Military Career of Napoleon the Great

As the closing chapters of this volume were being written, a "Napoleonic wave" seemed to be passing over the country, an echo, no doubt, of the furore which Napoleon's name has excited in France during the past three years. One writer wittily says:

"Where'er I turn, I'm forced to learn, Some detail of his life, I read about his sword and hats, And how he beat his wife."

It seems but fair, therefore, for the author of this volume to declare that the revival of interest in the career of the man who for fifteen years had been the glory of France, has in no way caused the hasty writing, or publication, of this anecdotal military history. It is the result of years of study, and represents, not only a careful reading of those authorities which all must have access to who would write intelligently of the subject, but also of the more recent volumes which have appeared from time to time, each having something new to reveal concerning the seemingly inexhaustible fund of information pertaining to this son of a poor Corsican gentleman, who as his greatest biographer has said of him, "played in the world the parts of Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar and Charlemagne."

There has never been a time, during the last fifty years at least, when the public was not eager to learn something new concerning the wonderful career of the man who once held all Europe prisoner in the folds of the French flag. The world regards Napoleon Bonaparte as a military genius at least, whatever it may think of the political or social side of his life, and its relation to France. The writer does not believe that they are inseparably connected, and in offering this work it is his desire to better acquaint the admirers, as well as the enemies of the "Little Corporal," with his military career, not technically, but to picture him as his marshals, generals and soldiers knew him on the battlefield and around the campfire.

Many of these famous marshals and generals, who shared day by day all the glories and perils of their chief, and who vied with him in their activity and daring, have lately given to the world their "Memoirs," published many years after their death, for obvious reasons. From them one gets a much clearer insight into the true characteristics of their heroic leader. Being men of slight education their writings are confined largely to the gossip of the campaigns in which they were active participants, and in reading them one is often tempted to believe that Napoleon was in command of both belligerent armies, so accurately did this giant among warriors forecast the movements of the enemy on the battlefield; and after victory had favored his bold strokes, finding himself in a position to reshape, at will, the map of Europe; for he conducted his campaigns with a degree of skill which, it is conceded by all military authorities, has never been excelled.

No man ever understood how to excite emulation, by distributing praise or blame, as did Napoleon. Chaboulon well says that the ascendancy possessed by the Emperor over the minds and courage of the soldiery was truly incomprehensible. A word, a gesture, was sufficient to inspire them with enthusiasm, and make them face the most terrible ordeals. If ordered to rush to a point, although the extreme danger of the manoeuvre might at first strike the good sense of the soldiers, they immediately reflected that their general would not have issued such a command without a motive, or have exposed them wantonly. "He knows what he is about," they would say, and immediately rush on to death, uttering shouts of "Long live the Emperor!"

No attempt is here made to give a history of France from the time Bonaparte first made his entrance into the drama of which he was so soon to be the leading actor. The successive periods of the Revolution, the Directory, the Consulate and the Empire are only introduced when found necessary to explain the rapidly advancing steps of this wonderful character in history, the worshiped idol of an entire nation, that his military career may be the better understood; hence it has been thought advisable to refer briefly, at times, to the relations of France with other countries, and the cause of his spending, during the ten years of his reign as Emperor, exactly fifty-four days less in camp, and under the enemy's fire, so to speak, than he did in his royal residences!