Waterloo: Myth and Reality

By Gareth Glover

“A radical re-assessment . . . This is fascinating stuff . . . a most useful addition to the Waterloo—and indeed Napoleonic—bookshelf.”—Military Modelling Magazine
 
More has probably been written about the Waterloo campaign than almost any other in history. It was the climax of the Napoleonic Wars and forms a watershed in both European and world history. However, the lethal combination of national bias, willful distortion and simple error has unfortunately led to the constantly regurgitated traditional “accepted” version being significantly wrong regarding many episodes in the campaign. Oft-repeated claims have morphed into established fact, and it is high time that these are challenged and finally dismissed.
 
Gareth Glover has spent a decade uncovering hundreds of previously unpublished eyewitness accounts of the battle and campaign, which have highlighted many of these myths and errors. In this groundbreaking history, based on extensive primary research of all the nations involved, he provides a very readable and beautifully balanced account of the entire campaign while challenging these distorted claims and myths, and he provides clear evidence to back his version of events. His thoughtful reassessment of this decisive episode in world history will be stimulating reading for those already familiar with the Napoleonic period, and it will form a fascinating introduction for readers who are discovering this extraordinary event for the first time.
 
“An enjoyable and informative review of the battle that shaped Europe for the next two centuries.”—Firetrench

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781473838345

Gareth Glover

Gareth Glover is a former Royal Navy officer and military historian who has made a special study of the Napoleonic Wars for the last 30 years.

Book preview

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Chapter 1

The Emperor Returns

At 4pm on 1 March 1815 a small skiff rode through the breakers, the rowers shipping their oars and the boat grinding to a halt on the wide expanse of sands of the Golfe Juan on the French Côte d’Azure. The first man to disembark on French soil wore a plain green military coat and white breeches, and once off the boat he immediately strode purposefully towards the neighbouring dunes and the waiting band of soldiers encamped there. Few observers of this little scene could have known that they were actually witnessing the return from exile of the ex-Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, nor could they have envisaged the upheaval this seemingly innocuous scene would cause, not only within Europe but across the entire world.

Napoleon Bonaparte had risen to power by a military coup, becoming First Consul in 1799 and eventually proclaiming himself Emperor in 1804. His previous renown as a general was initially equalled by his genuine desire to reform all aspects of French society, its laws and institutions; however, the heavily policed and centralised state he created became repressive, with the newspapers becoming merely an arm of the state. In short, his government slowly transformed into what today would be regarded as a dictatorship ruled by a military junta. As a general, the stunning success of his Italian campaigns, including the battles of Arcola and Rivoli, had been only slightly marred by the defeat of his overly ambitious scheme to possess Egypt on the road to British India, being thwarted, not for the last time, by British naval supremacy.

But the ambitions of Napoleon Bonaparte could not be satisfied within the confines of France itself for long. An impoverished France had turned to funding its large and hugely expensive armies by conquest. The Low Countries, together with the neighbouring German states and Italian kingdoms, were systematically subjugated and then pillaged not only for their wealth but also for manpower to expand the French army even further. Such a policy of aggrandisement was sure to evoke a response from the great powers of Europe, who regarded this expansionist policy with its accompanying revolutionary fervour as a direct threat to their ancient monarchies. A number of grand alliances had been formed by these disparate nations, who had found a common theme to unite them. However, Napoleon slowly induced each of the countries involved to sue for peace, until in 1802 the Peace of Amiens was signed with the last antagonist Britain, and Europe caught its collective breath as peace finally reigned throughout.

But bad faith on both sides, underlined by their reluctance to give up control of strategically vital possessions, caused the fragile peace to break irrevocably; it had lasted only fourteen months. At this point it became obvious that France and Britain would remain bitter enemies until an outright winner had emerged. France increased its power on the European mainland, Napoleon winning stunning victories against the Austrians, Prussians and Russians, notably at Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstadt, Eylau and Friedland. By 1807 the French Empire included the Low Countries, Italy and the great majority of Germany and Poland, its numerous principalities forcibly amalgamated into a number of larger kingdoms; these were brought under French control within the Confederation of the Rhine. But while France had conquered swathes of mainland Europe, Britain, excluded from the continent, had developed its navy and hence its global empire, in the process capturing many of France’s overseas possessions and thus strengthening her naval dominance further. Resistance to Napoleon directly focused Britain on its dominance of trade and the world trade routes and set the British on course to build their own empire, which would exceed anything seen previously.

France was now at its zenith, and peace was brought to mainland Europe by the Treaty of Tilsit. But over-ambition would be Napoleon’s downfall. Not satisfied with his present empire and determined to bring his arch enemy, Britain, to its knees, Napoleon sought to impose throughout Europe a total embargo on trade with Britain, and to enforce this he over-extended himself. Invading Portugal and Spain would prove costly, although an opportunistic attempt by Austria to regain some ground in Germany, initially producing hope at the Battle of Aspern-Essling, was cruelly shattered at Wagram. Likewise, marching over half a million men to Moscow proved disastrous, especially when less than a tenth of his army managed to survive the Russian winter. Meanwhile his armies in Spain were losing heavily to British and Portuguese forces under the Duke of Wellington. Their successes shattered Napoleon’s aura of invincibility. No longer did the great European powers cower before him, and an alliance of Prussia, Russia and Austria, heavily funded by British gold, now brought overwhelming numbers against him.

Napoleon, however, was never more dangerous than when he appeared to be beaten. He miraculously conjured up new armies and trounced the allies at Dresden, only to be cornered at Leipzig and heavily defeated. The war in 1814 was now fought within France itself, with the allies entering the country from the east, while Wellington crossed the Pyrenees from Spain. Napoleon fought masterfully with much reduced numbers, but the allied tactics of retiring when faced by Napoleon himself and advancing whenever he was not personally in their front eventually allowed their superior numbers to overcome. Despite their superiority, the allies continually offered terms that would have allowed the French Emperor to retain his throne and some of his territorial gains along the Rhine. But ever vainglorious, Napoleon over-reached himself with impossible demands and the offers were withdrawn.

Finally, with the French capital left relatively undefended, the allies persuaded Marshal Marmont to surrender his force, and Paris fell on 30 March. Napoleon looked to fight on, but his marshals met him at Fontainebleau on 3 April 1814 and made it clear that the game was up. On 6 April Napoleon formally abdicated and seven days later he took poison in an apparent suicide attempt, but the mixture only made him ill and he recovered. A week later the ex-Emperor was escorted to the south by a group of allied plenipotentiaries through hostile French crowds, particularly at Moulins, where he was forced to don civilian clothing to conceal his identity, en route to the coast at Frejus. Here, Napoleon boarded HMS Undaunted, which carried him and his bodyguard – 600 volunteers from his Guard – to his new island kingdom of Elba, where he landed on 4 May 1814.

Napoleon initially feigned pleasure and great vitality in improving his new kingdom, with new industries and roads developed. However, he remained fully aware of events within France and received numerous visits from those still loyal to his cause, as well as his family. Acutely aware that the Bourbons had rapidly expunged the good will of the French nation, and unable to maintain his kingdom without the promised pension from Louis XVIII of 2 million francs per year, which failed to materialise, Napoleon simply bided his time and chose the perfect moment to reappear on the international stage.

When his British observer, Colonel Sir Neil Campbell, departed for Florence for the sake of his health, Napoleon hastily completed his preparations to leave Elba. His tiny fleet – the brig Inconstant, the four small transports Etoile, Saint Esprit, Caroline and Saint Joseph, and two feluccas – sailed on 26 February 1815, just as Captain Adye of HMS Partridge, the patrol ship, sailed to Livorno to collect Campbell, who was now fit to return. The little convoy made slow headway in very light winds but Napoleon’s traditional luck at sea continued as he avoided the suspicion of three French royalist ships, Melpomene, Fleur de Lys and Zephir, patrolling these waters. There is, however, some reason to suspect that at least one of these ships, which could easily have thwarted Napoleon’s enterprise, deliberately turned a blind eye to proceedings. On a sunny Tuesday afternoon the little convoy sailed past Antibes into Golfe Juan and dropped anchor; some of the soldiers were sent to secure the beach and a nearby abandoned fort which dominated it. At that moment in Golfe Juan, the arrival of Napoleon on the beach at 4pm appeared no more than the last pathetic gamble of a fallen tyrant, with no one rushing to join his little band; a party of men sent to sound out the garrison at Antibes had all been arrested.

Napoleon, ever a man for omens, looked to arrive in Paris by 20 March, his son’s birthday; this meant a march of no less than 965 kilometres in nineteen days, which required a punishing schedule. His army of 600 Guardsmen, forty Polish Lancers and a couple of cannon struck into the hills the next day. The roads climbed higher away from the coast, forcing them to abandon the cannon as the men travelled in single file along snow-clad footpaths to reach Grasse safely. Napoleon needed to move at a rate that prevented the news of his march arriving in time to allow organised armed resistance. In fact, the reaction from the general populace to his arrival at Grasse was muted; they appeared stunned but also apprehensive of the consequences. Napoleon continued to press on across the heights to Castellane, Digne, Sisteron and Gap, where he finally received his first enthusiastic welcome. The authorities in each town were surprised and unprepared, afraid of the reaction of disaffected troops and reluctant to openly support either side in this challenge for the crown, unsure of who would prove victorious.

How close was Napoleon to being caught at sea?

A close look at Napoleon’s voyage from Elba to France shows how lucky he was to avoid the French patrol ships – but was it luck?

Napoleon sailed from Elba fully aware that HMS Partridge had gone to Livorno to collect Sir Neil Campbell, but could be back within a day. The window of escape was therefore very narrow. The opportunity was eagerly taken but, as the little fleet sailed, the wind dropped to nothing and the ships were required to row out of Portoferraio harbour, and were only 10 kilometres from the island at dawn the next day. Light winds continued to be a problem as the fleet neared Capraia, about half-way between Elba and Corsica, and ships were required to tack continually to gain any ground at all.

On this fateful day Inconstant, passing north of this small island, spotted the French ship Melpomene just to the south of Capraia, but she did not approach the convoy. The second French patrol ship, Fleur de Lys, was just north of Capraia and within sight of Melpomene a few times during the day, but her lookouts never apparently saw Napoleon’s flotilla. Inconstant does not record seeing Fleur de Lys either.

Just after Melpomene was spotted by Inconstant, the lookout then reported another sail to the north-east; this was HMS Partridge, sailing for Elba with Campbell. Napoleon ordered his small ships to sail towards the Melpomene for protection. Captain Adye of HMS Partridge saw Napoleon’s ships but continued on his way, seeing nothing suspicious. It appears that he mistook Inconstant for the very similarly built Zephir, which he had expected to see.

Later that day the French Zephir came in sight of the flotilla and Captain Andrieux, her commander, actually took his ship so close to Inconstant that he was able to hold a brief conversation with her skipper. It was impossible for Andrieux not to have noticed how heavily laden the little ships were, with both stores and personnel, who crowded the upper decks, but he did nothing.

The French ships’ logs have disappeared without trace and no further record of their whereabouts and actions can be established. Fleur de Lys appears to have left her station and kept out of the way. Melpomene took no action on seeing the flotilla, and Napoleon himself reveals that when HMS Partridge made her appearance, his other ships were sent to join the French vessel for protection. Captain Andrieux of Zephir admitted to guessing that Napoleon was on board, but chose not to interfere as he believed he was sailing to Italy, although his direction of travel was clearly towards France.

The captain of Fleur de Lys also appears to have misled HMS Partridge, which was a much faster ship and capable of catching up with Inconstant, by insisting that the little flotilla had not passed her. Either the French ship had not been on station or it had allowed the flotilla to pass and then denied seeing it.

It seems likely that Napoleon already knew that the captains of all three French patrol vessels were sympathetic to his cause, and would not interfere. Thus, his decision to sail to France was not such a great gamble after all.

On the road to Grenoble Napoleon faced the first significant moment of his march, at the village of Laffrey. Sent to bar Napoleon’s progress with one battalion of the 5th Regiment, Colonel Lessard deployed his men in line to block the road. Napoleon advanced alone to face the opposing soldiers and exhorted them to follow their Emperor. To a man the soldiers defected and joined his ranks. The legend of Napoleon makes much of this moment, but apparently the 5th Regiment troops were never actually ordered to load their weapons and Napoleon was already confident of their support. His little army then continued to Grenoble, where the city gates were opened to them. A huge crowd gathered to cheer Napoleon, while the entire 7th Regiment, led by Colonel Labedoyere, defected to join the ranks of his army. Later, Napoleon remarked that ‘Before Grenoble I was an adventurer, at Grenoble I became a reigning prince again.’

In the first six days Napoleon had marched one-third of the way to Paris, and his force consisted of 8,000 men, twenty cannon and a full regiment of Hussars; from this point on his march looked more like a royal procession, with only a few troops attending him, while most now travelled by boat along the rivers.

Paris had learned of Napoleon’s return by 5 March and the King of France initially sought to calm the subsequent panic in the city by playing down the ex-Emperor’s chances. Soon he despatched the Comte d’Artois, the Duc d’Orleans and Marshal Macdonald to organise the forces at Lyon, France’s second city, where it was expected that Napoleon’s adventure would end. Sending such a senior trio was expected to stop the rot, but all three were quickly disabused of all hope on their arrival at Lyon, when it became clear that the forces there would not support them nor stand against Napoleon, and they soon hastily returned to the capital.

An unsuccessful attempt was made by General d’Erlon to support Napoleon’s return by encouraging the garrison of Lille in the north of France to rise up and march on Paris, while the Lallemand brothers, General Lefebvre-Desnouettes and Colonel Marin sought to incite other units to revolt. D’Erlon and the Lallemand brothers were arrested, while Lefebvre was forced into hiding and Marin fled south to join Napoleon, ending this abortive coup. Marshal Soult, as War Minister, was blamed for the failures of the royalist troops, with claims being made that he had sent forward the least trustworthy troops, and he was removed from his post on 11 March.

By 15 March Napoleon was at Autun. Troops were now returning to him in droves, and his army numbered over 14,000 men. Marshal Ney was dispatched by Louis to stop him, with Ney famously promising to bring Napoleon back in an iron cage. Despite his bravado, Ney was fully aware of the disaffection of his troops and feared that France would collapse into civil war. He himself had received regular messages from Napoleon calling for him to join him, and he eventually took his troops over to Napoleon. In Paris some wag put up a placard which summed up the situation perfectly: ‘From Napoleon to Louis XVIII, My good brother, there is no need to send me any more troops. I have enough.’

As if the whole adventure had been planned to the minute, Napoleon arrived at the Tuilleries at 5am on Monday 20 March to find a huge cheering crowd waiting to greet him, and he was carried shoulder-high into the Tuilleries. The army was delighted by his return, but the wider population of Paris remained largely ambivalent. The King had fled Paris early the previous morning on his way to Lille and the border with the Netherlands. Many government men and the nobility of France also fled and it is estimated that 20 million francs was taken from the Paris banks before Napoleon arrived. Louis XIII reached the border in safety. Captain George Barlow of the British 69th Foot happened to be with his regiment when the King crossed at Menin:

Menin stands precisely on the boundary line dividing Flanders from France & is situated upon the little River Lys, here about thirty yards in breadth & over which is thrown a small bridge; the frontiers following the course of its stream. I had just returned express from Courtrai, having been sent thither with the Moniteur of the 21st containing the news of Bonaparte’s first entry into Paris & his proclamations. Having been thoroughly drenched to the skin by the way & almost in the act of changing, a rare hubbub on a sudden ran through the town and a French general came galloping in; he announced that Louis the Eighteenth was close at hand escorted by a party of Cuirassiers. We had scarcely time to stand to our arms when the cavalcade appeared & stopped at the bridge. Upon arriving, the king desired his escort would return into Lisle [sic], which they I am told were very unwilling to do; but his majesty insisted & their parting was very affecting; many of the soldiers rode up to the window & kissed his hand, while several in the most determined manner declared they would accompany him; whether he would allow them or not & a few are therefore permitted to enter.

The 69th were drawn up in the main street and received the cavalcade with all due honours. It was composed of but four carriages, that of the King leading, drawn by six very indifferent post horses, the traces being of rope. Upon arriving at the colours, close to where I stood, it stopped and he let down the window. The commanding officer desired me to step up to the carriage and enquire what were His Majesty’s wishes and which I accordingly did.¹

Louis’s safe departure was secretly welcomed by Napoleon, who was relieved not to have the embarrassing problem of what to do with him if he were captured. He wrote to his wife, Marie-Louise, requesting her and his son to return from Vienna, but she had now taken up with Count Neipperg and renounced her marriage to Napoleon.

Napoleon was acutely aware that the great European powers would react badly to his return. Emphasising his peaceful intentions, he sought to be allowed to reign as King of France without outside interference. It was a vain attempt and Napoleon knew that if he was to retain his throne, he would have to fight for it.

The headlines in the French national newspaper Le Moniteur sum up the recent situation perfectly:

Chapter 2

Smoke and Mirrors

Napoleon arrived in Paris to find the majority of the government fled and everything in complete disarray. He was keen to prove his credentials as a reformed man, with new freedoms and electoral reforms, and all of his renowned vigour and drive would now be needed to put things right quickly. The myriad of orders that suddenly emanated from Paris touched every conceivable aspect of life. At the same time all the frontier fortresses and mountain passes were put on alert for attacks and ordered to be fully armed and provisioned.

La Vendee, the traditional home of royalist support, predictably led the revolts against him and the fighting there required the use of a significant number of troops that would otherwise have been available to join the main army, including two whole regiments of the Young Guard. Numerous royalist areas rose up against the return of Napoleon, although it was only on 21 May that Napoleon admitted to the chambers that civil war was breaking out in La Vendee (and claimed that the British wielded great influence there). However, the threat from La Vendee was dramatically reduced by Fouche, the new Minister of Police, who dispatched the Comte de Malartic as a peace emissary. He succeeded in persuading the majority of the Vendean leaders that they were attacking too early, and that in fighting alone, the weight of the whole French army could be turned against them and they would be annihilated with ease. It would be much better for them to wait and launch their attacks when the allies began their invasion of France in June. The advice was accepted by the great majority of leaders, and when the Comte de Rochejacquelein, the recalcitrant commander in chief, was killed in a skirmish on 3 June the war petered out altogether – but the 20,000 French troops committed to the Vendee were unable to join Napoleon before Waterloo. It was, for him, a significant loss.

The Duc d’Angouleme, the King’s nephew, had proceeded to Nimes on the day that Napoleon had entered Lyon on his march to Paris. With almost all of the troops in that city departing with the Emperor, the south of France was left virtually undefended. With a newly raised army of about 6,000 local peasants and workers from Languedoc and Provence, known locally as ‘Miquelets’, d’Angouleme planned to march on Lyon. Without uniforms, and bearing only the insignia of a fleur de lys on their jackets to identify themselves, the ragged army marched on, armed with a mixture of hunting rifles, pitchforks and cudgels, confident of taking France’s second city. Napoleon responded by sending to Lyon Lieutenant General Grouchy, who quickly pulled together a ragtag army of volunteers and retired soldiers and marched out to meet d’Angouleme. The contending forces met at La Pallud near Marseille, where d’Angouleme’s troops were routed and the prince himself captured; he was, however, allowed to sail to Spain, to avoid once again the awkward problem of what to do with members of the royal family. But throughout the following campaign wanton acts of vengeance, destruction and intimidation continued on both sides in the south. Grouchy was made a marshal in recognition of his success, and this made him a key player in the ensuing campaign.

The situation at Marseille was so critical that the city’s great arsenal of 100,000kg of gunpowder and 500,000 cartridges had to be transferred to Lyon and Toulon for safety. The 4,000-strong National Guard in the city was also disbanded, and the Observation Corps of Var under Marshal Brune was told to crack down on Marseille. On 3 June a large number of cities in the west and south were actually put on a danger list of ‘hostile cities’; this list included Marseille, Toulon, Arles, Toulouse, Le Havre, Bordeaux, Nantes and Cherbourg. Their National Guard units were disbanded and martial law proclaimed. Davout ordered strong units of local federes, or popular militias, to be armed throughout the south to defend their lands, turning poachers into gamekeepers.

Having dealt with the immediate threat of civil war within France, Napoleon now sought a diplomatic path to avoid war. The foreign diplomatic corps had been caught out by Napoleon’s sudden return and there were fears that he might hold them as hostages to prise an agreement out of the allies; however, Napoleon instantly proffered an olive branch in the shape of the immediate offer of passports if they wished to leave, in an attempt to allay their fears. However, his letters of peace to the crowned heads of Europe, intended to break the cohesion of the great alliance, failed dismally, with most of the letters being returned unopened. The letters did, however, find their way into Le Moniteur, to reassure the public at home that he was serious in his attempts to gain peace. Napoleon was a realist, however; he knew that war was inevitable and imminent, but his problem was that the great majority of French people did not want to hear this message.

It is estimated that about a million Frenchmen had died during Napoleon’s wars from a total population of thirty-one million; put simply, this figure represents approximately one in ten of all males of fighting age. Given that for every death two more were probably maimed for life, it soon becomes apparent that the effect on the French populace was not too dissimilar from that felt by the British public after the First World War. Few families were lucky to escape personal loss. At the very least, they would receive back a shattered figure who would consequently struggle to support himself, let alone his ageing family. France was war-weary; long gone were the days of victory and glory, now the days were filled with hurt, pain and hunger. Yet the paradox is that Napoleon seems to have returned on the crest of a wave – how is this possible?

The French army had suffered severe cutbacks under the government of Louis XVIII and the soldiers wholeheartedly embraced the return of their Emperor. There was a huge reserve of officers and soldiers who were either out of work following the massive reductions in the size of the army, or on extended home leave on reduced pay; these men saw this as an opportunity to regain their lost status and regarded Napoleon as the way to renewed glory. Part of the civilian population also welcomed his return with great joy and hope for the future, although it cannot be denied that most were far less eager to see his return.

Napoleon was acutely aware of this from the great number of reports he commissioned from his new ministers. Fouche, as Minister of Police, reported a massive increase in demonstrations, riots and general unrest throughout the country, including attacks on army personnel; indeed, France was close to anarchy. In previous times Napoleon would have used his centralised government to swiftly eradicate such problems, but he now discovered that his carefully crafted systems were broken irrevocably.

Only two days after arriving in Paris Napoleon announced a number of populist measures. He ordered that all royalists were immediately banned from living within 150 kilometres of the capital, and warrants were issued for the arrest of thirteen prominent royalists, including Talleyrand, Marmont, La Rochefoucauld and Bourienne, along with the sequestration of all royalist property. This move had an undesired effect on the people of Paris, where fear of a return to the revolutionary bloodshed of 1792 reared its ugly head, causing near-panic. Napoleon needed the Paris mob on his side, and had no wish to confront them. A number of employment opportunities were created with the announcement of new public works, including 3,000 jobs in the construction of a new market at Saint Germain and to repair the Louvre, 4,000 jobs constructing defences along the heights of Montmartre, and 2,000 artisans to restore damaged weapons: overnight 9,000 families in Paris had a new breadwinner. This, coupled with a number of festivals, theatre shows and constant military reviews, re-established an air of vitality and self-belief in Paris and secured his immediate power-base.

This positive reception could not be replicated so easily beyond the capital, where the great majority of prefects and mayors were either openly against or at best ambivalent towards the new government and would clearly not support moves to increase the army or to raise significant new taxes. During the first week of April Louis Carnot, the new Interior Minister, summarily dismissed no fewer than sixty-one of the eighty-seven prefects governing regional France. But replacing them proved extremely difficult, with few men pushing themselves forward to take the posts, which traditionally were keenly sought after – a clear and alarming sign of the times. On 20 April Carnot rashly followed this up with the immediate sacking of the mayor in every town with a population of more than 5,000 inhabitants. The chaos following this arbitrary measure forced Carnot to rescind the order ten days later and await the results of new elections. The ultimate futility of his action was shown when the subsequent elections re-elected two-thirds of the previous mayors; previously ambivalent, these men now joined the ranks of the ill-disposed towards the new regime, causing a serious escalation of civil disobedience. Orders for the National Guard and retired servicemen to be called out, army deserters to be hunted down and returned to their corps, and drives to recruit new soldiers were at best patchily obeyed, with many stalling or openly defying them, refusing to send any more young men to their deaths. This was a very serious problem for the Emperor and one which he did not have time to rectify; it would severely hamper his efforts to increase the forces available to him for the inevitable fighting to come. While Caulaincourt, his new Foreign Minister, sought vainly to appease the allies and seek for a diplomatic way forward, Napoleon inexorably moved France towards war.

No fewer than sixty-seven new articles were announced within the Acte Additionnel of 23 March, including the abolition of the slave trade¹ for a second time (it had previously been abolished during the Revolution, but reinstated later by Napoleon) and the end of press censorship. The removal of censorship was, however, a fallacy, as Fouche simply installed a man in the office of each newspaper to ensure less overt ‘autocensorship’. A brand new paper was also launched, the Journal General de France, which was intended to provide a patriotic impetus to the masses.

Benjamin Constant had been persuaded to join the government to piece together a new constitution, and a two-tiered system was announced. There was a Chamber of Representatives, the members of which were to be voted for by electoral colleges, the members of those colleges being voted for by the people, and a Chamber of Hereditary Peers. Napoleon had already announced a great meeting of these new representatives at the Champ de Mai on 26 May; severely derided by most Parisians as empirical trumpery, the meeting was postponed more than once but was eventually held on 1 June. It was designed to be a huge theatrical announcement of the results of the national referendum on the Acte Additionnel, but everyone knew that the rigged result would be overwhelmingly in favour, just like all of Napoleon’s previous votes. Nevertheless, the event was spectacular and more than 200,000 people watched the proceedings, which lasted most of the day. Napoleon appeared in his white coronation robes, which heightened further the aura of theatricality, bordering dangerously on pantomime. The results of the plebiscite, or referendum, indicated an unsurprisingly impossible level of support, helped by the fact that the results from the eleven western and southern provinces that had been in revolt had apparently all arrived too late to be counted!

The results of the plebiscite, and Napoleon’s subsequent rallying speech, full of his usual grandiose rhetoric, were received with only polite applause by all but the huge delegation of representatives from the army, who roared their support. Up to this point the Champ de Mai had clearly misfired as a spectacle and even Napoleon, according to some witnesses, looked troubled by the poor reaction. However, the great meeting was saved by the magnificent scenes that followed as the army representatives received their new eagles, the rallying point for each regiment. The show of military pomp and the adulation of the soldiers for their warrior-emperor transformed the event into one of Homeric proportions, and finally made it clear to the French people, and to the world at large, that the peaceful intentions so often proclaimed had been an act of ‘smoke and mirrors’: Napoleon was going to war.

Behind the scenes the Emperor had been driving his new ministers inexorably and relentlessly towards war preparations. He sent out a constant stream of tirades to speed up the production of weapons, increase supplies, recruit more soldiers and strip everything else bare to enable his government to finance it all. His attention to detail in every matter was incredible and reminded everyone of the vigour he had shown fifteen years previously.

Three main supply depots were set up at Soissons, Laon and Avesnes, with smaller ones at Meaux, Guise, Vitry, Langres, Metz and Strasbourg. These were designed to hold up to four months’ supplies for the army, which would avoid the necessity of the soldiery devastating the French countryside like a plague of locusts, further alienating the people. Contracts were renegotiated and outstanding debts paid off, giving contractors confidence that they would be paid and so the stores began to fill rapidly. Workshops were set up in and around Paris, in any suitable large building that could be found, to massively increase both the production of new muskets and to repair the thousands of unserviceable muskets lying in numerous armouries across the country. The production of musket balls was ramped up significantly and the production of uniforms required many new factories to be hurriedly set up. But whatever was produced was not enough, not quick enough; Napoleon was never satisfied and he continued to chide his ministers to produce more … ever more. There was no doubt that the country was now on a war footing, but Napoleon continued to excuse all of this to the nation as defensive measures to save ‘la patrie’.

On his arrival in Paris, Napoleon found that the French army numbered a mere 200,000 men, and he immediately set about dramatically increasing this number. Former soldiers were recalled to the eagles; according to the Emperor’s estimates, this would produce 115,000 men, comprising 30,000 who had retired from the army on age, health or disability grounds, and 85,000 deserters who had gone missing during the 1814 campaign. It was clear that many of the former would not be fit to serve in the field but they could man fortresses, releasing line troops, while the latter were hardly going to flock to the army in a bid to gain pardon for their earlier crimes. A poor reaction among those affected, and a firm determination among many town mayors to ignore the orders, refusing to send any more young men to their deaths, led to a very poor response to the call. In desperation, large mobile columns of up to a hundred men – in effect, large press-gangs – were sent out to ‘take’ anyone of serviceable age; in reality, only about 52,000 men were actually taken up by these measures, and most of them were extremely reluctant recruits. Napoleon was also forced to disband not only the Regiment La Tour d’Auvergne, because of its enduring loyalty to the Duc d’Angouleme, but also the Swiss regiments that refused to wear the national cockade, further reducing his available forces. Lack of horses was also an acute problem, partly solved by seizing those of the gendarmes and giving them 600 francs each to replace them, thus providing 4,250 trained horses almost overnight.

Napoleon ordered the formation of a number of armies and corps of observation; the main army was clearly the Army of the North, consisting of five corps (numbered I to IV and VI), the reserve cavalry corps under Grouchy and the Imperial Guard under Marshal Mortier. The Army of the Rhine under General Rapp consisted of V Corps, and the Army of the Alps under Marshal Suchet consisted of VII Corps, based at Lyon. The 1st Corps of Observation, or Army of the Jura, commanded by General Lecourbe, was based at Belfort to watch the Swiss and Austrian armies in this sector. The 2nd Corps of Observation, the Army of the Var, under Marshal Brune, was at Avignon. Two other smaller corps, under General Clausel at Toulouse and General Decaen at Bordeaux, watched the Pyrenees.

Davout’s recruitment problems were exacerbated by the Emperor’s insistence that only veteran troops were sent to the field, particularly to the Army of the North. Carnot also envisaged eventually forming a

Reviews for Waterloo

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Waterloo Myth and RealityWith the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo passing there has been an outburst of books in Great Britain to celebrate and remember that particular battle. Since the Battle ended 200 years ago there have been 80,000 books published on the subject that covers every subject, every cannonball, armour and uniforms, every stretch of the battlefield has been covered.It is always welcome when a new book on the subject approaches Waterloo from a different standpoint which is very welcome and much needed. Since the end of the Battle a great deal of myth and legend has grown from it, from Rothschild making money on the battle by controlling the news back to London and the then Stock Exchange. Waterloo Myth and Reality by Gareth Glover ably knocks that particular myth down as he does with many others throughout the book.This book looks at Napoleon’s return from Elba and his way back to Paris and looks at the back ground the rise and rise of Napoleon and how he rebuilt an army that was nonexistent after defeat and exile. Itself an achievement in its own right.As well as looking at the return of Napoleon, this excellent book examines things such as the Allied Preparations, the Weaponry and tactics. There are some excellent maps that explain the positions of the combatants during the invasion of Belgium, and what the Allied Response was. This book also disassembles the legendary Duchess of Richmond’s ball something which has gained mythical status over the centuries.The battles that eventually led to the finale at Waterloo are covered in detail with some excellent explanations and analysis to how and why Waterloo was chosen by Wellington. The Defence of Hougoumont is discussed and analysis in detail again with some excellent maps to aid the read in their understanding of military positions and attack lines.There is an excellent chapter on The Prussians who are often forgotten in British accounts, but without whom Wellington would not have won at Waterloo. The French still think that the English cheated at Waterloo by having the Prussians there to aid them, so they won the moral victory according to the French.The final chapters are of interest because they cover what happened after the battle upon which a great deal of myth and legend has grown down the centuries, here the myth and realities are brought to life. This book also deals with the aftermath very well especially the Inheritance because as the author points out the French Opposition had been beaten but not crushed. It must also be understood that it is from Waterloo that a ‘guilt’ clause first arose and attitudes also changed towards the French from all her neighbours.Waterloo Myth and Reality is an excellent and informative book with a great deal of explanation, pictures, diagrams and maps to help you learn more about the Battle. This is an excellent addition to the celebrations and you can learn something in every chapter and at the same time an enjoyable read.