Temple and tower
Went to the ground.--"
A relation of Napoleon, Masserio by name, effectually defended Ajaccio
against the force employed in the expedition.
The strength of Paoli increasing, and the English preparing to assist
him, Corsica became no longer a safe or convenient residence for the
Bonaparte family. Indeed, both Napoleon and his brother Lucien, who had
distinguished themselves as partisans of the French, were subjected to a
decree of banishment from their native island; and Madame Bonaparte,
with her three daughters, and Jerome, who was as yet but a child, set
sail under their protection, and settled for a time, first at Nice, and
afterwards at Marseilles, where the family is supposed to have undergone
considerable distress, until the dawning prospects of Napoleon afforded
him the means of assisting them.
Napoleon never again revisited Corsica, nor does he appear to have
regarded it with any feelings of affection. One small fountain at
Ajaccio is pointed out as the only ornament which his bounty bestowed on
his birthplace. He might perhaps think it impolitic to do any thing
which might remind the country he ruled that he was not a child of her
soil, nay, was in fact very near having been born an alien, for Corsica
was not united to, or made an integral part of France, until June, 1769,
a few weeks only before Napoleon's birth. This stigma was repeatedly
cast upon him by his opponents, some of whom reproached the French with
having adopted a master, from a country from which the ancient Romans
were unwilling even to choose a slave; and Napoleon may have been so far
sensible to it, as to avoid showing any predilection to the place of his
birth, which might bring the circumstance strongly under the observation
of the great nation, with which he and his family seemed to be
indissolubly united. But, as a traveller already quoted, and who had the
best opportunities to become acquainted with the feelings of the proud
islanders, has expressed it,--"The Corsicans are still highly patriotic,
and possess strong local attachment--in their opinion, contempt for the
country of one's birth is never to be redeemed by any other qualities.
Napoleon, therefore, certainly was not popular in Corsica, nor is his
memory cherished there."[7]
[7] Benson's "Sketches of Corsica," p. 121.
The feelings of the parties were not unnatural on either side. Napoleon,
little interested in the land of his birth, and having such an immense
stake in that of his adoption, in which he had every thing to keep and
lose,[8] observed a policy towards Corsica which his position rendered
advisable; and who can blame the high-spirited islanders, who, seeing
one of their countrymen raised to such exalted eminence, and disposed to
forget his connexion with them, returned with slight and indifference
the disregard with which he treated them?
[8] Not literally, however: for it is worth mentioning, that
when he was in full-blown possession of his power, an
inheritance fell to the family, situated near Ajaccio, and was
divided amongst them. The first consul, or emperor, received an
olive-garden as his share.--_Sketches of Corsica_.
The siege of Toulon was the first incident of importance which enabled
Bonaparte to distinguish himself in the eyes of the French government
and of the world at large. Shortly afterwards he was appointed chief of
battalion in the army of Italy, and on the fall of Robespierre,
Bonaparte superseded in command. At the conflict between the troops of
the Convention under Napoleon, and those of the Sections of Paris under
Damican, the latter was defeated with much slaughter, and Bonaparte was
appointed general-in-chief in command of the army of the interior.