"on Paris. However, he fielded less than 80,000 soldiers during this entire campaign against a Coalition force of between 370,000 and 405,000 engaged in the campaign. At the Treaty of Chaumont (9 March) the Allies agreed to preserve the Coalition until Napoleon's total defeat. The Allies entered Paris on 30 March 1814 after a short battle. Napoleon was determined to fight on, proposing to march on Paris. His soldiers and regimental officers were eager to fight on. But Napoleon's marshals and senior officers mutinied. On 4 April, Napoleon was confronted by his marshals and senior officers, led by Ney. They"
"courage in defeat immortalized him in the annals of military history, leading Napoleon to bestow upon him the sobriquet of ""Bravest of the Brave."" Total French losses in the Krasny skirmishes are estimated between 6,000 and 13,000 killed and wounded, with another 20,000 to 26,000 lost as prisoners to the Russians. Almost all of the French prisoners were stragglers. The French also lost close to 130 artillery pieces and a huge portion of their supply train. Russian losses are estimated to have been no more than 5,000 killed and wounded. Significant however was that Napoleon successfully led 75% of the"
"Louis-Nicolas Davout Louis-Nicolas d'Avout (10 May 17701 June 1823), better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a French general who was Marshal of the Empire during the Napoleonic era. His talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian earned him the title ""The Iron Marshal"". He is ranked along with Masséna and Lannes as one of Napoleon's finest commanders. His loyalty and obedience to Napoleon were absolute. During his lifetime, Davout's name was commonly spelled ""Davoust"", which is how it appears on the Arc de Triomphe and in much of the"
"Jean Lannes Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, Prince de Siewierz (10 April 1769 – 31 May 1809), was a Marshal of the Empire. He was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals. Napoleon once commented on Lannes: """"I found him a pygmy and left him a giant"""". A personal friend of the emperor, he was allowed to address him with the familiar ""tu"", as opposed to the formal ""vous"". Lannes was born in the small town of Lectoure, in the Gers department in the south of France. He was the son of a Gascon small merchant, Jeannet Lannes"
"ever braver and more generous"" -- Napoléon Julien Cosmao Julien Marie Cosmao-Kerjulien (Châteaulin, Finistère, 27 November 1761 – Brest, 17 February 1825) was a French Navy officer, admiral, and hero of the Battle of Trafalgar. Completing his studies in Châteaulin, young Cosmao-Kerjulien joined the French Royal Navy in 1776, against his parents' will. He served in the ""Aigrette"" in the Caraibs. Back to Brest in 1778, he served on the ""Oiseau"" with Corentin de Leissegues. In September, after the beginning of the American Revolutionary War, he served on the ""Nymphe"", taking part in two battles against English privateers, near Bordeaux"
"André Masséna André Masséna, 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling (born Andrea Massena; 16 May 1758 – 4 April 1817) was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original eighteen Marshals of the Empire created by Napoleon, with the nickname ""l'Enfant chéri de la Victoire"" (""the Dear Child of Victory""). Many of Napoleon's generals were trained at the finest French and European military academies, but Masséna was among those who achieved greatness without the benefit of formal education. While those of noble rank acquired their education and promotions as a matter"
"Joachim Murat Joachim-Napoléon Murat (; born Joachim Murat; ; ; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a Marshal of France and Admiral of France under the reign of Napoleon. He was also the 1st Prince Murat, Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808, and King of Naples from 1808 to 1815. Murat received his titles in part by being Napoleon's brother-in-law through marriage to his younger sister, Caroline Bonaparte, as well as personal merit. He was noted as a daring, brave, and charismatic cavalry officer as well as a flamboyant dresser, for which he was known as"
"until 2008 the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lannes ranks with Louis Nicolas Davout and André Masséna as the ablest of all of Napoleon's marshals. He was continually employed in tasks requiring the utmost resolution and daring, and more especially when the emperor's combinations depended upon the vigour and self-sacrifice of a detachment or fraction of the army. It was thus with Lannes at Friedland and at Aspern as it was with Davout at Austerlitz and Auerstädt, and Napoleon's estimate of his subordinates' capacities can almost exactly be judged by the frequency with which he used them to"
"14 June and at the Battle of Wagram on 5–6 July. At the latter battle he commanded three divisions and was rewarded with the Grand Cross of the Légion d'honneur. Historian Frederick C. Schneid rates Grenier above Auguste Marmont and Jacques MacDonald, both of whom became marshals in 1809. He writes that Eugene's ""... corps commanders were some of the better generals of the empire. Of the three generals promoted to Marshal of France in 1809, two participated in the campaign in Italy. The best of the lot, however, was not one of the two, but General Paul Grenier."" The"
"Quartermaster Sergeant (sergent-fourrier) Tisserand, who commanded the survivors, sent two spahi cavalrymen to Taghit for reinforcements. They immediately left. About forty survivors of the French force gathered on a nearby hill and under a scorching sun, on hot sand and without water, fought off the enemy for more than eight hours. Near the end of the battle, Tisserand, wounded, gave over command to Corporal Detz; the highest ranked man still able. At 5 pm, they were relieved by Captain de Sulbielle, who rode from Taghit with his Spahis. At the sight of the approaching French cavalry, the Moroccans retreated in"
"the Napoleonic Wars, winning some of the most brilliant victories of the entire Napoleonic Wars. Three of them – Jean Lannes, Louis-Nicolas Davout and Louis-Gabriel Suchet were virtually never defeated in pitched battle, despite fighting in dozens of engagements. While they were not normally expected to lead from the front, they often exposed themselves to great dangers on the battlefields of Europe; three Marshals – Jean Lannes, Jean-Baptiste Bessières and Józef Poniatowski – were killed in action or died as a result of battle wounds. During his five years as a Marshal of the Empire (1809–1814), Nicolas-Charles Oudinot received seven"
"drums and yelling ""God is great!"", the desperation of their situation was readily apparent to the French and some knights broke and fled back down the slope. The rest fought on ""no frothing boar nor enraged wolf more fiercely,"" in the words of one contemporary chronicler. Admiral de Vienne, to whom was granted the honor as the eldest knight of carrying the French standard into battle, was wounded many times as he attempted to rally the morale of his countrymen, before being struck down dead. Other notable knights who were slain include Jean de Carrouges, Philippe de Bar and Odard"
"and died before the coveted baton could arrive from Paris. Jean-Louis-Brigitte Espagne, another famous general was killed in action at the head of his ""cuirassiers"" and the commander in chief of the artillery, Nicolas-Marie Songis des Courbons, became severely ill and had to leave his command a few weeks after the battle. Despite all these setbacks, the army and its officers retained total confidence in Napoleon's ability to lead them to victory and morale remained high. Evidence of this came a couple of days before the newly planned crossing of the Danube, when Napoleon's most senior Corps commander, ""Maréchal"" André"
"lighthouse. In 1897 the Eckmühl lighthouse was opened on the headland of Penmarc’h in Brittany. Louis-Nicolas Davout Louis-Nicolas d'Avout (10 May 17701 June 1823), better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a French general who was Marshal of the Empire during the Napoleonic era. His talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian earned him the title ""The Iron Marshal"". He is ranked along with Masséna and Lannes as one of Napoleon's finest commanders. His loyalty and obedience to Napoleon were absolute. During his lifetime, Davout's name was commonly spelled ""Davoust"","
"responded enthusiastically to the declaration; Philip of Artois, Count of Eu, the Constable of France, and Jean Le Maingre, the Marshal of France, declared participation in the crusade the duty of every ""man of valor"". The number of combatants is heavily contested in historical accounts. Historian Tuchman notes, ""Chroniclers habitually matched numbers to the awesomeness of the event,"" and the Battle of Nicopolis was considered so significant that the number of combatants given by medieval chroniclers ranges as high as 400,000, with each side insisting that the enemy outnumbered them two-to-one, which for the crusaders offered some solace for their"
"been roughly equal to those of the enemy, but, with fewer troops engaged, some of Napoleon's battalions needed rebuilding from scratch. Losses in officers in particular had been extremely high and proved difficult to replace. ""Maréchal"" Jean Lannes, one of Napoleon's ablest commanders and a personal friend, had been mortally wounded in action and died nine days after the battle. Another irreplaceable loss was Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire, who had been created a Marshal of the Empire just a month before, in recognition of his brilliant conduct during the earlier campaign, but received a mortal wound during the battle"
"of a total of 27 battle wounds suffered throughout his career, but went on to live to the then venerable age of 80. Often formidable when serving under the direct command of Napoleon, the Marshals proved to be less effective when having to cooperate, in the Emperor's absence. Some repeatedly acted in ill-faith when placed under the command of another Marshal, with conflicts sometimes leading to fatal military consequences. After Napoleon's downfall, most of them swore allegiance to the Bourbon Restoration and several went on to hold significant commands and positions. The boulevards of the marshals in Paris are a"
"escape in a heavy fog over the Dniepr, not without heavy losses and to rejoin it in Orsha, which delighted Napoleon. For this action Ney was given the nickname ""the bravest of the brave"" by Napoleon. Ney fought at Beresina and helped hold the vital bridge at Kovno (modern-day Kaunas), where legend portrays Ney as the last of the invaders to cross the bridge and exit Russia. On 25 March 1813, Ney was given the title of Prince de la Moskowa. During the 1813 campaign Ney fought at Battle of Weissenfels, was wounded at Lützen, and commanded the left wing"
"weak right flank, Napoleon ordered Davout's III Corps to force march all the way from Vienna and join General Legrand's men, who held the extreme southern flank that would bear the heaviest part of the Allied attack. Davout's soldiers had 48 hours to march . Their arrival was crucial in determining the success of the French plan. Indeed, the arrangement of Napoleon on the right flank was very risky as the French had only minimal troops garrisoning there. However, Napoleon was able to use such a risky plan because Davout—the commander of III Corps—was one of Napoleon's best marshals, because"
"split on 30 April into the ""Army of the Western Pyrenees"" with Servan in command and the ""Army of the Eastern Pyrenees"". Servan's new army covered a front from the Garonne River in the Pyrenees to the Bay of Biscay, then up the coast to the Gironde estuary. Historian Ramsay Weston Phipps called the ""Army of the Western Pyrenees"" the ""least interesting"" of the armies of the French Republic, contributing only one future marshal. On 19 May 1804, Napoleon elevated Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey to the rank of marshal. An order of battle for 1793 listed two battalions each of"
"""""Merde!"""" (""Shit!""). Nicolas Chauvin Nicolas Chauvin () is a legendary, possibly apocryphal French soldier and patriot who is supposed to have served in the First Army of the French Republic and subsequently in ""La Grande Armée"" of Napoleon. His name is the eponym of ""chauvinism"", originally a term for excessive nationalistic fervor, but later used to refer to any form of bigotry or bias (e.g., male chauvinism). According to the stories that developed about him, Chauvin was born in Rochefort, around 1780. He enlisted at age 18, and served honorably and well. He is said to have been wounded 17"
"States and in turn named for the community in New York, honors Masséna with a portrait of him in its Centennial Park. His birthplace, Nice, is the location of Place Massena, also named after him. Masséna is mentioned and/or appears in several of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Brigadier Gerard stories, including ""How the Brigadier Saved the Army"" (1902). André Masséna André Masséna, 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling (born Andrea Massena; 16 May 1758 – 4 April 1817) was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He was one of the original eighteen Marshals of the"
"Marshals of France: Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, its commander-in-chief, Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, and Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier. François Joseph Lefebvre, by 1804 an old man, was named an honorary marshal, but not awarded a field position. Michel Ney, in the 1795–1799 campaigns an intrepid cavalry commander, came into his own command under the tutelage of Moreau and Massena in the south German and Swiss campaigns. Jean de Dieu Soult had served under Moreau and Massena, becoming the latter's right-hand man during the Swiss campaign of 1799–1800. Jean Baptiste Bessieres, like Ney, had been a competent and sometimes inspired"
"controversial choices. Although not a military rank, a Marshal displayed four silver stars, while the top military rank, General of Division, displayed three stars. Furthermore, the Marshalate quickly became the prestigious sign of the supreme military attainment and it became customary that the most significant commands be given to a Marshal. Each Marshal held his own coat of arms, was entitled to special honours and several of them held top functions within the army. They wore distinctive uniforms and were entitled to carry a cylinder-shaped baton, which was a symbol of their authority. Throughout his 1804–1815 reign, Napoleon appointed a"
"his sardonic remark ""There's fourteen of us..."", which he muttered when his friends came to congratulate him for his nomination. Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont, then a young general, possibly bitter that he had not been nominated also observed that: ""If Bessières is a Marshal, then anyone can be one."" Ironically, Marmont himself was made a Marshal of the Empire in 1809, though it was said he was awarded the distinction for his ""friendship"" with Napoleon as opposed to any great generalship. Marshal of the Empire Marshal of the Empire () was a civil dignity during the First French"
"men, ""Well, you have earned your marshal's baton and you shall have it."" On 22 May 1809 Saint-Hilaire had his left leg torn off by a cannonball at the battle of Aspern-Essling and died of gangrene 15 days later, as a result of this wound, before he could be officially inducted to the Marshalate. In 1810, Napoleon I ordered his remains interred in the Panthéon alongside Marshal Jean Lannes. The name Saint-Hilaire is inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond, comte de Saint-Hilaire (4 September 1766 – 5 June 1809) was"
"men at the Battle of Craonne on 7 March. Napoleon assigned Marshal Édouard Mortier to command 8,000–9,000 infantry in the divisions of Joseph Boyer de Rébeval, Henri François Marie Charpentier, Charles-Joseph Christiani, Philibert Jean-Baptiste Curial, Claude Marie Meunier, Paul-Jean-Baptiste Poret de Morvan and 4,000 cavalry in the divisions of Nicolas-François Roussel d'Hurbal and Louis Michel Pac, and a march regiment. One battalion of the Legion of the Vistula, 600 Polish lancers, three cavalry march regiments, two companies of coast guard gunners, two sapper companies and 1,000 conscripts arrived as reinforcements from Paris. A new cavalry unit called the Converged Squadrons"
"""like a demon"" and solidified his reputation as a maverick rider upon returning to France and receiving Weapons of Honour. At the ceremony (in a remark often mistakenly attributed to Napoleon), Lasalle quipped ""Any hussar who isn't dead at age 30 is a layabout."" The hussars of Napoleon's army created the tradition of sabrage, the opening of a champagne bottle with a sabre. Moustaches were universally worn by Napoleonic period hussars, the British hussars were the only moustachioed troops in the British Army — leading to occasional taunts of ""foreigner"" from their brothers-in-arms. French hussars also wore ""cadenettes"", braids of"
"troops a skill as great as that of the ablest officers. Within a period of two years he was to hold in check Count Victor Maurice de Broglie and Marshal Montrevel, generals of Louis XIV, and to carry on one of the most terrible partisan wars in French history. He organised the Camisard forces and maintained the most severe discipline. As an orator he derived his inspiration from the prophets of Israel, and raised the enthusiasm of his rude mountaineers to a pitch so high that they were ready to die with their young leader for the sake of liberty"
"times immense, fortunes. Several of them received significant annuities; in addition, a few received financial endowments from the Emperor, with two of them – Louis-Alexandre Berthier and André Masséna – receiving more than one million Francs each. Two Marshals – Joachim Murat and Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte – went on to become Kings, with the latter being the direct ancestor of the current Swedish Royal Family. A single commander, Louis-Vincent-Joseph Le Blond de Saint-Hilaire, was publicly named as a Marshal-to-be by Napoleon, but he died of battle wounds before the next promotions were made. Most of the Marshals held significant commands during"
"masse"". The next day they were joined by the 7th Infantry Regiment under its colonel, Charles de la Bédoyère, who was executed for treason by the Bourbons after the campaign ended. An anecdote illustrates Napoleon's charisma. When royalist troops deployed to stop the march of Napoleon's force at Grenoble, Napoleon stepped out in front of them, ripped open his coat and said ""If any of you will shoot his Emperor, here I am."" The men joined his cause. Marshal Ney, now one of Louis XVIII's commanders, had said that Napoleon ought to be brought to Paris in an iron cage,"
"in the Peninsula by supporting his fellow marshals. Tactically Marmont was deadly and quick to strike, but prone to sloppiness which caused him his two defeats. Auguste de Marmont Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont (20 July 1774 – 22 March 1852) was a French general and nobleman who rose to the rank of Marshal of France and was awarded the title (). Marmont was born at Châtillon-sur-Seine, the son of an ex-officer in the army who belonged to the ""petite noblesse"" and adopted the principles of the Revolution. His love of soldiering soon showed itself, and his father took"
"of Liège and the bishop of Verdun. With this money he gathered thousands of knights to fight in the Holy Land as the Army of Godfrey of Bouillon. In this he was joined by his older brother, Eustace, and his younger brother, Baldwin, who had no lands in Europe. He was not the only major nobleman to gather such an army. Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, also known as Raymond of Saint-Gilles, created the largest army. At age 55, Raymond was also the oldest and perhaps the best known of the Crusader nobles. Because of his age and fame, Raymond"