Background Briefing

Napoleon's return from Elba
Carl von Steuben(PD)

Okay, so I'm back from vacation (my return was nowhere near as spectacular as Napoléon's return from Elba depicted above) and ready (in so far as that goes) to get back to writing. But before I begin with the continuation of my "What If" series on the Battle of Waterloo, I decided to give you, my oh-so-patient readers, a bit of background on the time period in question. That time period being the spring of 1815, the place being the continent of Europe.

We're two episodes into the series and what has happened so far - well, the Emperor has ordered the executions of his Minister of Police, one Joseph Fouché, and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, one Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. Both men had been against the Emperor since about 1808. Talleyrand may have actually cared about France, Fouché cared about Fouché and not much else.

During the actual Hundred Days Campaign (which is the overarching name for the short period in which Napoléon returned to Paris, 20 March 1815, to the subsequent return of King Louis XVIII to the French throne, 8 July 1815) Napoléon had to watch his back. He had to be in the field with his army and he needed people he could trust in Paris. In real life he left Marshal Davout, perhaps his best field commander, behind in Paris. Probably to keep an eye on Fouché and Talleyrand.

By disposing of them, he could bring Davout on campaign, as I figure it. Leaving another Marshal behind in Paris to watch the politicians would suffice.

Now Napoléon had a number of marshals (maréchal in French), most of whom won their batons (they are the equivalent of field marshals, something the USA doesn't have because George Marshall didn't want to be known as Field Marshal Marshall, so I've been led to believe) by merit, either on the battlefield or for political reasons.

Hey, there were a number of old republicans and anti-monarchists, mostly in Paris, who weren't thrilled when Napoléon declared himself Emperor, (okay the people did vote on it, but that vote was kinda-sorta not above board, something we in the USA are all too familiar with these days) and to mollify them, a couple of their guys were made marshals. With Paris, one must always appeal to the "people," often called the "mob" if one were to be completely honest.

Anyhoo, some of those marshals were extremely good at fighting, Davout, in my opinion, being only second to the Emperor himself. And in some respects better in the field than Napoléon. Jean-de-Dieu Soult was also a damned good fighter, but as the real Waterloo showed, he sucked at staff work.

Which brings us to Louis-Alexandre Berthier, perhaps the best staff officer in military history. Many of Napoléon's victories can be traced to Berthier's excellent staff work. He could translate Napoléon's thoughts and intentions into tangible orders which could be sent to the troops, understood, and acted upon.

Soult failed miserably at that.

Berthier died under very suspicious circumstances on the 1st of June, 1815, falling from a window to his death in Bamberg, Germany. Some speculate that he had help in falling from that window. Personally, I think Berthier was murdered to prevent him from rejoining the Emperor on campaign. Which led to a lot of mistakes, bad staff work, missing messages, and just all around confusion when to succeed, Napoléon needed everything to be just so. Under Soult that didn't happen.

Now the point of the story is to examine ways in which Napoléon Bonaparte could have won at Waterloo and what might have happened in the aftermath of a French victory. The precursors for such a victory required, in my mind, that Davout and Soult accompany the Emperor to Belgium, in command of troops, with Berthier handling the details of moving and fighting the army Napoléon took with him into Belgium.

What about Maréchal Ney, the bravest of the brave, Prince de la Moskowa, Duke of Elchingen? The man was a scrapper, someone you wanted beside you in a barfight or in a desperate retreat, like from Russia, where he was allegedly the last French soldier to depart Russian soil in 1812.

Well, he did fight at Waterloo, man was an inspiration, had multiple horses shot out from under him, but ...

He tended to lose his mind in a fight, instead of directing his forces, he'd put himself at their head and charge headlong into the enemy. I mean, he started life as a light cavalry sergeant ya know? Never really forgot those days I guess.

He's also the guy who promised Louis XVIII that he would intercept Napoléon on his march to Paris and bring him back "in an iron cage." He'd also been one of the marshals who had insisted on the Emperor's first abdication in 1814. There's an old saying, "once a traitor, always a traitor." While I'm not saying it applied to Maréchal Ney, after all he's one of my favorite soldiers from history, that thought did cross the Emperor's mind after the battle.

Ney may also have been suffering from PTSD from his time in Russia, which I have no proof of, but many historians have speculated that that was the case, especially after the horrors of the Russian Campaign. I tend to agree with them based on his behavior during the Hundred Days.

So will Ney march into Belgium with the Armée du Nord? I can't say yet, he probably will, but I can't think of a job for him, not with Davout and Soult on the ground. One guy I haven't mentioned is Maréchal Emmanuel de Grouchy, many blame him for the loss at Waterloo. Many think he should never have been promoted to marshal. I tend to agree with that camp.

So there you go, the background behind this latest series. We'll see how it goes.

In other news ...

I enjoyed my time away from the internet over the past few weeks. I'm still not sure if the blog will remain a going concern, it seems so easy to just walk away. While it's not easy to continue, on the gripping hand, it would be hard to just stop. We'll see how things go.

Ciao!