Napoleon, session i, Ambition

Napoleon
session i
Ambition

Saturday, February 5, 2011

It was only on the evening of [the battle of]
Lodi [1796] that I believed myself a superior
man, and that the ambition came to me of
executing the great things which so far had
been occupying my thoughts only as a
fantastic dream
--Napoleon


major topics for this session

! Corsica

! Toulon
! 13 Vendémiaire
! Armée de l’Italie

! Egypt
! 18 Brumaire


Corsica


Napoleon’s origins

The Emperor of the French, Napoleon, was born to Italian parents of the
minor nobility. His ancestors had lived on the island of Corsica for several
generations. Corsica was ruled by the Republic of Genoa, one of the major
states of the Italian peninsula. Napoleone di Buonaparte would speak Italian
for his ﬁrst nine years. He would remain a Corsican nationalist until his
twenties. His earliest political thoughts were shaped by the events in
Corsica during his childhood, during the Age of the Democratic
Revolution. Before the French Revolution there was a Corsican
Revolution.


France

Republic
of
Genoa

Corsica
Western Mediterranean


The history of Corsica has been influenced by its strategic position at the heart of the
western [part of the] Mediterranean [Sea] and its maritime routes, only 7 miles from
Sardinia, 30 miles from the Isle of Elba, 50 miles from the coast of Tuscany and 120 miles
from the French port of Nice. This was first proposed by the 19th-century German theorist,
Friedrich Ratzel, the father of geopolitics. To him is often attributed the description
"mountain in the sea"….the idea is expressed in his magnum opus, Anthropogeographie,
which calls Corsica
An isolated and singular land, both island and mountain .…

The "sea" part of the proverb refers to the easy accessibility by great powers to Corsica
across the narrow waters from neighboring lands. Once they arrive the "mountain" provides
a wall of defense against which invaders can make no easy headway. A central spine
running north-south right along its length, which makes travel from (and communication
between) one side to the other difficult, isolates Corsicans even from themselves. This spine
and strategic position go some way to explaining the island's unique history.

Wikipedia, Corsica


Sardinia


CORTE

AJACCIO


Nationalism versus Patriotism

! nationalism is a 19th century “ism,” an ideology, which gained great currency
with the movements to unify Italy and Germany

! patriotism, on the other hand, is an earlier term appropriate to describe love of
one’s native land, birthplace (patria, Lat., from pater, father)

! the phrase “church spire patriotism” is used to connote the narrowest sort of
local loyalty; village patriotism. During the middle ages many people never
travelled more than 10-12 miles from birth to death!

! in general, people in the more rural parts of Europe tended towards village
and clan loyalties. Such a place was Corsica

! its mountains increased the gap between highlanders and the more modern
dwellers in the seaports

! still, most 18th century Corsicans resented rule by the Italian mainland
Republic of Genoa and felt Corsican patriotism


Pasquale Paoli, “father of Corsica”
the island’s ﬁrst international celebrity

Monument to the 18th c. patriot


Pasquale Paoli, “father of Corsica”
the island’s first international celebrity

! 1729-rebellions against Genoa begin

! the distant overlord didn’t protect Corsicans from
the Barbary pirates or their own vendettas

! other complaints were oppressive taxes and
economic depression

! 1741-this 18th c. Enlightenment figure
received a classical education and, at 16,
military experience in the War of the
Austrian Succession

! 1751-at 26, returning to Corsica, he is
elected by the highland clans to lead the
Pascal Paoli
revolution 1725-1807

! 1755-at 30, he writes the first constitution
of the Age of the Democratic Revolution


Corte
capital of the
Republic


Corte
Citadelle
capital of the
di
Republic
Corte


Paoli’s political career
! 1750s-60s--Genoa made several attempts to bring the
rebellion to an end. They could control the seaports but
the Corsicans in the mountainous interior deﬁed them

! 1765-the Genoese opened secret talks with France to give
them Corsica in payment of debts

! 1768-the French announced their sovereignty. Paoli
fought a guerilla war from the mountains but in 1769 he
was defeated by vastly superior forces. Corsica ofﬁcially
became a French province in 1770. Paoli took refuge in
England where he was welcomed by liberals.

a graphic novel from 2008




Paoli
Burke
Johnson Sheridan
Boswell

The Club



Paoli
Burke
Sheridan
! 1790-when the French National Assembly invited all
exiles to return, Paoli gladly came home

! 1793-the execution of Louis XVI inﬂuenced him to break
with the increasingly radical Jacobins

! 1794-he formally seceded from France and invited the
British navy to back an Anglo-Corsican kingdom

! 1795-went into a second exile in England


Corsica

Ajaccio


origins

! born Napoleone Buonaparte, the son of a
self-impoverished Corsican count

! the second surviving son of the eight
children of Carlo and Maria Letizia
Ramolino Buonaparte
The house in which Napoleon was born, 15 August
! he was born the year after the Genoese 1769, in Ajaccio, on the west coast of Corsica. It
gave the island to France has been a museum since 1923.


NAPOLEON
EST NE DANS CETTE MAISON
IS BORN IN THIS HOUSE
LE THE 15 AUGUST 1769
XV AOVT M•DCC•LXIX


NAPOLEON
EST NE DANS CETTE MAISON
IS BORN IN THIS HOUSE
The LE THE 15 AUGUSTCasa Buonaparte where
room M•DCC•LXIX
XV AOVT in 1769

tradition claims Napoleon was born

! 1764-Napoleon’s father Carlo dropped out of law school at
the University of Pisa to marry Maria Letizia Ramolino

! He was seventeen, she fourteen. He next worked as
secretary and personal assistant to Paoli

! 1766-68-Paoli sent him to Rome to negotiate with Pope
Clement XIII

! 1769-70-returned to Corsica. The family, including the
infant Napoleon, took to the mountains (living in a cave!)
during the guerilla warfare against the French

! 1770-78-Carlo made his peace with the new masters. He
served in various capacities in Ajaccio and became
Corsica’s representative to the court of Louis XVI

Carlo Maria Buonaparte ! 1785-an inveterate gambler, he blew through several
1746 – 1785 fortunes. At his death he left Letizia penniless with eight
children


=

1746-1785 1750-1836

Napoleon was the fourth child and third son of Attorney Carlo Maria di
Buonaparte, age 23, and his wife, Maria Letizia Ramolino, who would
turn 19 a few days later. Both father and mother were of Italian descent
and members of the island’s minor nobility.
Here are the eight children who survived to adulthood:

Joseph Napoleon Lucien Elisa Louis Pauline Caroline Jerome
1768-1844 1769-1821 1775-1840 1777-1820 1778-1846 1780-1825 1782-1839 1784-1860


Military School at Brienne
May 1779-October 1784
aged nine to ﬁfteen

! after a brief French language cram school
the nine-year-old Napoleone entered one of
the newly established military prep schools
for the lesser nobility

above the gate,
ANCIEN ECOLE MILITAIRE
(FORMER MILITARY SCHOOL)




! stories are told of how the other students
mocked his Corsican accent





! the young tactician organized a snow ball
ﬁght where the younger students defeated
the elder





! the young tactician organized a snow ball
ﬁght where the younger students defeated
the elder

! his studies were successful enough to earn
him a place at the prestigious national
military academy


The image of the child Napoleon as an asocial loner, picked on by his
fellow students, who displayed a strong desire for liberty, and who already
displayed martial virtues--including stoicism and selflessness--is, in some
respects, a political image that needs, accordingly, to be treated with a
certain amount of scepticism. If not Bonaparte, then others were
fabricating the image of an outsider….It fits the classical mould of the
hero: alienated from his surroundings because misunderstood, he finds
inner strength to continue on his path towards greatness.

Philip Dwyer, Napoleon; The Path to Power, pp. 30-31


École Militaire du Paris
October 1784-September 1785
aged fifteen to sixteen

! “...continued his studies of mathematics, geography and history and added to his attainments a
fair knowledge of German, dancing, fencing and fortification

! spring 1785-”...his father died….this placed a great strain on the already stretched family
finances….Napoleon stayed on in Paris under conditions of real poverty. He read much and ate
little and gradually acquired that lean and hungry look which stares out of a dozen portraits
painted in the early years of his fame.

! he was allowed to finish the two-year course in one year, graduated 42nd and was
commissioned a sous-lieutenant of artillery in the régiment de la Fère at Valence
quoted material from Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. 1966, p. 8


At the Artillery School
June 1788-June 1791
aged 19 to 22

! with only $7 a month after deductions for board and lodging,
Bonaparte still send aid to his mother and family

! “...the most formative ﬁfteen months of his military career….
the best artillery training school in France, under the
command of the experienced Baron du Teil

! “Under the paternal supervision of the old soldier,
di Buonaparte’s studies took on new meaning and depth; ...
36 manuscript notebooks in his precise handwriting have
survived from this period

! “Also proceeding apace at this time was his gradual
acclimatization to France as a whole and to French service life
in particular….he was slowly losing the bitterness against all
things French learned at Brienne
Bonaparte as a lieutenant at the
! 1789- “He viewed with intense interest the dramatic political Artillery school in Auxonne in
the Department of Côte-d'Or,
events proceeding at Paris and Versailles the former province of Burgundy

op. cit., pp. 10-11


Writing to his mother early in 1789:

“I have no other resource but work. I dress [meaning change my clothes]
but once in eight days; I sleep but little since my illness; it is incredible; I
retire at ten [to save candles] and rise at four in the morning. I take but one
meal a day, at three; that is good for my health.”

It was not, however, the ideal regimen for a youthful convalescent. On
August 8, 1789, he accordingly applied for a six months’ furlough; this was
his entitlement under the regulations...really he was determined to share in
the revolutionary ferment...in his beloved Corsica….on September 16 he
left Auxonne for Corsica.

Ibid. p. 12


Back to Corsica
! May 1789-Bonaparte had written to the Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli : "As [our] nation was
perishing I was born. Thirty thousand Frenchmen were vomited on to our shores, drowning the
throne of liberty in waves of blood. Such was the odious sight which was the first to strike me."

! 1789-1793--He spent the early years of the Revolution in Corsica, fighting in a complex three-
way struggle between royalists, revolutionaries, and Paoli’s Corsican nationalists

! 1 April 1792-he supported the Jacobin faction, gained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the
National Guard and second in command over a battalion of volunteers, the Corsican federées

! June-October 1792-he returned to Paris, witnessed both the 20 June and 8 August attacks on
the Tuileries and the September massacres. He was able to convince military authorities in Paris
to promote him to captain in the regular army

! January 1793-the king’s execution turned Paoli against the revolution and the Jacobins

! thus Bonaparte came into conflict with Paoli, who had decided to sabotage a French assault on
the Sardinian island of La Maddalena, where Bonaparte was second in command

! June 1793-Bonaparte and his family had to flee to the French mainland because of the split
with Paoli


Toulon


1793
FRANCE IN THE GRIP OF THE
TERROR

! March 1793-after the king’s execution,
rebellion against the Jacobins in Paris Allied* Armies
erupted in the Vendée
Paris
! June-action against the Girondins sparked
similar revolts in the Gironde, Marseille
and the Auvergne

*Allies: Austria, Britain,
Naples,Piedmont, Prussia,
Spain

TOULON


1793
FRANCE IN THE GRIP OF THE
TERROR

! March 1793-after the king’s execution,
rebellion against the Jacobins in Paris Allied* Armies
erupted in the Vendée
Paris
! June-action against the Girondins sparked
similar revolts in the Gironde, Marseille
and the Auvergne

! 27-28 August-after General Carteaux
crushed the rebellion in Marseille and
visited a memorable vengeance there,
Toulon rebelled and invited the Anglo-
Spanish ﬂeet to enter

! Toulon was the base of the French
Mediterranean ﬂeet
*Allies: Austria, Britain,
! the loss of these warships and their harbor
Naples,Piedmont, Prussia,
might mean defeat of the Jacobins, the end
Spain
of the revolution and French independence
TOULON


13,000 British, Spanish, Neapolitan & Piedmontese troops land

! 18 September-the conqueror of Marseille, General Carteaux, begins the siege
of Toulon

! since his general of artillery was ill, he has a young (just turned 24) major
Buonaparte imposed on him by the Representative en Mission, Augustin, younger
brother of the Jacobin leader, Maximilian Robespierre

! 1 October-Royalists in Toulon declared for the young son of the executed
Louis XVI, now recognized as King Louis XVII

! Napoleon tries in vain to convince his general that he has the plan to force the
city’s surrender


A Developed Eye for Strategy
forts shown as of December, 1793

! 1792--during his time with the Corsican
volunteers Napoleon had developed a plan for
fortifying Ajaccio



fortifying Ajaccio

! guns on Aspreto hill would be able to
command both the inner and outer harbors



fortifying Ajaccio


! when he arrived at Toulon two years later, he
immediately recognized the geographic
similarity

! the Anglo-Spanish force ﬁrmly held the
northern shore of Toulon harbor



fortifying Ajaccio


similarity


! but a peninsula to the south and Le Caire hill,
between the inner and outer harbors was the
key to the entire siege



fortifying Ajaccio


similarity


! but a peninsula to the south and Le Caire hill,
between the inner and outer harbors was the
key to the entire siege

! however, while he was trying to sell this plan to
General Carteaux, the British got there ﬁrst


Bonaparte did not originally think up this plan -- it had been decided
on by other generals and the representatives-on-mission well before
he arrived at Toulon -- but he, quite sensibly under the
circumstances, adopted it and passed it off as his own….

According to tradition, Buonaparte’s military reputation was seen to
have begun with the siege of Toulon. Indeed, some histories
emphasize his role to the extent that the reader could be mistaken for
thinking he was in charge of operations: the assumption is that
Buonaparte thought up the plan of attack when, as we have seen, he
did not….Buonaparte did, however, play a key role, and his talent as
a soldier and a ﬂedgling commander stands out here. According to a
number of memoirs he, more than anyone else, was responsible for
the disposition of the artillery.

Dwyer, pp. 138, 144


Napoleon’s Two-front War
! in addition to defeating the Allies and the
French royalists in Toulon, he had to win
over his own commander. Carteaux knew
nothing about artillery and his two batteries
MOUNT FARON were out of range!

TOULON

THE LITTLE ROAD

THE GREAT ROAD

the situation when Napoleon arrived


! 20 September-Napoleon ﬁrst installed two
batteries which forced Admiral Hood to
move his ships closer to Toulon

TOULON

THE LITTLE ROAD

THE GREAT ROAD




TOULON
! 22 Sept-by sheer persistence he got
Carteaux to attack the lightly held British
position on the key peninsula
THE LITTLE ROAD

THE GREAT ROAD




TOULON
THE LITTLE ROAD

THE GREAT ROAD ! but the attackers were too few and were
easily repulsed. What was worse, the
British woke up and strengthened their hold
there




TOULON
THE LITTLE ROAD

THE GREAT ROAD ! but the attackers were too few and were
easily repulsed. What was worse, the
British woke up and strengthened their hold
there

! he now had to scrape up more guns and
men and begin a systematic siege to gain
“Little Gibraltar”


Finally, a Competent General Listens

...weeks passed into months, and still Toulon deﬁed the tricolor. At length
on November 25 General Dugomier [Carteaux’s replacement, on 19
November] summoned a council of war--at which Bonaparte served as
secretary--at which it was decided to implement the scheme Bonaparte
had always had in mind: namely, a massive bombardment against the
defenses of the promontory, followed by a dawn attack against Fort
Mulgrave [which the French called Little Gibraltar] supported by a feint
attack against Mount Faron, and lastly, the establishment of a battery on
Point l’Eguilette which could rake the British ﬂeet with red-hot shot.

Chandler, p. 26


The Final Assault

! 29 November--The Allies make a sortie, capture one of Napoleon’s batteries and spike the guns

! Napoleon leads 400 men in the counterattack, capturing General O’Hara, the Allied commander!

! 17 December--6,000 French troops storm and take “Little Gibraltar” (with 1,000 French
casualties) Bonaparte receives a bayonet wound from a British sergeant

! 18 December--Toulon surrenders

• 19 December--the suppression, led by representatives en mission Paul Barras and Stanislaus Fréron is
bloody. Between 800-2000 prisoners were shot or slain by bayonet on Toulon’s Champ de Mars.
Bonaparte, treated for his injuries, is not involved

• 22 December 1793--he is promoted to Brigadier General, commander of artillery for the Army of Italy


Brigadier General of Artillery

Buonaparte packed all this many-sided experience into the short span of
eleven years [1786-1796] and emerges to assume his ﬁrst major
command at the age of twenty-six. True, he was fortunate in his time; a
career ouverte aux talents was a reality in the1790s. Yet only the career of
Alexander the Great bears comparison to that of Napoleon Buonaparte
in respect of rapidity….
...Brigadier General Buonaparte to take up the appointment of senior
gunner in the French Army of Italy….Now it so happened that both
Saliceti [a fellow Corsican] and Augustin Robespierre were at this time
the Government’s accredited representatives to the Army of Italy….
Chandler, p. 26


Bonaparte as Strategist

! because the army’s commander was afraid of Saliceti & Robespierre, who, in turn,
were admirers of Bonaparte, Napoleon played an important part in planning for
the French Army of Italy and its upcoming offensive

! for two years there had been little success against Piedmont and its British Royal
Navy ally. France desperately needed to open the grain trade with Genoa

! April, 1794-Napoleon’s future marshal, Massena, opened an attack using the plan
developed by his future emperor

! the ﬁrst stage of the Italian campaign was successful

! June-Bonaparte undertook a risky secret undercover mission to Genoa, behind
enemy lines, to plan future operations

! July 1794-the next month, events in Paris created a political upheaval which
would send him to prison and endanger his life!


War and Politics
! since 1789, a series of French governments had
sacked 680 generals! At least half of these had
been executed by guillotine or ﬁring squad

! after Thermidor (27 July 1794) Bonaparte’s
connection to Robespierre’s brother suddenly
switched from being an invaluable asset to a life-
threatening liability

! the new Thermidorian faction had to ﬁnd the
narrow path between Royalists and Republicans.
They began by purging Jacobin Republicans

! 6 August-Napoleon was imprisoned for treason in
connection with his undercover visit to Genoa

! during this time he studied Marshal Maillebois’
account of his campaign in Piedmont (1745)

! 20 August 1794-he was released and returned to
the Army of Italy to continue planning for an
offensive


Bonaparte’s First Love(?)
! although he referred to her as “my tender Eugénie,” history
knows her as Désirée

! her father was a wealthy silk manufacturer and merchant in
Marseilles. Her education was in convent schools

! when her brother was arrested during the Terror, Joseph
Bonaparte arranged his release

! August 1794-Joseph married her “unattractive twenty-two-
year old[older sister] Marie-Julie”-Dwyer

! “it may even have been the prospect of a substantial
dowery that persuaded [N] Buonaparte to court [Désirée]”

! 21 April 1795-they became engaged
Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary
(1777 – 1860) May-he has to bid farewell to his tearful seventeen-year-old
!
ﬁancée as he departs for Paris to ﬁght an undesired military
transfer


The “Dear John” Letter
While he was in Paris, the Clary family moved to Genoa.
You are no longer in France, my deserving friend; were we not far enough apart? You
have resolved to put the sea between us. I do not reproach you; I know that your
position was delicate, and your last letter deeply moved me with the touching portrait of
your suffering. Tender Eugénie, you are young. Your feelings will at first weaken, will
declare themselves, and a little while after, you will find yourself changed. Such is the
empire of time. Such is the fatal effect, infallible, of absence. I know that you will
remain interested in your friend, but it will be nothing more than interest, than esteem.

The rest of the missive is taken up with more advice, this time on what
to do when she falls in love again. Curiously, the man he describes as
the one she should choose above all others remarkably resembles how
Buonaparte wanted to live his life. ‘With a fiery imagination, a cool
head, a strange heart and melancholic tendencies, one can shine among
men like a meteor and disappear like one.’

Dwyer, pp. 162-163


13 Vendemiare
(5 October 1795)


13 Vendemiare
(5 October 1795)

The Demonstration of 13 Vendémiaire, Year IV,
The Église Saint-Roch, Honoré Street


The “Sword” of Paul Barras

! Spring 1795-a series of political appointments bring Napoleon increasing
frustration

! he’s recalled from the French Army of Italy to Toulon to lead an expedition against Corsica,
now in British hands

! when British sea power makes that impossible, he’s demoted and assigned to lead a second-
rate army brigade against the royalist counterrevolution in the Vendée

! arriving in Paris to protest his orders, he learns that he had been put on the unemployed list

! September-but as things go badly for the Army of Italy, he is assigned to the
general staff in Paris to plan a counter-offensive against the Austrians in Italy

! just as his connection with Robespierre’s brother had been damaging, now his
connection with Barras proved advantageous


The Royalist Threat

! October 1795-with British help, Louis XVI’s youngest brother, Artois is
landed on the French coastal Isle de Yeu to raise a rebellion

! Royalist sympathizers in the western Paris sections demonstrate

! the initial effort by general Menou to restore order fails

! Bonaparte offers his services to Barras who has been put in charge of the
defense of Paris

! 5 October 1795-according to the Napoleonic legend, it is the forceful
employment of cannon by the young General Bonaparte which puts down the
Paris uprising and saves the new government


The Napoleonic Version

In front of the Convention, the relieved parliamentarians run to
congratulate their savior. In the meeting room he is given an
ovation. On this memorable day, Bonaparte becomes a national
hero. His popularity jumps as much with the people as in the
political circles. On 16 October, he is promoted to the rank of
General of Division. He is 26 years old. Ten days later he is
nominated Commandant of the Army of the Interior, replacing
Barras who is now one of ﬁve Directors. It is in this respect an
undeniable show of conﬁdence from the Directoire, which is a new
and fragile institution of the country…
www.napoleonicsociety.com/english/13vendangl.html


The Historians Version

Did Buonaparte give the order to ﬁre on the crowd? It is highly
unlikely. The only historian [Henry Zivy] to have studied this
episode at any length believes that Buonaparte was not involved in
the shooting in front of the church. He also suggests that the
cannonade did not and could not have taken place….Certainly, the
legend that grew up around Napoleon made much of this episode,
exploited to an extent by contemporary prints and engravings of
the scene. By the end of the Empire it was commonly accepted that
Buonaparte did indeed ﬁre on the crowds on the steps of the
church….
At two o’clock the next morning, Buonaparte wrote to Giuseppe
[his older brother Joseph]:
At last, everything is over….We placed our troops; the enemy came to attack us at the
Tuileries. We killed a lot of their people; they killed thirty men and wounded sixty. We
have disarmed the sectiona and everything is calm.
Dwyer, pp. 174-176


Josephine; A Romantic Beginning
! this 32 year-old Creole widow from Martinique in the West
Indies had had an adventurous life

Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie
1763 – 1814



! 1779-ﬁrst married to a French aristocrat, Alexandre de
Beauharnais, she bore him a son, Eugene (1781-1824) and a
daughter, Hortense (1783-1837) who would marry Napoleon’s
brother, Louis

! the couple was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror

Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie
1763 – 1814



! 1779-ﬁrst married to a French aristocrat, Alexandre de
Beauharnais, she bore him a son, Eugene (1781-1824) and a
daughter, Hortense (1783-1837) who would marry Napoleon’s
brother, Louis

! the couple was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror

! 23 July 1794- Alexandre was guillotined

! 28 July-as the execution of Robespierre ended the Jacobin
Terror, Josephine was released

! through her friend, Therese Cabarrus, she became a mistress of
Paul Barras, among others

Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie ! October 1795-legend has it that her son, Eugene, was the
1763 – 1814
occasion of her meeting Napoleon


Love (?) Again

Buonaparte was impressed. He was drawn to her because of her
sophistication and her experience -- ‘She was a real woman,’ as Napoleon
later put it, and ‘she had the prettiest little backside possible.’ He went
from a submissive Désirée, ...on whom he had projected many of his own
feelings, to a very self-assured woman of the world….
After six months of courting, Buonaparte asked for Josephine’s hand in
marriage….For women in the eighteenth century, marriage and
dependency on a man were often seen as the path to happiness. The idea
that one would marry for love was not all that common in the nobility and
does not, in any event, seem to have inﬂuenced Josephine’s
decision….Buonaparte had, in the meantime, written to Désirée with an
ultimatum: if she did not obtain the consent of her mother and her
brother to marry him, it would be preferable to ‘break off all relations….’
On 9 March 1796, Buonaparte and Josephine were married….
Dwyer, pp. 187-190


1 First Italian Campaign, 1796-97


First Italian Campaign
1796-97

Middle East Campaign, 1798-99 2

Armée de l’Italie


1796

Soldiers! You are naked, i"-fed; the government owes
you much, it can give you nothing. Your patience, the
courage you exhibit in the midst of these rocks, are
admirable, but they bring you no glory; no luster is
reﬂected on you. I wi" lead you into the most fertile
plains of the world. Rich provinces, great cities wi"
be in your power; there you wi" ﬁnd honor, fame and
riches. Soldiers of Italy, sha" courage or constancy fail
you?
Napoleon, 27 March 1796


Beaulieu
Colli

Bonaparte
April 1796

By seizing the interior position, Bonaparte struck
ﬁrst against Beaulieu, then Colli, then Beaulieu
again, defeating their superior forces in detail


Lodi


The Battle of Lodi
Louis-François, Baron Lejeune, c. 1804

The French artillery suddenly doubled its rate of fire. Out of the smoke,
straight across the bridge, roared Dallemagne’s column (3,000). With men
dropping at each stride, it got to the center of the bridge (some 200 yards
long) before Austrian infantry fire smashed its head into a tangle of dead
and wounded. Somehow untouched, red-bearded Major Dupas,
commanding the leading battalion, shouted his men on. The column
staggered, but Berthier seized a flag and went forward. Massena, Lannes,
Dallemagne--a crowd of officers and men mixed together--followed. Some
carabiniers, dropping from the bridge onto a sand bank in the river, gave
the rush fire support….
Later, Bonaparte would say that it was Lodi that made him certain he
could be a man of high destiny.

Esposito & Elting, West Point Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars, commentary on maps 10 & 11


the petit caporal sights one of his guns

Reproduction of a painting by Felicien de Myrbach-Rheinfeld
Caption: Where after seizing the bridge over the Adda, the French defeated the Austrians and proceeded to occupy Milan.
Source: Life of Napoleon Bonaparte by William M. Sloane. New York: Century, vol. 1 (1906)

the man of destiny

...a few days after the Battle of Lodi [10 May 1796] he conﬁded to
Marmont, "They [the Directory] have seen nothing yet....In our days no
one has conceived anything great; it is for me to set the example."
Napoleon, age 26

“It was only on the evening of Lodi,” he recorded a long time later, “that I
believed myself a superior man, and that the ambition came to me of
executing the great things which so far had been occupying my thoughts
only as a fantastic dream.”

David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, p. 84


Napoleon teaches Austria’s generals the art of war

Beaulieu Wurmser

After forcing the Adda River at Lodi, he pursed the demoralized forces of
general Beaulieu (age 70) east across Lombardy. A few soldiers were left
to defend Austria’s fortresses while Beaulieu retreated north of the Alps.
Austria would prove her resilience by raising army after army over the
next two decades. The next general to “receive a lesson” from the twenty-
six year old prodigy was Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser (age 71).


Austria’s Famous “Quadrangle”
Four interlocking, mutually supporting
fortress cities


...Mantua ..., a most imposing fortress surrounded by inundations and protected by no
less than 316 guns and a garrison of 12,000 men
Chandler, p.86


the renewed siege of Mantua, August 1796

Wurmzer Alvinczi

Strongest of the four fortress cities of the Austrian quadrilateral, Mantua
was the key to Austria’s control of Northern Italy. General Wurmser
would make a second attempt to lift the French siege, in September, only
to be forced inside the city with his defeated army. The garrison was
swollen to 22,000 with only 14,000 effective. The garrison was swollen to
22,000 with only 14,000 effective. Next, Austria sent her third general,
Jozef Alvinczi, with fresh armies to make a third and fourth attempt to
relieve the city.


The Battle of Castiglione, August 5, 1796: early morning phase


The Battle of Castiglione, August 5, 1796: late morning phase


Austria 61,100
Austria sends her third
France 41,500 Arcola army with a new
general


Melancholy
...would come back to haunt him throughout his life, especially when he was
under duress or overworked. There were periods when he seems to have
overcome it; there were others, like this time [summer of 1795] in Paris when
his future was unclear, when it would reappear, dampening his spirit and
deadening the soul. During the Italian campaign, for example, there were days
when Bonaparte was completely despondent and when he thought of
abandoning the army. Indeed, Bonaparte’s moods could swing violently from
elation, especially after a hard-fought victory, to outright dejection before the
start of a battle. Just before Arcola, for example, he wrote that his spirit was
‘lacerated’. These mood swings can be explained by the sheer strain of
command -- he and his men marched hard, and fought almost non-stop for
months -- but there was an underlying pessimism that dominated Buonaparte’s
character.
Dwyer, p. 166


Later Propaganda Pictures


Rivoli; 14-15 January 1797

Now, at last, the issue was to be staked on a single decisive battle.
The clash promised to be a ﬁnal test of the tactical merits of concentric columns
as opposed to French grand tactics. The very terrain of Rivoli--a lakeside
plateau approached by good roads from three directions--made it inevitable
that the Austrians would rely on their favorite converging attack. Quite as
inevitably, Bonaparte planned to make use of his interior lines in the hope of
bringing up a local superiority of numbers at each threatened point.
At Rivoli, however, Bonaparte’s greater skill was balanced by an enemy
numerical advantage of more than two to one at the beginning of the battle.

Montross, p. 473


Napoleon at the Battle of Rivoli
Felix Philipoteaux, 1845
Palace of Versailles, Gallerie des Batailles

In ﬁve days ﬁghting and marching, Bonaparte had reduced the Austrian
army of 48,000 men to a mere 13,000 fugitives. This had been achieved
only by the superb endurance and courage of the French infantry.

Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon, p.121


Austria’s fourth and ﬁnal army

Alvinczi Archduke Charles

The Austrian emperor’s younger brother, Archduke Charles, Napoleon’s
own age, collected yet another army in the spring of 1797. It was a mix of
raw recruits and experienced soldiers. But it fared no better than the ﬁrst
three. Bonaparte chased them back over the Alps and was marching on
Vienna when Austria sought an armistice. Northern Italy had become a
French satellite.


Egypt


Battle of the Pyramids, 21 July 1798

Egypt


The Mamelukes

The Mameluke war lords of Egypt were splendid, headlong horsemen,
individually superior to French cavalrymen in weapons, horsemanship,
and ﬁghting skills. But they were out of the Middle Ages, professional
warriors, not soldiers. When it came to clashes with sizable bodies of
cavalry, French organization and discipline shattered them. Also they
were never able to deal with French infantry and guns.

Esposito, Swords Around A Throne. p. 504


Inset 1- Cross-section of a file in an ‘Egyptian square.’ Only the
front two ranks can fire their muskets or level their bayonets

3- Two guns at each corner protected by two platoons of
grenadiers. Only one fires at a time while the other reloads

Paddy Griffith, French Napoleonic Infantry Tactics; 1792-1815, map C, after p. 32

Napoleon at the pest house at Jaffa, 1799


Turkish losses: 2,000 KIA,
10-11,000 drowned, &
3,000 POWs; possibly
1,200 escaped

French losses: 150 KIA, 750
WIA

Bonaparte said later that
the Turks were brave, but
lacked proper organization,
could not maneuver easily,
and had no idea of tactics.


18 Brumaire
(9 November 1799)


18 Brumaire
(9 November 1799)

General Napoleon during the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire in Saint-Cloud, detail


the coup of 18 Brumaire

...with French military prospects waning badly in Europe...Napoleon
decided to abandon his army and make his way back to France….On 9
October he landed at Fréjus, in southern France, precisely when the
Directory stood on the brink of collapse owing to military failure,
government ﬁnancial cutbacks and the extension of conscription.

A coup was already in the making, and with the sudden appearance in
Paris of Napoleon--hailed for his conquest of Egypt--the conspirators felt
emboldened on 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799) to dissolve by force the
legislative body known as the Council of Five Hundred, placing in their
stead, by dubious election, three consuls, Napoleon amongst them. When,
a month later, the new constitution proclaimed him First Consul, it laid the
foundation for 15 years of absolute rule; the French Revolution was over
and the Napoleonic era had begun.

Gregory Fremont-Barnes, Napoleon Bonaparte. p. 13


First Consul Bonaparte

...Bonaparte, as First Consul, would
declare bluntly: “There must be no
opposition.”
Lefebvre, p. 378

“The French can no longer be governed
except by me.”

Bonaparte, quoted in Palmer, p. 569


Burke’s Reﬂections on the Present Revolution [in France] 1790


Burke’s Reflections on the Present Revolution [in France] 1790

...In the weakness of one kind of authority, and in the fluctuation of all, the
officers of any army will remain for some time mutinous and full of
faction, until some popular general, who understands the art of
conciliating the soldiery, and who possesses the true spirit of
command, shall draw the eyes of all men upon himself. Armies will
obey him on his personal account. There is no other way of securing
military obedience in this state of things. But the moment in which that
event shall happen, the person who really commands the army is your
master;...


Napoleon, session i, Ambition

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