Category: On This Day in Napoleonic History

Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre takes Danzig during the War of the Fourth Coalition, securing the French left flank

As a thank you, Napoleon sent a box of chocolates to Lefebvre, who was unimpressed until he opened it to find it filled with 300,000 francs in banknotes.

A year later the proud Republican who had been Napoleon’s deputy on 18 Brumaire became the Duke of Danzig. He was to become the first marshal to receive a noble title. ‘It was not without design that I bestowed the first title I gave on Marshal Lefebvre,’ said Napoleon. After all, Lefebvre was the fiercest Republican and the most plebeian of Napoleon’s marshals. What Napoleon wanted to demonstrate was that Lefebvre with his lack of education and humble origin was worthy of the honour accorded him because he was an exemplary soldier and commander.

Napoleon embarks on his Egyptian campaign

Napoleon’s armada left Toulon for Alexandria in fine weather and was joined by fleets from Marseille, Corsica, Genoa and Civitavecchia. With 280 ships, including 13 ships of the line, it was the largest fleet ever to sail the Mediterranean. L’Orient that carried Napoleon was the biggest warship afloat.

‘Have a good bed prepared for me,’ Napoleon, who was a bad sailor, told the Vice-Admiral François-Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers before setting sail, ‘as of for a man who will be ill the whole duration of the voyage.’

Admiral Nelson was on the lookout for this gigantic armada. The two fleets passed within 20 miles of each other on the night of June 22nd near Crete. Overall, on the way to Egypt the French were able to evade Nelson three times. The fourth time they wouldn’t be so fortunate.

The Marshalate is created by Senatus-consulte

Four Honourary and fourteen active Marshals of the Empire were created, including Berthier, Murat, Moncey, Jourdan, Masséna, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davout and Bessières. Between 1807 and 1815, a further eight were appointed. The Marshalate was an honorific rather than military rank that intended to recognise something that Napoleon later called ‘the sacred fire’. The title came with a silver and velvet baton studded with gold eagles in a box of red Moroccan leather. Not everyone was impressed. When his staff congratulated Masséna, he merely shrugged and said, ‘There are fourteen of us.’

Napoleon often said that ‘in every soldier’s knapsack is a marshal’s baton.’ The working class origins of many of his marshals demonstrated how true this was. Ten of them had risen through the ranks and included the son of a barrel-cooper (Ney), tanner (Saint-Cyr), bailiff (Victor), wealthy peasant (Mortier), miller (Lefebvre), inn-keeper (Murat), household servant (Augereau) and stall keeper (Masséna). There were only two aristocrats: Prince Józef Poniatowski and the Marquis de Grouchy.

The marshals were given titles and often received significant cash presents. Of the 26 eventual marshals, 24 received such gifts from the Emperor. By the uneven distribution of these monetary awards we can judge who Napoleon’s favourites were. The top 4 marshals were Berthier with 1 million francs, Masséna with 922 thousand, Davout with 873 thousand and Ney with 729 thousand.

Napoleon and his army are crossing the Alps

As he undertook something that only Charlemgne and Hannibal had attempted in the past, Napoleon was counting on the element of surprise. ‘An army can pass always and at all seasons wherever two men can set their feet,’ Napoleon told sceptical General Thomas-Alexandre Dumas.

Overall, 51,400 men crossed the Alps with 10,000 horses and 750 mules, sometimes walking in a single file and often starting at dawn to avoid the chance of avalanches once the sun had risen. The operation was to become one of the wonders of military history.

Napoleon achieved his main objective – his enemy was taken completely by surprise. A letter from the Austrian commander Michael von Melas to his mistress was intercepted, in which he told her not to worry because the French army could not possibly appear in Lombardy. He was soon to learn how wrong he was.

Napoleon declares the creation of Lombardic Republic

Although the majority of Italians were delighted their Austrian oppressor had been expelled, they felt no real loyalty towards its French replacement. The educated elites, however, were happy to see French Revolutionary ideals impacting Italian politics and society. Unlike Catholic peasantry, they saw Napoleon as a liberator.

At the time, Italy didn’t constitute a nation. As Metternich would later say, it was ’no more than a geographical expression.’ By establishing the Republic, Napoleon encouraged the hopes of an independent nation-state and kindled the sparks of Italian nationalism. Despite his demands for contributions, Italian nationalists had no choice but to place their trust in Napoleon.

The Republic was to be governed by the Italian pro-French Jacobins. Austrian governing institutions were abolished, together with feudal privileges. Napoleon’s other reforms included the establishment of national guard, abolition of internal tariffs which helped boost economic development and financial restructuring aimed at bringing down state debt. Napoleon also ended the restrictive guild system, imposed religious toleration, closed the ghettos and allowed freedom of movement to the Jews. The progressive middle class applauded the changes and there was no mass rebellion against Napoleonic rule in Italy.

Napoleon starts school at Brienne-le-Château

Despite being a military academy, Brienne was administered by the monks. Conditions were Spartan, with students sleeping on straw mattresses and being instructed for eight hours a day in mathematics, Latin, history, French, German, geography, physics, fortification, weaponry, fencing, dancing and music.

Napoleon was one of 50 scholarship students. His prodigious memory helped in his studies and he excelled at mathematics and geography. ‘To be a good general, you must know mathematics. It serves to direct your thinking in a thousand circumstances,’ he later observed. His weakest subject was German.

While his contemporaries played sports outside, the young Napoleon would devour works by Plutarch, Cicero, Voltaire, Erasmus and Virgil, among others, and could recite in French whole passages from his favourite books. One of his school nicknames, the Spartan, might have originated from his pronounced admiration of that city-state.

He didn’t make many friends and was teased mercilessly for his heavy Corsican accent and his poverty. ‘I was the poorest of my classmates,’ he reminisced. ‘I didn’t know how to play and smile like the others.’ His years at Brienne were a good foundation for the future Emperor. The school turned out a number of very distinguished generals besides Napoleon, including Louis-Nicolas Davout. General Jean-Charles Pichegru, who was later to conspire against Napoleon, was one of the school’s instructor.

Napoleon writes to the Directory, threatening to resign

The news had reached Napoleon that the Directory wanted to divide the command of the Army of Italy between himself and François Kellermann, the commander of the Army of the Alps. It was an understandable decision by a feeble government body that was concerned about the public adulation concentrating dangerously around General Bnaparte. After all, no government wanted to accord too much power to any one general.

The furious Napoleon wrote to Barras: ‘I will resign. I cannot be useful here unless I have your full confidence.’ He later famously added: ‘One bad general is better than two good ones. War, like government, is a matter of tact.’

It was a gamble but it paid off. Napoleon’s resignation threat, coming with the news of the victory at Lodi and the capture of Milan, ensured that no more was heard of the scheme.

Josephine lies to Napoleon about being pregnant

To avoid a journey to Italy to join her husband, Josephine told Murat she was pregnant. When Napoleon found out, he couldn’t be happier. ‘Would it were possible that I might have the happiness of seeing you with your little belly. Soon you will give life to a being who will love you as much as me. Your children and I, we shall always be around you to convince you of our care and love,’ he wrote to his wife.

It is possible that Josephine had a phantom pregnancy or a miscarriage. It is also possible that it was nothing more than a cruel ploy to avoid leaving Paris, where she had many amusements, including a very public affair with a dashing lieutenant in a Hussar regiment, Hippolyte Charles, who was nine years younger than her. ‘You would be mad about him,’ she wrote about Hippolyte to a friend – in stark contrast to the disdainful manner in which she spoke of her husband.

President Thomas Jefferson signs the Louisiana Purchase

For 80 million francs, at the cost of less than 4 cents an acre, the United States doubled its size, acquiring from France 875,000 square miles of territory that today comprises all or some of 13 states from the Gulf of Mexico to the Canadian border. Napoleon wrote to Talleyrand, ‘I renounce Louisiana. I know the price of what I abandon. I renounce it to the greatest regret. To attempt obstinately to retain it would be folly.’

The First Consul knew that hanging on to Louisiana might later draw him into the conflict with the Unites states and it was something he wanted to avoid. By helping the United States to continental greatness and enriching French treasury in the process, Napoleon was able to achieve an objective that had always been important to him. ‘I’ve just given to England a maritime rival that sooner or later will humble her pride,’ he said. He was right – within a decade the war of 1812 between the United States and Britain was to draw off British forces that were still fighting in 1815 and which otherwise might have been present at Waterloo.

Battle of Lodi

The Battle of Lodi was fought during the War of the First Coalition between French forces and an Austrian rear guard led by Karl Philipp Sebottendorf. Lodi can be described as a watershed moment of Napoleon’s career, the point when the first spark of high ambition was born. ‘I no longer regarded myself as a simple general,’ Napoleon later said of his victory. ‘But as a man called upon to decide the fate of peoples. It came to me then that I really could become a decisive actor on the national stage.

Even though Napoleon only faced the Austrian rear-guard and both sides suffered similar losses, the storming of the bridge at Lodi quickly became an integral part of the Napoleonic legend. It is true that it took tremendous courage to charge down the long, narrow bridge faced with cont
inuous grapeshot cannonade.

Several of the officers who led the attacks at the Battle of Lodi, including Louis-Alexandre Berthier, André Masséna and Jean Lannes, became Napoleon’s greatest commanders. Berthier was acting as a chief-of-staff, an artillery captain and a column commander on the day. He would never lead troops in a tactical capacity again as he was rightly considered to be too valuable to be risked in battle.

At the Battle of Lodi, Napoleon was dubbed Little Corporal by his men, the nickname he liked and encouraged as it emphasised his Republican origin and closeness to his troops.