A Journal for Western Man-- Issue IV
Part VII
G. Stolyarov II
"Sailing from Elba on February 26, 1815, with 1050 soldiers, Napoleon landed in southern France." (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 309). Near Grenoble, he encountered the first force sent by the royalists to intercept him. Confronting a contingent that could easily blow his humble escort apart, he strode toward the enemy ranks and declared, "Those of you who wish to fire at their Emperor may do so." No one did. Instead, the troops ran toward their leader, embraced him, and wept for their mistakes. City by city, province by province, France fell to Napoleon as people everywhere he went hailed him as a liberator. Prior to fleeing France, Louis XVIII managed to obtain a promise from Marshal Ney to return Napoleon to him "in a steel cage." However, upon receiving a friendly note from the Emperor, Ney declared, "The era of the Bourbons had come to an end. The rightful dynasty ascends to the throne." Thus began the period known as the "Hundred Days," during which France had demonstrated an enormous outpouring of support for its liberator. The army was reorganized in mere months, consisting of two hundred thousand volunteers from Napoleon's old veterans along with new contingents from Switzerland and Italy. However, Napoleon desired peace more than anything else. He realized that time was necessary for his nation to recover from the chaos that infected it following the reign of Louis XVIII. Unfortunately, the Coalition refused to negotiate and fielded its many mighty armies against France. In order to prevent a repeat of the 1814 Campaign, the Emperor resolved to take the offensive once more. On June 12, 1815, the Arm�e du Nord crossed the border into Belgium with the aim to fulfill Napoleon's classic strategy, "Divide and Conquer" and separate the British army, led by Wellington, from the Prussian forces of Marshal Gebhard von Blucher, a fanatical royalist. Napoleon decimated the Prussians at the Battle of Ligny on June 16, during which Blucher was knocked from his horse and temporarily excluded from the line of duty. His second-in-command favored a retreat toward the town of Wavre to the north. Unfortunately, Napoleon did not take sufficient advantage of this enemy weakness and ordered a cavalry pursuit too late for it to affect the bulk of the enemy forces. Leaving Grouchy to monitor the Prussians, the Emperor rushed to the aid of Ney, who had barely managed to force Wellington back from a vital crossroads. The British fell back. Nevertheless, Wellington halted the retreat near the settlement of Mont-Saint-Jean, the landscape around which he had become quite familiar with. On June 17 heavy rains struck the area, and the military operations experienced a delay. The next day the land had not dried sufficiently, which crippled the efficiency of the French cannon (cannonballs during that era were not explosive and reached the enemy by repelling themselves off the ground, an action impossible if the moisture trapped them). In addition to that, Napoleon experienced an outbreak of his chronic malaria which hindered his ability to direct his troops. Grouchy, the calculated and cautious marshal, was fighting successfully at Wavre against Thielmann's corps of Prussian decoys, thus unable to attend the battle of Waterloo. A majority of the decisions on the field would thus be made by the daring but rash and impulsive Marshal Ney. Through tactics that placed French lives on the line (such as a massive cavalry charge unsupported by infantry or artillery), Ney augmented the poor situation of the Armee du Nord, which also suffered from epidemics of cholera and smallpox. Nevertheless, Wellington found it difficult to repel French attacks and was forced to withdraw to his initial positions by the middle of the day. Napoleon would have triumphed at Waterloo if not for the arrival of the Prussians on the battlefield while Grouchy was preoccupied and could not assist the Emperor. A massive Prussian assault broke through the right wing of the French army, and even a charge of the Imperial Guard could not thwart the onslaught. The soldiers now had within their minds one goal: to form a square around their Emperor and thus allow him to safely escape the carnage. Thus they did, and Napoleon fled the battlefield to Paris. At that time, the Allied forces had pressed into France from all directions and, not wishing to witness any more destruction of the land he loved, Napoleon abdicated the throne a second time. "Napoleon at first hoped to reach America; however he surrendered to the commander of the British blockade at Rochefort on July 3, hoping to obtain asylum in England. Instead, he was sent into exile on the island of St. Helena. There, he spent his remaining years quarreling with the British governor, Sir Hudson Lowe, and dictating his memoirs. He died on St. Helena, after long suffering from cancer, on May 5, 1821." (Encyclopedia of World Biography, 309). "Napoleon died of unknown causes. Some say that he was poisoned by the British. Others say that he was sick or died of cancer." ("A Paper on Napoleon." Norfolk Academy, VA, 5). In 1840 his corpse was relocated from St. Helena to an elaborate tomb at the Maison des Invalides in Paris, where thousands of tourists yearly still visit to pay their respects to the greatest military leader of all time.
But was he truly dead? Even when the shining star dims, its light continues to reach our eyes for ages to come. Napoleon's promises of a meritocratic order sparked further revolutions, including the July Revolution of 1830 and the chain of revolts in 1848, during one of which the nephew of the great leader, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte III, finalized the overthrow of the Ancien Regime and restored the French Empire. Slavery was soon wiped off the face of Europe, and Napoleon's reforms, including the Code Napoleon, the metric system, and driving on the right side of the road, became instituted in many nations. "Alexis de Tocquerville wrote that Napoleon 'fell, but what was really substantial in his work lasted; his government died, but his administration continued to live...'" (Holmberg, 5). "As a result of the Napoleonic conquests, the Code Napoleon was introduced into a number of European countries, notably Belgium, where it is still in force. It also became the model for the civil codes of Quebec Province, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, some Latin American republics, and the state of Louisiana." (Encarta Encyclopedia. Code Napoleon [http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?z=1&pg=2&ti=063E8000]). The SI and driving on the right side of the road are applied worldwide today. Freedom of religion and the abolition of slavery would not have occurred anywhere beyond the United States without a strong leader to materialize and enforce them. Furthermore, without Napoleon, meritocratic ideals, a relatively unpopular concept during his time, would not have acted to transform society into a more just institution. Napoleon sparked nationalist movements in Poland, Italy, Egypt, and Germany directly and encouraged independence movements Ireland and South Africa. (Internal Achievements of Napoleon [http://www.csi.cc.id.us/Support/itc/102/tsld025.htm]). The plight of these peoples became significant when a strong, privileged leader demonstrated his support out of good will and conscience. Today their wishes of liberty and meritocracy are evident, for they have all become independent nations.
Napoleon touched on numerous other fields of knowledge. For example, had French forces not attempted to liberate Egypt, the Rosetta Stone would not have been discovered and archaeologists would not have been able to utilize it for the purpose of decoding Egyptian hieroglyphics. However, due to Napoleon's love of the sciences, this discovery opened to us a rich new field of study, Egyptology, which permitted human beings to solve a plethora of mysteries about the ancient world. Napoleon himself contributed to the world's supply of knowledge through his own writings. During his life he wrote and published numerous essays, literary critiques, stories, dialogues, pamphlets, and, most notably, his Memoirs, which gave posterity valuable insight into the life of this genius and the lessons that it had to teach humankind. Tens of thousands of books had also been published about Napoleon, his political influence, and his military tactics. Outstanding commanders, such as Ulysses S. Grant, Winfield Scott, and Robert E. Lee earned their expertise from studying Napoleonic warfare. The Emperor of the French altered the social and military paradigms of his day and established an entirely new order that the Revolution could not have accomplished without him. "Had the Bourbons come back to power in 1799 instead of Napoleon, they would at that time have had less trouble 'turning back the clock to the ancient regime than they had in 1814." (Holmberg, 2). Even more importantly, Napoleon initiated the era of Imperialist Revival through his conquests and desire to help less fortunate peoples. The Victorian age was now possible as a result of his deeds, since other nations had a precedent on which they would rely to spread their influence and Western culture to disadvantaged tribes all across the world. And without the Victorian age, there would not have been an Industrial Revolution to assist Europe�s overseas ambitions. Thus, it is evident that Napoleon contributed immensely to the political, ideological, scientific, and technological progress of humankind.
He left us with numerous ideas that caused us to re-examine our values and become more tolerant and courteous toward fellow human beings. "It is the success which makes great men," Napoleon stated, rejecting the old hierarchy of birth and status. "High politic is only common sense applied to great things," he explained, justifying the theses of Paine and Voltaire concerning a universal sense of right present among all peoples and necessary for progress. "Imagination governs the world," he wisely declared, noting how people's inner capacities affect their performance to a greater degree than does their environment. "The heart of a statesman must be in his head," he emphasized the importance of rational thought over impulse and emotion. "Public morals are natural complement of all laws; they are by themselves an entire code," he supported the ideals of courtesy, respect and tolerance. To end this exploration, here is a quote that justifies itself: "Even when I am gone, I shall remain in people's minds the star of their rights, my name will be the war cry of their efforts, the motto of their hopes."