The Napoleonic Wars: The Rise And Fall Of An Empire

350 Pages·2004·36.73 MB·English

by  Todd Fisher

Contents
Foreword by Bernard Cornwell 7
Introduction
10
Chronology
15
Part l:The rise of the Emperor 1805-1807
Background to war - A temporary peace 21
Warring sides - The armies prepare 27
The fighting From Ulm to the Treaty of Tilsit 36
Portrait of a soldier - Lannes. Marshal of France 94
Portrait of a musician at war - Philippe-Rene Girault 98
Part ll:The empires fight back 1808-1812
Background to war Mutiny and defiance 105
Warring sides - France. Austria, Russia 107
The fighting The Austrian campaign and the march on Moscow 113
Portrait of a soldier - Barclay de Tolly and Jacob Walter 172
Portrait of a civilian - Louise Fusil 178
How the period ended Napoleon under pressure 181
Part III:The Peninsular War 1807-1814
Background to war Perennial foes: Britain France and Spain 184
Warring sides Opposing forces 188
Outbreak - Origins of the conflict 195
The fighting A war of contrasts 200
Portrait of a soldier - Private Edward Costello. 95th Rifles 238
Portrait of a civilian - George Canning, British Foreign Secretary, 1807-1809 242
How the war ended - Anti-climax: The campaign of 1814 247
Part IV: The fall of the French empire 1813-1815
Background to war - Origins of Prussian and Russian hostility 253
Warring sides - Opposing forces 259
Outbreak A bid for revenge 266
The fighting - The 'War of German Liberation' and the invasion of France 271
Portrait of a soldier Captain Cavalie Mercer. Royal Horse Artillery 298
Portrait of a civilian Lord Castlereagh, British Foreign Secretary 302
How the war ended - Denouement at Waterloo 306
The world around war
313
Conclusion and consequences
321
Further reading and bibliography
339
Index
343
Foreword
by Bernard Cornwell
At around halt past seven on the apart as Moscow and Washington were put
smoke-shrouded evening of 18 June 1815, to the torch, and battles were fought in
Napoleon's Imperial Guard marched to their India, Egypt, the Caribbean and South
last attack. These were the Emperor's shock America. It was, truly, a World War, yet at
troops, battle-hardened veterans going to the heart of it was Europe, and at the heart
deliver the killing blow against an enemy of Europe was France, and at France's heart
desperately weakened by an afternoon's was Napoleon Bonaparte, the man who has
fighting. The sinking sun was hidden by given his name to the titanic struggles that
cloud and further obscured by powder ended on Waterloo's ridge.
smoke that thickened as the artillery on the The story of the Napoleonic Wars begins
low hill began to drive round shot, shells in 1802 with the Peace of Amiens, known to
and canister into the Guard's ranks. Hut some in Britain as 'the peace which passeth
cannon alone would never stop elite troops all understanding', an ironic quotation from
like the Guard who were marching in the Bible. The peace treaty, signed between
columns, each a thick mass of men driven by Britain and Trance, was, at best, cynical, for
the sound of drums, and watched by their both countries must have known the wars
Emperor as their Eagle-topped banners would begin again since their competing
advanced across sodden ground obstructed ambitions were utterly unresolved, and at
by hundreds of dead horses and men. stake was nothing less than the domination
Napoleon's finest troops, supported by the of the planet. The mighty British war fleets
survivors of the afternoon's attacks, already controlled the world's oceans, but
advanced across flattened rye that had been there had to be some purpose to that
scorched black by cannon lire, and so up the domination, and it was trade. The English,
gentle slope to where the enemy, they were Napoleon sneered, are a nation of
assured, needed just one blow to collapse. shopkeepers, but the shopkeepers had to be
The majority of the Imperial Guard had beaten if France's ambitions were to be
never met that enemy. It was British realised, and the chief of those ambitions
infantry, many of them veterans of the was to become the world's super-power. If
Peninsular War and trained to one deadly Britain fell then France could take her
skill; the delivery of musket volleys. And on growing empire and all the vast trade of the
the ridge of Waterloo, under the foul- world, the spices and sugar and cotton and
smelling gun smoke, the irresistible Imperial metals, would flow through Paris and from
Guard met the immovable redcoats. It was their profits Trance would become ever
the climax of the Napoleonic Wars and a richer, more powerful and glorious.
moment when history trembled in the This, then, is the story of a power
balance. The Guard could not know it, but struggle, and the odds, at the tale's
they were about to be defeated and with beginning, seem to favour the French.
them ended the Eagles, the Empire and Britain, it is true, has those great battle fleets,
twenty-two years of warfare. but her army is small, and the armies of her
That warfare had started in 1793, and the European allies have mostly suffered defeat
Napoleonic Wars are the second half of the at the hands of the resurgent French. The
long struggle that was sparked by the French Revolution thrust France into turmoil, but
Revolution. During those years capitals as far out of the wreckage emerges a conscript
8 The Napoleonic Wars
army which has astonished Europe with its but being one of three would never satisfy
victories, many of them gained by a young Napoleon and once again he used warfare to
Corsican officer who was christened establish his supremacy. Austria was still
Nabulion Buonaparte. He was born in 1769, France's most dangerous enemy on the
also the year of the birth of Arthur Wellesley, European mainland and Napoleon, in his
later the Duke of Wellington. Wellesley was second Italian campaign, defeated them
born to aristocratic privilege, but Napoleon's utterly and secured a peace treaty which
family, even though they claimed noble ceded vast areas to France. It was another
lineage, was impoverished. Corsica was a spectacular victory and Napoleon was
wild place on Europe's edge, and then, as rewarded by being made Emperor. He was
now, there was a struggle in the island 35 now, the sole ruler of France, and the
against French domination, but Napoleon, most feared soldier in Europe.
after flirting with the cause of Corsican That is where the story of the Napoleonic
independence, moved to France and trained Wars begins. 1 he Peace of Amiens, which
as an artillery officer. His rise, from that Britain and France signed after Austria's
moment, was extraordinary. In 1792 he was defeat, lasted little more than a year.
a lieutenant, and a year later, aged 24, he Napoleon had been trying to extend the
was a Brigadier-General thanks to his French empire overseas, specifically in the
brilliance in evicting the British fleet from sugar-rich West Indies, and Britain, seeing its
Toulon harbour. Two years later he used his trade supremacy threatened and, as ever,
artillery to suppress a revolt in Paris and was fearing an over-mighty power on mainland
rewarded with command of the French Europe, went back to war, and there would
armies fighting the Austrians in northern be little peace now for the next twelve years.
Italy. The war there was going badly for the That is the story you are about to read and it
French, but the young general, still in his is a magnificent tale, shot through with
mid-twenties, showed that he had a supreme horror and blood and heroism, and with an
talent for battle. The Austrians were ending so dramatic and unlikely that no
humiliated. Hollywood screenwriter or historical novelist
That campaign made Napoleon famous would dare to contrive it. It is, at times, a
and it did not hurt that, as a young man, complicated tale. It begins simply enough
he had rock star good looks. He became with Napoleon devising a plan to invade
corpulent later, but he never lost his Britain and thus end the wars at a single
youthful appetite for military conquest. stroke, but Nelson's victory at Trafalgar
After the Italian success he conceived an sealed the doom of that endeavour, and from
ambitious plan to take Egypt which, he then on Britain followed a twofold strategy.
declared, would offer a stepping stone to She encouraged her European allies to attack
India where France's native allies were France on land while she attempted to
fighting the British. He captured Egypt, but strangle French trade with her sea-power,
when his fleet was destroyed at Aboukir Bay but, when Napoleon's invasion of Spain and
by Horatio Nelson, he was effectively Portugal turned sour, Britain saw an
stranded in the desert. The campaign was a opportunity to intervene with her small
failure, but Napoleon evaded the British army. That resulted in what we know as the
naval blockade and, leaving his army Peninsular War, the chief contribution of the
behind, sailed to France and spun the British army to Napoleon's defeat and the
Egyptian adventure as a success. He arrived arena in which my fictional hero, Richard
in Paris when France was again in turmoil as Sharpe, has his adventures. It was, in truth, a
yet another post-revolutionary government sideshow, but one that drained French
collapsed and, from its wreckage, Napoleon strength and out of it emerged a re-
seized power. He became First Consul, one of invigorated British army, led by a man who
three men who led the French government, proved himself to be the pre-eminent soldier
Foreword 9
of the day, the Duke of Wellington. The describing. Then, when I need to know the
Duke had never fought Napoleon himself, colour of a French hussar's uniform or the
but on that rain-soaked ridge, south of exact weapon carried by a Spanish grenadier,
Brussels, in June 1815, the two finally met in it is back to the shelves for another Osprey
the horrendous clash of Waterloo, and from book. Now, in one volume, Osprey
that carnage emerged a world dominated by Publishing is gathering its narratives of
one super-power, Britain, that would last the Napoleonic Wars and in this book you
until, a century later, new armies and new will find all of the Osprey virtues; a concise
ambitions again tore Europe apart. and clear story presented with superb
Thousands of books have been written illustrations. It is, indeed, essential history,
about the wars. I have at least two thousand and its authors, Todd Fisher and Gregory
on my shelves, but whenever I am plotting Fremont-Barnes, bring it to vivid life. So,
new mischief for Sharpe I invariably start imagine yourself at the beginning of the
with an Osprey book because I know it will nineteenth century, with an overmighty
provide a well-written and comprehensible Emperor about to indulge his passion for
account of whatever campaign I am war . . . and read on.
Introduction
Background
Following the Berlin Decrees of December
1806, which had established the Continental
When Napoleon Bonaparte became First System, Napoleon sought ways to use this
Consul by coup d'etat on 9 November 1799 mainland European blockade against the
he issued an ominous proclamation to the British. The real hole in his net was the
soldiers of France: 'It is no longer a question Iberian peninsula.
of defending your frontiers, but of invading Spain, under a weak King Charles and a
enemy states.' The gauntlet was thus laid wicked first minister, Godoy, had been
down before the world, and England in France's official ally since 1795. Spain's
particular. No longer was France fighting to participation in the war had often been half-
defend the French Revolution but to expand hearted, and its major contribution, its navy,
her frontiers for larger and less definable aims. had been smashed by the British at Trafalgar,
In 179/5, Austria, Prussia, Spain, the United Godoy had flirted with the idea of joining
Provinces and England had formed the First Prussia in 1806 and attacking France from
Coalition and in the same year the young the south. At the time, Napoleon had been
Napoleon Bonaparte had shown his potential embroiled in his campaign in Germany, but
by freeing Toulon from a Royal Navy siege. be had learned of the scheme and had
He showed his star quality once again the bullied Spain into fulfilling her role as ally.
same year when he took command of the He had demanded they send the cream of
French Army fighting Austrian and Sardinian their army to northern Germany as Imperial
forces. support troops. Deprived of her main strike
In May 1798 Napoleon sailed from Toulon force. Spain had then had to sit out the war.
to Egypt with plans to conquer the Ottoman Napoleon's aim was to close off the
Empire. The French fleet was destroyed by Portuguese ports and on 21 October 1807
Admiral Nelson at Aboukir Bay, the French Godoy signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau
Army failed to take Acre and Napoleon allowing French troops access to Portugal via
returned to Paris in advance of the army. Spain. An army, under Junot, took Lisbon
In 1800 Napoleon launched an attack over that November and more French troops
the Alps to take on a larger Austrian force at followed into Spain.
Marengo on 14 June and snatched victory By this time, Spain was on the verge of
from the jaws of defeat. This was followed by civil war. Two opposing camps were forming,
the Treaty of Luneville in February 1801. one around the king, the other around
By 1802, Napoleon had not only signed Ferdinand, the king's son. When Ferdinand
the Peace of Amiens, which brought peace overthrew his father and arrested Godoy.
with England, but he also had a Concordat both camps appealed to Napoleon for
with the Vatican and had declared support. A conference with all parties was
Consulship for life. called in Bayonne in May 1808. Napoleon
The peace with England constituted a made the mistake of assuming that after the
period of consolidation before war broke out corrupt Bourbon family, the former rulers of
with even greater ferocity in May 1803. The France, the Spanish people would welcome a
pattern from now to 1806 was to be one of more liberal, efficient government. He
domination on land by the French and installed his brother Joseph upon the throne.
domination at sea by the British, culminating In fact the opposite was true. Joseph was
in the epic victory of Trafalgar in October 1805. crowned in Burgos on 7 July 1808 and entered
Introduction 11
Madrid only after a Spanish revolt had been exaggerated reports of French defeats in Spain
suppressed in the city. He was not to stay reaching the Austrians, they saw an
long. The French Suffered several reverses in Opportunity to strike.
the field and Joseph had to evacuate Madrid Napoleon could not have foreseen in
soon alter his arrival. By August, little of Spain 1807 the significance of the Peninsular War,
was left in French hands. however wise we have become with the benefit
Napoleon planned his counter-attack. His of hindsight. Napoleon's lightning campaigns
first step was to call a meeting in Erfurt with of I805-1807 were based on a system that
his new ally, Tsar Alexander of Russia. relied on rapid march and concentration of
following the French victories of 1805-07, force. The army lived off the land rather than
the Tsar had signed an alliance with Napoleon being dependent on lengthy supply lines,
at Tilsit. Austria had had first chance to play cumbersome commissariat wagons and static
this role of French ally, but had spurned the depots. In short, his armies fed themselves on
opportunity, preferring instead another the move, and maximum force could thus he
attempt to regain its losses of the last concentrated at a desired point. However,
15 years' conflict. She now stood alone Napoleon's experiences in east Prussia and
on the continent among the great powers, Poland in the first half of 1807 had shown how
wishing to renew the war against Napoleon. difficult it was to conduct operations when
The meeting at Erfurt, from September laboring under the twin disadvantages of poor
through October of 1808. was intended to land and roads, the Iberian Peninsula had both
secure the French peace while Napoleon these disadvantages. The Grande Armée could
moved into Spain to re-establish his brother sustain itself under such conditions for a
Joseph on the throne. Although Alexander limited period - but not for years on end.
agreed to hold up his end of the alliance and Extreme poverty, primitive communications by
keep an eye on Austria, he was not being road - in many cases merely a shabby dirt track
sincere. Talleyrand. Napoleon's Special envoy, - unnavigable rivers, and forbidding mountain
had been plotting against Napoleon and ranges created formidable obstacles to large
Trance. Throughout the Erfurt conference he bodies Of men and horses.
had held meetings with Alexander, urging The problems experienced by the French
him to feign compliance and divulging were greatly exacerbated by the fact that they
Napoleon's state secrets. faced not only the regular armed forces of the
When the conference ended, Napoleon Allies, but also the ordinary peoples of the
hurried south to join the army assembling Iberian peninsula themselves. As Clausewitz
along the Spanish border. France's honor put it a few years later: 'In Spain the war
was on the line, and with an eye to restoring became of itself an affair of the people ..."
it Napoleon began his campaign at the Ordinary French soldiers like Albert de Rocca,
beginning of November. Madrid fell once a veteran of many campaigns, captured the
again into French hands, but the effort essence of the kind of fanatical resistance that
meant that much of Napoleon's main he and his comrades faced:
army was now committed to the Spanish
enterprise. Not only were they fighting the We were not called to fight against
Spanish armies and the guerrillas, but they [professional] troops ... but against a people
now had to deal with the British, who had insulated from all the other continental nations by
landed an army in Portugal, under Sir Arthur its manners, its prejudices, and even the nature of
Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. its country. The Spaniards were to oppose to us a
While Napoleon was embroiled in Spain, resistance so much more the obstinate, as they
Austria was considering her options. believed it to be the object of the French
Still smarting from the defeats by government to make the Peninsula a secondary
Napoleon in 1796, 1800, and 1805, she state, irrevocably subject to the dominion of
looked for a chance of revenge. With wildly France.
12 The Napoleonic Wars
Indeed, the French soon discovered that the Devil. Such hitter sentiments had not
neither the geography nor the population been seen in Europe since the dreadful days
were at all hospitable. No conflict prior to of the wars of religion in the sixteenth and
the twentieth century posed such a daunting seventeenth centuries. So great was the depth
combination of native resistance and natural of feeling that even Protestant British troops
obstacles. Topographical features in Iberia were considered heretics: the Spanish even
ranged from the snow-capped Pyrenees to sometimes objected to the burial of those
the burning wastes of the Sierra Morena. If troops - their own allies - in consecrated
geography and climate were not extreme Catholic ground. The atheistic, liberal
enough, combatants were constantly subject principles of the French Revolution were seen
to virulent diseases including typhus, by many reactionary Spanish nobles and
dysentery, and malaria. clergymen as grave threats to their authority
Napoleon's decision to occupy Spain and property, to social harmony and the
proved a great miscalculation. Past spiritual righteousness of the one true
experiences of occupation in western and religion. The French became a convenient
central Europe were characterized, with some focus of attention for all Spanish society's
notable exceptions, by passive populations problems, not least its grinding poverty.
who submitted to French authority in The contrast between the conduct of the
general and in some cases to Bonapartist rule regular, professional forces and those of the
specifically. Spain was the only country guerrillas was remarkable. Two distinct types
occupied by France that Napoleon had not of war, one conventional and the other
entirely conquered. For the Emperor, waging unconventional, were quickly to emerge. The
war against regular armies was the stuff that British and French met in set-piece battles
had made his armies legendary in their own and skirmishes and generally treated each
time. However, in the Peninsula a national other with courtesy off the battlefield. In
cause, very different from that which had so fact, fraternization was commonplace,
animated the French during the 1790s, but despite Wellington's strict orders to the
just as potent, rapidly and inexorably spread contrary. Provided they were observed in
the spirit of revolt across the provinces. All advance, foraging parties were generally left
across Spain's vast rural expanse, with its in peace and sentries at outposts frequently
conspicuous absence of a large middle class, bartered goods, smoked together and
which might have acted as a moderate force, chatted. Informal truces between pickets
a virulent form of nationalism took firm enabled each side to exchange small
hold. Far from embracing any liberal notions numbers of badly injured prisoners.
of political or social reform on the model of The guerrilla war, however, marked a low
the French Revolution, this movement point in barbarity for both sides. Partisans,
championed a cause diametrically opposed whose proliferation proved unstoppable,
to change, with an anachronistic and almost ruthlessly cut down small groups of soldiers
blind faith in Crown and Church. In a at isolated posts, stragglers, and the
society that was overwhelmingly rural, the wounded. French troops regularly committed
mass of simple, ignorant peasantry held up atrocities in the countryside, including
the Bourbon monarchy as the defenders of pillage, murder, and arson. Atrocities
the true faith, descendants of their forebears committed by both sides rapidly assumed an
who had liberated medieval Spain from the enormous scale and a horrendous nature,
hated Moors. with reprisal feeding bloody reprisal, thus
In short, the war became something continuing the cycle of bitterness and
of a crusade, but of liberation rather than swelling the partisan ranks. The conflict in
conquest, and the clergy enthusiastically the Peninsula, therefore, being both a clash
invoked divine help in ridding the land of of professional armies and a struggle-
occupiers whom they portrayed as agents of involving entire peoples, contained elements
Introduction 13
of both conventional and unconventional despite having lost over half a million men,
warfare, making it a precursor in many ways Napoleon prepared for a new campaign in the
to the conflicts of the twentieth century. coming spring. The Russians, emboldened by
The Peninsular War spanned most of the Napoleon's retreat, were prepared to carry the
years of the Napoleonic Empire. When it war, which was to become the War of the
began the Emperor of France stood Sixth Coalition, into Germany, with Prussia as
triumphant over nearly the whole of the a junior partner in a new alliance.
European continent. The reputation of That this alliance had been preceded by
the British Army had not yet recovered five others provides a good indication of the
from its defeat in the War of American Great Powers' failure to curb French expansion
Independence and from its poor showing since the start of the wars two decades earlier.
in the French Revolutionary Wars, and Yet for Prussia and for a number of other
Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of German states, this new struggle was to have
Wellington, was only a minor general an ideological component which had been
whose destiny was not yet clear. Yet in the absent from her war of 1806-1807: the
course of the war Wellington heaped campaign of 1813 was to become known by
victory upon victory. By the time the war its patriotic title: the 'War of German
had ended, in 1814, the British Army had, Liberation'. The moral forces which had once
despite many retreats, marched from the given impetus to the armies of revolutionary
shores of Portugal to southern France, France were now coming back to haunt them,
emerging as one of the most professional, though with some adaptations. The Prussians
well-motivated, and efficient fighting forces had no desire for a republic, but their
ever to have left British shores, led by the nationalism had been awakened, and the war
nation's greatest soldier. That the French was to be for the liberation of 'Germany',
were doomed from the start is certainly more than half a century before an actual
open to question; but that the Peninsular nation state by that name emerged.
War ultimately played a critical role in the At this stage, the coalition did not contain
defeat of France is incontestable. all the Great Powers, yet unity was essential
Napoleon himself acknowledged the fact tor success. Some nations, such as Austria and
years later during his exile on St. Helena Sweden, wished to wait and see how the tide
when he admitted that of fortune moved, but ultimately they and
most of the former members of the
... that miserable Spanish affair turned Confederation of the Rhine, including
opinion against me and rehabilitated England. Bavaria and Saxony, would side with the
It enabled them to continue the war. The Allies in numbers which Napoleon could
markets of South America were opened to them; never hope to match. Britain, too, would play
they put an army on the Peninsula ... [which] a vital diplomatic and financial role in the
became the agent of victory; the terrible node of war, ensuring Allied unity and providing
all the intrigues that formed on the Continent ... millions of pounds in subsidies to nations
[the Spanish affair] is what killed me. that could supply the manpower required.
Britain had committed tens of thousands of
By 1810 Napoleon had established an men to the ongoing struggle in Spain, and
empire in Europe that surpassed that of continued to man the fleets which blockaded
Charlemagne a millennium before. Yet French ports and starved Napoleon's empire
within the space of a few years it would of seaborne trade.
collapse and the battles that were fought Yet Napoleon was not to be daunted by
during the climactic years 1813-15, included circumstances that lesser commanders might
two of the most decisive in history. have deemed hopeless. Quickly raising new
The seeds of destruction were sown during armies composed of young, inexperienced
the Russian campaign in 1812. after which, conscripts and invalided veterans, but