NAPOLEON 



5636 



NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS 



he embarked on the Franco-Prus- 

 sian War (q.v. ). He joined his 

 army July 28, 1870, but five weeks 

 later came Sedan, his surrender to 

 the Prussians, Sept. 2, and the end 

 of the empire. Napoleon was taken 

 to Wilhelmshohe. where he re- 

 mained until the end of the war, 

 when he joined the empress and 

 their son at Chislehurst in England. 

 There he died, Jan. 9, 1873, and 

 was buried at Farnborough. 



Bibliography. Works, 5 vols., 

 1856-60; Lives, W. A. Fraser, 

 1895 ; A. Forbes, 1898 ; Napoleon 

 the Little, V. Hugo, 1852 ; His- 

 toire du Second Empire, P. de la 

 Gorce, 1894 ; Napoleon III at the 

 Height of his Power, A. L. Imbert 

 de Saint-Amand, Eng. trans. E. G. 

 Martin, 1900; The Rise of Louis 

 Napoleon, F. A. Simpson, 1909. 



Napoleon, EUGENE Louis JEAN 

 JOSEPH (1856-79). French prince, 

 known as the Prince Imperial. 

 Only son of 

 Napoleon III 

 and the Em- 

 press Eugenie, 

 he was born in 

 Paris, March 

 16, 1856. He 

 went through 

 JJSjjj^j a military 

 B| training at 

 Woolwich, 

 1872-75, and 

 after his 

 father's death in 1873 was recog- 

 nized leader of the Bonapartists. 

 He joined the British expedition 

 to Zululand, 1879, and was killed 

 near Ulundi, June 1 of that year. 



Napoleon, 

 Prince Imperial 



THE NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS 



J. Markham Rose, D.S.O., late Instructor, R.H.A., Woolwich 



Following the biography of Napoleon, this article deals in more 



detail with the campaigns he directed. See also the articles on the 



various battles, e.g. Austerlitz ; Friedland ; Marengo ; Waterloo; 



also Peninsular War 



Napoleon's first great campaign 

 was in Italy in 1796. The W. and 

 S. faces of the mountains of N. 

 Italy marked the fronts of the op- 

 posing armies. On the W. face 

 the armies neutralised each other, 

 while the French army of Italy 

 was extended along the mountains 

 parallel to the coast between Nice 

 and Genoa. In about an equality 

 of numbers the allied Austrians 

 and Sardinians held the passes. 



In one short month he carried 

 out his plans, and forced the Sar- 

 dinians to a separate peace. He 

 then pushed on against the Aus- 

 trians and forced them to peace 

 within the year, which left him 

 conqueror of Italy. This, his first 

 great campaign, was typical of his 

 strategy : a well - thought - out 

 plan, rapidly and ruthlessly car- 

 ried out, his intentions veiled 

 until the moment for execution, 

 and then a swift and decisive blow. 



On these lines 1798 saw his cap- 

 ture of Malta and his brilliant 

 campaign in Egypt, but also the 

 battle of the Nile, which cut him 

 off from France. In 1799 he in- 

 vaded Palestine, but was stopped 

 at Acre by Sydney Smith. Sea- 

 power defeated generalship, and, 

 leaving his army behind him, he 

 escaped to France. 



Napoleon secretly collected an 

 army in Switzerland, crossed the 

 St. Bernard, and severed the Aus- 

 trian communications. Melas, 

 the Austrian commander-in-chief, 

 on hearing of this blow, delayed 

 for the surrender of Genoa, then 

 fought at Marengo with his front 

 towards Austria, was defeated, and 

 surrendered with bis whole army, 



and for the second time in five 

 years Napoleon conquered Italy. 



War broke out again in 1803 

 with Great Britain, whose govern- 

 ment, by 1805, had built up a coali- 

 tion with Russia and Austria. 

 Napoleon had been ostensibly pre- 

 paring to invade England, but he 

 could never obtain the necessary 

 uninterrupted command of the 

 Channel. On August 25, 1805, 

 he decided to transfer the army to 

 the Rhine, rapidly passed the 

 Black Forest, and, before Mack in 

 Ulm could be joined by the Rus- 

 sians, or realize his danger, he 

 found himself surrounded, and 

 capitulated with his whole army 

 the day before Trafalgar. Napoleon 

 followed up Ulm with the cam- 

 paign of Austerlitz, where he de- 

 feated the Austrians and Russians 

 on Dec. 2, 1805. The treaty of Press- 

 burg, Jan. 1, 1806, forced Austria 

 away from the second coalition. 

 Jena and Auerstadt 



All .through 1805 Prussia had 

 been hesitating whether to join 

 the coalition, and, too late for 

 success, on Oct. 1, 1806, she de- 

 clared war. On Oct. 14 she was 

 defeated at Jena and Auerstadt ; 

 on the 25th the French entered 

 Berlin, and Prussia lay at Napo- 

 leon's feet. This might be con- 

 sidered as the summit of his 

 irresistible success. He had con- 

 quered Italy and Germany ; 

 Switzerland and Holland were in 

 his hands, but England's sea- 

 power set a limit to Ms European 

 and Asiatic schemes of conquest. 

 He had paralysed the older school 

 of Austrian and German generals 

 by his strategy and tactics. 



The king of Prussia, though the 

 greater half of his kingdom was in 

 Napoleon's hands, did not sue 

 for peace, and Sweden and Russia 

 helped to carry on the struggle. 

 The battle of Eylau, Feb. 7 and 8, 



1807, has been claimed as a Napo- 

 leonic victory, but it was fiercely 

 contested, and the French losses 

 were equal to the Russian. At 

 Friedland, June 14, 18Q7, Napo- 

 leon defeated Bennigsen. 



The Peninsular War 



The Peninsular War.undoubtedly 



a beginning of his downfall, can 



only for a brief period be styled a 



Napoleonic campaign. In Nov., 



1808, he defeated the Spanish in- 

 surgents in a decisive action, 

 entered Madrid, Dec. 4, and then 

 turned against Sir John Moore, 

 who had ventured into the heart of 

 Spain with 25,000 men. His retreat 

 began in time to avoid Napoleon's 

 overwhelming force, and the em- 

 peror, thinking the matter negli- 

 gible, left the pursuit to Soult, 

 Jan. 1, 1809, and turned his atten- 

 tion to Austria. Until Waterloo, 

 Napoleon himself never met a 

 British force, and never defeated 

 one in a pitched battle. 



The Austrians had been humi- 

 liated after Austerlitz, and only 

 awaited an opportunity for revenge. 

 The archduke Charles took the 

 field in April, 1809, and crossing the 

 Inn between Braunau and Passau, 

 gbt in between the French mar- 

 shals, and had a great opportunity 

 of crushing either wing, but the 

 necessary rapidity of execution 

 was still lacking in Austrian 

 strategy. Napoleon left Paris, 

 April 13, took over the com- 

 mand on the 17th, and defeated 

 the archduke at Eckmuhl on the 

 22nd. He pushed along the right 

 bank of the Danube to Vienna, and 

 then suffered his first real defeat at 

 Aspern, or Essling, in an attempt 

 to cross the Danube by the island 

 of Lobau. Withdrawing to the 

 island with very heavy loss, he re- 

 fused to retreat and, calling up 

 every available man, badly de- 

 feated the Austrians at Wagram 

 (July 5 and 6, 1809) and forced 

 them to another peace. 



Invasion of Russia 

 From this campaign until 1812 

 Napoleon did not personally take 

 the field. The Spanish War was 

 left to his marshals, who were not 

 equal to Wellington in generalship. 

 But in 1812 he had decided on the 

 conquest of Russia, and by the 

 middle of June he had assembled 

 on the banks of the Niemen an 

 army of 363,000 men, of whom 

 only one-third were French. 

 On June 24 he moved on Vilna, 

 but the Russians fell back before 

 him, and the grand army began 



