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| Imperial Guard at Waterloo Aleksandr Yurievich Averyanov (Source) |
The light is dying, the Imperial Guard has been repulsed in their attack on the British center, von Bülow's Prussian IV Corps has taken Planchenoit in the French right rear, Prussian cannon fire sweeps the road leading back to France, von Zieten's Prussian I Corps has linked up with the Anglo-Allied left, French resistance on that flank has collapsed.
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| Situation, early 18 June 1815 (PD) |
The French Army has broken, unit cohesion has been lost, men are now fleeing as individuals, Allied and Prussian cavalry reap a grim harvest among the fleeing French.
Only a few squares of Napoléon's Old Guard are still standing. Slowly withdrawing in the face of repeated cavalry and infantry attacks. Cannon fire slowly rips men from the formations. Napoléon's army is dying in the dim twilight of a Sunday in June, in the year 1815.
The Imperial Guard are the army's elite, men of long service, proven bravery, and many campaigns. They have seen life under the returned Bourbons (and despised it), they remember the victories throughout Europe. As many soldiers do, they forget the hardships, the defeats, the death of comrades.
Well, in public they forget, who knows what lay deep in their hearts.
As the army disintegrated, was it their pride that held them together?
No, perhaps for some, but for most it was not wanting to let down the men standing next to him on either side. France was a concept, most of these men had tried civilian life and found it wanting.
So they stood their ground, many died, and eventually they too slipped into the gathering night, abandoning the field, abandoning their hopes and dreams. The Empire was dead, what purpose did they have now?
Defeat is harsh, especially after years of victory. Waterloo was not the first time those men had tasted defeat. No, they had seen that in Russia, in Spain, on the fields near Leipzig in 1813. But this campaign was a last throw of the dice, if only they could win, they could go back to the way things were ...
But history seldom allows that. So those men, like many before and many since, died rather than surrender, they fought to the bitter end. And like the old man in Dylan Thomas' great poem ...
Do not go gentle into that good night.Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Or as juvat might put it, "Never give up, never surrender."
Pray for better days ahead.
I am hoping for better ones. They would be hard put to get worse!
ReplyDeleteIt could very easily get a lot worse.
DeleteVery easily and the worse is in the news already.
DeleteYup.
Delete"Better days ahead" is something worth dreaming about.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
DeleteSarge, this makes me mindful of the last scene in the recent film "All Quiet On The Western Front" which we discussed, where the commanding German general pushes for one last attack literally minutes before the ceasefire is to take place. Many of the German soldiers have already left or are leaving; some small core remains to conduct what is a hopeless effort literally minutes or seconds (as the movie would have it) before the fighting stopped.
ReplyDeleteThe General (safely in his headquarters during all of this) grew up in the military tradition of Imperial Germany and cannot imagine a world without it. For the soldiers though, what pushed them out? Duty? Their comrades? A realization that the world that they knew was passing away and, consciously or unconsciously, they realized it would not be the same and they quite possibly had no place in it?
One is also recollected of Cato the Younger (Cato Uticensis) whom, having lost in the Civil War with Caesar, chose suicide rather than Caesar's pardon (which likely would have been given). Cato could not live in the now enervated republic ruled by a dictator; Caesar begrudged him his suicide and denying him the chance to pardon him.
It is a hard thing to see the world you knew, perhaps grew up with and lived the bulk of your life in, disappear - even if it is a horrible sort of system, it is the only system you know.
May we see better days indeed.
I remember reading that Pershing did the same, pushing men into the meat grinder until 11:11. I think I remember reading about a Congressional investigation into that, POCIRC.
DeleteTB - What can you do when everything you know and love is crumbling?
DeleteSTxAR - Pershing was against the Armistice, Congress did investigate but I'm having trouble finding the results of that investigation. His orders were to fight on until the last.
DeleteMy mind runs to what is going to face my grandkids, if I just roll over and quit. I don't like the thoughts that spring up. After the disabling, I can't run, I can't go toe to toe, blow for blow. But I can be a speed bump. If that's my lot, so be it. I can drive my shield into the dirt and hold fast.
ReplyDeleteWatch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Hold fast, sometimes it's all that's left.
DeleteFighting from fixed positions is a valid thing in warfare. That one point, sweeping a road or other choke point, can often do more damage to timetables and men than a line of riflemen.
DeleteAnd be like the Viking on the Bridge at Stamford. Hold against the Saxons so your friends and family can egress.
I can provide a base of fire as well as the next guy. Ain't gonna be maneuvering with anything approaching alacrity.
DeleteThat's what that M8 Greyhound or the M113ACAV in the garage is for.
Delete😎
DeleteSometimes, nothing remains but to fight.
ReplyDeleteAye.
Delete^^hogday^^
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteThen out spoke brave Horatius, the Captain of the Gate:
ReplyDelete"To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late;
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods
(One day I’ll work out how to log back in! Hogday.
An early example. Just re-read the history behind that poem, sometimes it comes down to a small band sacrificing all for the greater good.
DeleteThe poem is great to those that have not read it:
Delete"Haul down the bridge, Sir Consul,
with all the speed ye may;
I, with two more two more to help me,
shall hold the foe in play.
In yon strait pass a thousand
may well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand
and keep the bridge with me?"
👍
DeleteI do every single day. I wouldn't mind a little sign that those days are coming though!
ReplyDeleteJust a wee glimmer of hope would be nice.
DeleteWe see it here in Florida.
DeleteVery true, it's almost as if Florida is the last bastion of the Republic.
DeleteIt is, as a state, one of the few places where common sense still is found in large amounts. Subject, of course, to the blue cities that screw everything up.
DeleteI don't want DeSantis to leave until there's another DeSantis to replace him. Sigh.
I don't blame you!
DeleteAmong the many issues with the Red party is the fact that their succession plans either do not exist or are very weak. Companies can spend years grooming successors. Perhaps instead of only worrying about winning the next election, some thought could go into winning the election years hence.
DeleteAnd even more thought given to the desires and hopes of the American people ...
DeleteThe Old Guard sold their lives in order to protect the French retreat. I would argue they succeeded in this goal, as Napoleon believed he could rally the remnants, recruit new conscripts, and link up with Grouchy for another go. If I recall, Ney helped talk him out of this.
ReplyDeleteLet us also not forget, the Guard were invited to surrender on the field by the British. They refused—most colorfully, if you believe some of the sources.
I would agree with this assessment up to a point. That so many of the French were able to make their way south back to France has more to do with the sheer exhaustion of the Allies and the Prussians.
DeleteBut it must be said that the Old Guard did go down fighting.
They died as they had lived. I'm sure that's how many of them wanted to go out. The fact that we are still talking about them with reverence more than two centuries hence is a testament to their stoic resolve in the face of certain death.
DeleteConcur!
DeleteAs the days pass the prayers go longer, with the news there's need for them. This Constitutional Republic of ours hasn't fallen yet Sarge.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it teeters on the brink.
Delete"No, perhaps for some, but for most it was not wanting to let down the men standing next to him on either side."
ReplyDeleteI think, even more, is not wanting to let down those who had given "the last full measure." Maybe to keep a promise made to comfort a comrade whose life was slipping away, a promise to carry on to the end. Or even a promise made to himself, "I'll not live on my knees, but fight as long as I can draw breath."
Or maybe it is the whole God, Country, Honour thing.
Or a stew of all the above.
I wouldn't argue against you, Joe.
DeleteOne of the reasons I stopped writing the “blog - D4” , I was getting too close to seeing clearly my part in the “military industrial complex”. The older I get (a blessing for me BTW), the more I reflect. I still love to throw nails on the road to socialism. A tire gets popped now and then.
ReplyDeleteI see my part very clearly in that complex, sad but I like to feed my family.
DeleteAs for making things difficult for the Left, whenever and wherever I can.
Make the best you can, from what you can, for as long as you can. Finding my peace in doing for others.
ReplyDeleteThat helps, every little bit helps. If enough people do that, things will get better.
DeleteSometimes, you know, you just have to say "Copulate it" and do the right thing. Even if that means you die.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has a Gotterdamerung moment, it is whether one can actually reach that moment is the question. Go down with a death guard around you, or at least trying to go down with a death guard (hint: It's the act of trying that gets you picked by Valkyrie, not the quantity, though that helps.) It is a very noble way of leaving this earth if done for a good reason.
I fear that a lot of old people are being pushed to moment by current politics. Seriously, I am surprised that more old and/or no longer tied to this Earth because no longer have anything left people haven't decided to go kinetic.
Good points Beans, beware those with nothing left to lose.
Delete