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Praetorium Honoris

Friday, July 7, 2023

Épilogue

Napoléon on Board the Bellerophon
Sir William Quiller Orchardson
(Source)
The Emperor, betrayed by many in the French government, particularly Fouché and Talleyrand, had attempted to flee to America. He was under great pressure to depart France, after all the Allies had declared war against the man, not the nation. The men in power had betrayed him once, they did so now.

As he stood at the taffrail looking at the English coast at Portsmouth, Napoléon Bonaparte went over in his head again and again as to exactly why his campaign to defeat the English and their allies and the vicious Prussians failed so miserably.

The portion of the Armée du Nord under his direct command had not only collapsed on the battlefield and fled without even attempting to stand but had also shed deserters all the way back to France. Ney had abandoned the army and returned to Paris on his own, seeking to win favor with the government which had rejected the Emperor.

Grouchy had somehow managed to bring his wing of the army back into France, intact and ready for action. If only he had handled his troops during the fateful period of 17 to 18 June in the same manner then perhaps the battle at Mont St. Jean would have been a resounding victory.

He heard a footstep on the deck, he turned to see one of his aides, Général de Division Savary.

"What news Savary? I saw a boat come alongside earlier. Are we allowed to proceed to America?"

From the look on Savary's face, Napoléon expected bad news. He was not disappointed in that regard.

Savary looked at his emperor with sadness, "Sire, the English government has denied your requests. You won't be allowed ashore in England and you will not be allowed to proceed to America."

Savary looked down at the deck, a single tear fell down his cheek.

"There is more?" Napoléon asked.

"I have been denied permission to accompany you into exile. I will be sent to Malta."

"Ah, Malta. Am I to be returned to Elba?"

"No Sire, Saint Helena. I have never heard of it, one of the sailors said that it ..."

"Yes, yes, it lies some 400 leagues off the west coast of Africa. A mere flyspeck in a vast sea. Apparently the English are terrified of me. They should have me executed, but they know France would rise in anger. I suppose the English are being clever."

"You are to be a prisoner there, Sire."

"I would expect no less."


Capitaine Joseph Martin, late of the Armée du Nord, actually stayed with Grouchy during the retreat back to France. Due to his badly bruised leg, which had yet to heal properly, he was discharged from the army. He promptly returned home.

His wife Marie eventually forgave him for abandoning the family to march with Napoléon one more time. Their son Claude, grew up to see another Napoléon as emperor, a nephew of the first emperor. He was too old to serve in that army, as he had three daughters, none of his children served in that army either.

Something for which he often thanked God.


Sergent Nicolas Guilbert was killed in action during the Old Guard's final attempt to drive the Prussians from Plancenoit. His old comrade, Sergent Jean-Claude Toussaint spent a large part of the rest of his own life trying to gain the Legion of Honor for his friend Guilbert.

But as all the witnesses, save Toussaint, had not survived the campaign, there was no one else to vouch for Guilbert's bravery in his last action.

Guilbert was buried in a mass grave on the battlefield.


Sergeant Hans Pizzeck was found in the ruins of Plancenoit, barely alive. He was evacuated to a Prussian field hospital where he died a week after the battle.


Brigadier Tomasz Kasprowicz survived the battle, as did his horse Liliana. He was one of the few survivors of his troop to make it back to France.

The morning after the battle, somewhere south of Genappe, he saw a familiar face, Jean-Pierre Benoit of the 12th Chasseurs.

"Brigadier Benoit! Do you remember me?"

Benoit turned, he was on foot as his horse had broken a leg in the night. He stared for a moment then said, "The Pole! The one I talked to on my farm before this business began!"

"I see you rejoined the army." Kasprowicz said, stating the obvious.

"Yes, my brother Hercule called me an idiot on the morning of the battle. I daresay he was right, but ..."

"Did your brother ..."

"To the best of my knowledge, he is dead. Died going back up that damned ridge."

A black look crossed Kasprowicz's face, "We lost many a comrade on that ridge."

Seeing something in the near distance, Kasprowicz told Benoit, "Wait here."

Moments later he returned with a horse, an artillery horse. Kasprowicz shrugged and said, "Better than no horse at all."

"Yes, better than walking."


In the inn on the Brussels chaussée, where the Duke had his headquarters, Wellington was writing his dispatch to the government describing his victory over the French. At the last minute he added a note saying that the Prussians had been an immense help.

He had been notified of the death of his aide, Alexander Gordon, shortly after he had finished the dispatch. He had gone upstairs in the inn, his own bed was taken, it was where Gordon had died, and found a room whose occupant had also not survived the battle.

He sat in the dark for a while, staring out the window at the night. The adrenalin from the battle had yet to wear off, he couldn't sleep even had he wanted to.

The thought struck him, sometime in the early hours before dawn of the 19th of June. Quietly, he whispered to the darkness outside his window ...

Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won.




Finis



34 comments:

  1. Harsh. Brutal. Concise. For some reason I hear it in the voice of Richard Burton, a la "Zulu," reading the names of those awarded the VC.

    Well done, as usual.

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    1. You and I have similar tastes in movies. Another great film!

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  2. Sarge, one wonders if Napoleon had the ability in exile to reflect upon the 100 days and reconsider whether or not it had been the thing to do.

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    1. He spent a lot of time on St Helena dictating his memoires. He also spent a lot of time on the 100 days, most of it blaming Ney and Grouchy for the failure of said campaign.

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  3. Superb. If I had read this in high school, I might have found history interesting then, instead of something to escape from. Thank you. Your telling of this has involved my mind and heart in a way I did not expect, that will be good for me. History is not -- or need not be -- boring.

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    1. History isn't boring, only some teachers of it are ...

      Thanks, htom!

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    2. In the right hands (or pen), history comes alive!.

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    3. I've had some really good ones over the years.

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    4. Conversations with H.S. classmates leads me to think I had great history teachers there, but could not "hear" them because neither my head nor my heart were in that classroom then, sandwiched between math and physics classes.

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    5. Makes sense. Sometimes the student is at fault.

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  4. Replies
    1. Good question, his brother Joseph (once upon a time King of Spain) lived in the USA from 1817 to 1832, though Wikipedia says he arrived in the US the month after Waterloo. But he was nowhere near as notorious as Napoléon.

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  5. Yet another superb piece, Sarge. Ending with a perfect thought for reflection.
    BG

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  6. "Next to a lost battle, nothing is so sad as a battle that has been won."
    Won or lost, it's the cost of battle to all.

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    1. Those who fall have no part in either victory or defeat.

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  7. The Battle of Waterloo ushered in a century of (relative) peace between the great powers, the so-called 'Pax Britannica'. Domestically in the UK it lead to the passing of the 1824 Vagrancy Act, sections of which remained in place into the C21 as well as the setting up of full time police forces to keep the peace instead of relying on the army or the yeomanry.
    One of the offences was 'exhibiting wounds or deformities'. The act was designed to deal with the many jobless and homeless veterans of the war who were seen as a threat to public order.
    Retired

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    1. The major powers wouldn't go at each other hammer and tongs until 99 years after Waterloo, fairly peaceful for the continent.

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  8. Just like that it's over & in the history books. Not just the history books, it seems a lot of people wanted to tell the story in paint.
    Well done!

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    1. One day I shall get to those paintings, as lovely as they are, many contain major historical inaccuracies. Too many Highlanders in kilts for one thing! (Only three Highland regiments wore the kilt at Waterloo, the 42nd, the 79th, and the 92nd. The 71st Highland Light Infantry did not wear kilts and looked very much like any other British regiment save for the diced border around the base of their shakoes.)

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    2. My guess is that the 42nd, 79th and 92nd were Highland regiments while the rest of the Scottish were Lowland or Midland recruited regiments. As it really is that simple. Highlanders were the kilt people, the Lowlanders and Midlanders were just 'English' with Scottish accents. (A gross simplification of an issue that had been around since before the Norman invasion.)

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    3. The 71st was indeed a Highland regiment, they just didn't wear the kilt at the time. The other non-Highland Scottish regiments at Waterloo were:
      - 2nd (Royal North British) Dragoons (the Scots Greys)
      - 2nd Battalion, Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards (still called the Coldstream Guards today)
      - 2nd Battalion, 3rd Regiment of Foot Guards (known today as the Scots Guards)
      - 2nd Battalion, 73rd (Perthshire) Regiment of Foot
      - 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment of Foot (The Royal Scots)

      Remember, most of Wellington's army was not British at all. A Midlander is not a Scot at all, the Midlands is well south of Scotland. Militarily, back in the day, Scotland had three regions which raised regiments: the Highlands, the Lowlands, and the Borders.

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  9. Thank you for the time and effort to enlighten and entertain us. Great stuff.
    I learned a lot.
    JB

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    1. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing!

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  10. Excellent. Everyone loves looking at the paintings and reading the good accounts of the battle. Not a lot deal with the losses and broken families and countries. And the long-term costs, like 'Retired' pointed out above.

    Would Napoleon have come out of exile if the French government at the time hadn't been so feckless? That's a real question. I figure he was scheming to return no matter what, but the way the government was acting just gave him an excuse. But after Waterloo? Yeah, too charismatic of a person to not keep locked away.

    He would have been trouble if he came to America, especially if he came to the Louisiana area. He would have had access to a lot of anti-England patriots and their money, especially fresh off the hatred from the War of 1812.

    He was lucky he wasn't hanged, or accidentally died in custody or died trying to escape.

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    1. Another reason for his escape from Elba is that he was promised a yearly stipend from the French government. Louis, being a Bourbon, reneged on that deal. So if they had paid him, who knows. But many in France were unhappy with the return of the nobles. I doubt Napoléon had that solely in mind when he returned to the throne, but it was a factor.

      One could make the argument (there is a lot of evidence to support this) that Napoléon Bonaparte did "accidentally" die in custody on St. Helena. ("Oops, how did that arsenic get in there!")

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    2. You have to admit that after he "accidentally" died Europe and the rest of the world didn't have anymore trouble with him...

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    3. Or it could have just been another incident of a vet with PTSD not wanting to deal with the pain, agony and nightmares.

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    4. Beans - The British, or perhaps someone in his entourage, poisoned him. While that may or may not be provable in a courtroom, the evidence is strong. Though suicide might be possible, it seems unlikely, given the man's history.

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  11. C'est très bon.

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  12. Bravo, Sarge! Magnifique!
    --Tennessee Budd

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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