The Distinguished Marshals of Napoleon: With the Life & Character of Napoleon Bonaparte1851 - 300 pages |
Other editions - View all
The Distinguished Marshals of Napoleon: With the Life & Character of ... Joel Tyler Headley No preview available - 2015 |
The Distinguished Marshals of Napoleon, With the Life and Character of ... Joel Tyler 1813-1897 Headley No preview available - 2021 |
The Distinguished Marshals of Napoleon: With the Life and Character of ... Joel Tyler Headley No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
afterwards allies amid appointed archduke artillery Austrian Austrian army avalanches awful battalions batteries battle battle of Aspern battle-field bayonets Bona Bonaparte Bonaparte's brave bravery bridge campaign cannon cavalry charge Cisalpine Republic column command commenced compelled Corsica Cossacks courage danger Danube dead death defeat Desaix desperate Directory Duke Elba emperor enemy English Europe famine fell field fifty thousand fight fire force fought France French army Genoa guard head horse hundred infantry Italy Joachim Murat Joseph Bonaparte Junot King Lannes length Macdonald Mantua marshal marshal of France Massena midst military Moreau morning Murat musketry Naples Napo Napoleon never night ordered Paris passed peace prisoners rallied ranks retreat roar Russian Sassello seemed sent shore shouts side snow soldiers soon Soult Splugen steed stood storm struggle swept terrible terrific throne thunder tion took Toulon troops valor victory white plume whole
Popular passages
Page 113 - The whole continental struggle exhibited no sublimer spectacle than this last effort of Napoleon to save his sinking empire. Europe had been put upon the plains of Waterloo to be battled for. The greatest military energy and skill the world possessed had been tasked to the utmost during the day. Thrones were tottering on the ensanguined field, and the shadows of fugitive kings flitted through the smoke of battle. Bonaparte's star trembled in the zenith, now blazing L out in its ancient splendor,...
Page 63 - Napoleon pulled off his hat, and, addressing him in a firm tone of voice, said, " I come to place myself under the protection of your prince and laws.
Page 114 - Ney felt the pressure of the immense responsibility on his brave heart, and resolved not to prove unworthy of the great trust committed to his care. Nothing could be more imposing than the movement of that grand column to the assault. That guard had never yet recoiled before a human foe, and the allied forces beheld with awe its firm and terrible advance to the final charge. For a moment the batteries stopped playing, and the firing ceased along the British lines, as without the beating of a drum,...
Page 115 - ... that human courage could not withstand it. They reeled, shook, staggered back, then turned and fled. Ney was borne back in the refluent tide, and hurried over the field. But for the crowd of fugitives that forced him on, he would have stood alone, and fallen on his footsteps.
Page 114 - Rank after rank went down, yet they neither stopped nor faltered. Dissolving squadrons, and whole battalions disappearing one after another in the destructive fire, affected not their steady courage. The ranks closed up as before, and each treading over his fallen comrade, pressed firmly on.
Page 118 - As he alighted from the coach, he advanced towards the file of soldiers drawn up as executioners, with the same calm mien he was wont to exhibit on the field of battle. An officer stepping forward to bandage his eyes, he stopped him with the proud interrogation, " Are you ignorant that for twenty-five years I have been accustomed to face both ball and bullets...
Page 278 - General Ott knew the character of the man he had to deal with too well to allow things to come to such an issue, and so granted him his own terms. When leaving, Massena said to the Austrian general, " I give you notice that ere fifteen days are passed I shall be once more in Genoa
Page 120 - He was also plain and direct even to bluntness, and often offended his friends by the freedom with which he spoke of their errors. He never lost sight of his low origin and was never ashamed of it. To some young officers boasting of their rank, titles, etc., he said, " Gentlemen, I was less fortunate than you. I got nothing from my family, and I esteemed myself rich at Metz, when I had two loaves of bread on my table.
Page 197 - The whole interest of the armies was concentrated here, where the incessant and rapid roll of cannon told how desperate was the conflict. Still Macdonald slowly advanced, though his numbers were diminishing, and the fierce battery at his head was gradually becoming silent. Enveloped in the fire of its antagonist, the guns had one by one been dismounted, and at the distance of a mile and a half from the spot where he started on his awful mission, Macdonald found himself without a protecting battery,...
Page 57 - Magdeburg, Danzig, Stettin, &c. surrendered to the allies. The enormous losses and reverses of the French armies, and the approach of the allies to the frontiers of France, produced a strong feeling of dissatisfaction in that country. The legislative body showed for the first time a spirit, of opposition to the headlong system of Napoleon. A committee was appointed to draw up a report on the state of the nation ; Raynouard, Laine, Gallois, and other members who had a character for independence, were...