Warrior Bio: Napoleon Bonaparte and the Grand Armée, circa 1808 CE.

Author's Note:  I may catch flak for this, but I think that I'll survive anyway.  I'm not going to be looking at the warriors involved in this match based on their greatest victories or defeats, but at midpoints in their career - I feel that this will be more fair for both of them in the long run.  Also, Napoleon won't be getting howitzers among his artillery (though he did have them) for this match, as it really wouldn't be fair for the Continental Army as they had none of their own, or even anything comparable to them.  However, I'm sure that this Warrior Bio will be used in a later match against someone else (likely the victor (as well as the loser!) of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia versus Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke the Elder) and I'll adjust it accordingly, adding weapons and such where needed.  Anyway, the drill is the same for this Bio as the previous one - I'll be uploading bits as I write them, which hopefully won't take as long as last time.  So let's get started - and don't forget to the vote in the new poll!

This famous painting, Napoleon Crossing the Alps, was made by French artist Jacques-Louis David.  There were actually five versions of this painting made by him between 1801 and 1805 CE, each commissioned by the Spanish King in commemoration of Emperor Bonaparte's actions in 1800 CE.  The painting is a highly idealized representation of that event, and is used without permission from http://en.wikipedia.org/.

-Equipment Assessment

~Primary Weapons; Charleville Musket Modèle 1777 corrigé, Charleville Carabine Modèle 1806.  The two types of infantry found in Emperor Bonaparte’s army – the Infanterie Légère (Light Infantry) and Infanterie de Ligne (Line Infantry) both used the “corrected” Charleville Model 1777 musket produced and deployed in 1800 CE.  This “corrected” model was different from its predecessor in that it featured a lighter butt and a more economically-friendly flash-pan.  However, the use of the rifle differed by its users; the light infantry were trained to reload it at a faster pace and to take better advantage of its six hundred yard maximum range, able to accurately hit targets in excess of one hundred yards away.  In contrast, the line infantry were intended to fire in regular, steady volleys at a rate of three volleys per minute.  The majority of Napoleon’s cavalry used the Carbine Model 1806 CE, which was really a shorter, slimmed-down version of the infantry musket.  The carbine featured a shorter range and slower muzzle velocity, thanks to a much shorter barrel.  However, this was wholly necessary when fighting from horseback – a longer barrel would make it very difficult to reload a muzzle-loading firearm, as Emperor Bonaparte’s dragoons often discovered.  Starting in 1777 CE, the French armory at Charleville (and other smaller arms manufacturers) produced over seven million Model 1777 muskets, ending production in 1839 CE, making it the most-numerous firearm in Europe until the years before the Great War (also known as World War One) kicked off in the summer of 1914 CE.  All of Emperor Bonaparte’s infantry used this firearm, whether they were light, heavy, native, foreign-allies, or quick-response mounted infantry.  However, the weapon was not without its faults – it had an average range of only eighty yards, and while it had a good rate of fire of three rounds per minute for most users it was remarkably inaccurate, making coordinated volleys necessary in order to ensure its effectiveness.  Most French commanders preferred to fire only one or two volleys before making a bayonet charge, as it was a surer way of defeating the enemy than holding back and loosing volley after volley and hoping for the best.  All told, the primary weapons of the Grand Armée only net fourteen (14) of forty (40) points in this category due to those shortcomings.

This video shows the destructive power - and side-effects, such as the massive cloud of black powder! - a twelve-pound cannon would be capable of creating.  Although the piece shown in the video is an American gun dating to 1857 CE, there were remarkably few advancements in artillery in the forty years between Emperor Bonaparte's heyday and the beginnings of the American Civil War, so far all intents and purposes a period-accurate gun could perform the same damage shown here.  For decades in the United States, twelve-pound field guns were referred to as "Napoleons" in recognition of what the former artillery officer had accomplished with them, leaving his mark on history.  This video was not uploaded by me, and is used without permission from youtube.com/.

~Secondary Weapons; Six - and Twelve-Pound Bronze Cannons.  There were two types of artillery in the Grand Armée:   Artillerie à pied (foot artillery) and Artillerie à cheval (horse artillery).  The foot artillery made up the bulk of the numbers, and at this time would have used the heavy caliber cannons – the twelve-pounders.  Emperor Bonaparte aspired to a ratio of one cannon for every one thousand soldiers, but due to a lack of resources was never able to reach that goal.  The foot artillery were expected to march along with the rest of the infantry that they were attached to, their guns pulled by workhorses when not deployed for combat.  The typical Napoleonic foot artillery battery would have consisted of six cannons and two howitzers each – howitzers were short-barreled cannons used to fire explosive shells in high trajectories when in a siege, but were clumsy and inaccurate on an open battlefield.  The other type of field guns were the horse artillery – swift-moving teams of elite crews and officers capable of going from a full gallop to firing their first shot in under a minute.  After encountering this feat personally, the Duke of Wellington exclaimed that, “They move their cannon as if it were a pistol!”  The horse artillery used the smaller six-pound pieces, as they were easier to place and maneuver when moving at the pace that they were known for.  As a former artillery officer himself, Emperor Bonaparte had an excellent understanding of how guns worked and how best to use them; time and again he exhibited this talent when deploying, moving and redeploying his artillery where most needed on the battlefield, establishing a new trend and method for how best to use the massive field guns at a time when most armies placed them in a strategic position at the beginning of a battle and did not bother to move them except for the advance or retreat.  Artillery batteries, whatever their type, were essentially small armies in and of themselves – their personnel included not only the gun crews and their officers, but woodworkers, metalworkers, trained gunsmiths, stableboys and other non-combat personnel, and drummers and other signal-callers.  The types of ammunition used by these guns did not differ much from that used by other militaries of the time – solid shot, grapeshot and explosive shells were most popular.  All told, the professionalism, efficiency and sheer number of Emperor Bonaparte’s artillery warrant eighteen (18) of twenty (20) possible points in this category.

This image is a picture taken at the annual reenactment of the Battle of Waterloo held in Belgium at the site of the famous battle.  As always, Napoleon relied on the three components to his armies - the infantry, the cavalry and the artillery - to work together in order to win the day.  However, there were few veterans left in military service after the disaster in Russia and upon his return to France, with the cavalry being hit especially hard.  Most of the cavalry troopers that fought for him at Waterloo were fresh, new recruits unused to true combat and were crushed when fighting commenced.  This image was not taken by me, and is used without permission from http://upload.wikimedia.org/.

~Tertiary Weapons; Cavalry Flintlock Pistol.  Referred to as the “AN IX” pistol, the most popular flintlock small arm of the Grand Armée was used by all of the cavalry that did not use the carbine or lance.  Lightweight, but powerful – packing a .69 caliber round, the same size as most muskets – it was a weapon deadly at medium- to close-ranges but inaccurate at any longer distances.  The cavalry flintlock was also the mainstay weapon of the Grand Armée’s officers, as though it provided a smaller reach for them it was a useful status symbol and easier to reload in the middle of combat than a full-sized musket.  This cavalry flintlock was called the model IX as it was manufactured nine years after the outbreak of the French Revolution (in the year 1801 CE).  While another lighter pistol began to be manufactured for military use in 1807 CE, the IX was still used by Emperor Bonaparte’s cavalry until the end of the Empire in 1815 CE, due to any number of reasons – sentimental value, the ease of use and maintaining of a long-time piece of equipment, or sheer bullheadedness.  While alone a single cavalry flintlock would not be too much of a threat to an enemy, the fact that entire units of cavalry and all officers without exception used them would make them very dangerous weapons indeed.  The cavalry flintlock pistol gets six (6) of ten (10) possible points in this category.  Though it did not have many clear advancements over earlier sidearms, the sheer volume of fire provided by the weapon is enough to justify its score.

~Melee Weapons; Cavalry Saber, Pike, Lance, Bayonet, Musket and Pistol.  Most of Emperor Bonaparte’s officers would have been commissioned out of French military academies, where as students they would have been taught to be highly competitive and skilled saber duelists.  A little-known fact is that a number of Egyptian Mamelukes served in the Grand Armée – recruited near the end of the 1798 CE Egyptian Campaign, they were officially attached as Chasseurs-à-Cheval (medium-weight cavalry that used carbines and sabers) to the Imperial Guard, but in practice often served in the same capacity as the hussars – a heavily-armed shock force made to break difficult enemy positions.  Of course, the primary weapon of both the foreign Mamelukes and the native husssars was the saber, a deeply-curved sword ideal for slashing attacks made from atop a horse.  Emperor Bonaparte was unique in that he looked to the past as well as the future for inspiration in assembling his armies.  While most European armed forces at the time were modernizing their armies by equipping their infantry with bayoneted muskets (with experiments in rifling technology taking place all across Europe) and cavalry with carbines and sabers.  However, that left them open and vulnerable against pole weapons – something Emperor Bonaparte recognized and seized upon, outfitting multiple units of cavalry with archaic lances and some units of infantry with short pikes for use in deterring enemy cavalry.  The lances used by his cavalry were made to be long enough to bypass a bayoneted rifle; this made havoc of British fighting squares in the Peninsular War and to a much smaller extent at Waterloo.  Another innovation of the time was the return of heavy - armored! - cavalry:  known as les cuirassiers, these men wore heavy steel chest- and back-plates as well as brass-gilded helmets to combat, and fought with pistols and swords.  A step up on the weight scale from the hussars, the cuirassiers were used as a hammer to break already-disheartened enemy forces and rout them, an activity in which their swords and short-range pistols would be incredibly effective.  As was common at the time, all of his musket-baring infantry were equipped with bayonets – they often would fire one or two volleys and then make a concerted charge at the enemy rather than hold back and slug away for hours with their firearms.  Additionally, both muskets and pistols make excellent bludgeons, often being used in such capacity when melee combat was joined, though thanks to better training the French infantry preferred to use their bayonets rather than club enemies with their weapons.  Altogether, the melee weapons of the Grand Armée garner eight (8) of ten (10) possible points, as the men using them would have been very well-trained, well-equipped and used to using them in unison with their companions.

This image is a photograph of a French cuirassier unit from the early Twentieth Century, possibly in the year 1906 CE. Despite some changes in equipment - revolver pistols, higher-grade steel armor and swords -  the French cavalry was relatively unchanged between the Napoleonic Wars and the outbreak of the Great War in the next century.  However, the heavy cavalryman was as outdated of a concept as the knights that inspired him; fully-automatic machine guns, trench warfare and poisonous gases made for an environment in which the gallant cavalry of wars past was cut down without pity or empathy.  Though horses were still used for security and garrison forces throughout and after the war, they were not employed in assaults after the first few terrible battles.  This image was not uploaded by me, and is used without permission from http://www.armchairgeneral.com/.

~Training.  By the year 1808 CE, the French military was one of the finest in Europe – it had an artillery corps populated by talented, educated and well-supported men with much experience in the use of their weapons, a cavalry arm that was certainly one of the largest in Europe, as well as one of the most fiercest and courageous units at the time, and a truly massive body of trained infantrymen led by experienced, veteran officers loyal to the Emperor and to France.  However, the infantry did not receive the extensive training that the artillery and cavalry did; only the first few years’ worth of conscripts were given a full training regime, and it was expected of them to deliver this vital information to each year’s new recruits, who were given a much-abridged version so as to get them into the army more quickly.  The actual execution of this plan differed greatly depending on the character of the men (both the old and the new) and the time available to them, but it was repeatedly noted that the French infantry could at least pretend to be professionals in the face of the enemy.  Therefore, it fell to the officers (the highest-ranked of which was Maréchal d’Empire) of the Grand Armée to inspire such confidence and strength of will in the enlisted men through their own words and actions.  One of Emperor Bonaparte’s greatest Marshals was the Maréchal Jean Lannes; a courageous fighter and excellent tactician with a knack for leading from the front, who had fought his way up the chain of command from volunteer to Maréchal.  He was a staunch defender (and one of the Emperor’s closest friends), once exclaiming in the aftermath of a particularly bloody siege that, “this damned Bonaparte is going to get us all killed.”  Though he understood his value to the Grand Armée as one of its most capable leaders, he refused to resign himself to commanding from the rear of the formation, and was killed for it – during a lull in the battle in 1809 CE, a small three-pound cannonball ricocheted and crippled both of his legs; he died within the month.  As Emperor Bonaparte himself commented on Maréchal Lannes, "I found him a pygmy and left him a giant".  An exemplary leader, Maréchal Lannes and the men like him were able to inspire their soldiers to feats that their basic training may not have alone gotten them, and for that they get all five (5) possible points in this category.

~Strategy and Tactics.  It should go without saying that Emperor Bonaparte was a magnificent strategist and tactician.  He combined the formations and techniques developed over a thousand years of warfare with his own innovations and ideas borrowed from others to create an Armée that was versatile, volatile and victorious time and again.  One of the Emperor’s favorite infantry formations was the “Mixed Order”, or Ordre Mixte:  multiple groups of units would form up, staggering between line and attack column with each attack column between two lines.  This allowed the entire formation to move very quickly and have the ability to halt and form into defensive squares, or continue to charge with the great momentum of the hundreds of individuals that made it up.  Therefore, the formation would have multiple options with which to defend or attack, great mobility, and a wide front with which to unleash firepower on enemies.  One of Emperor Bonaparte’s preferred artillery tactics was known as the “Flying Battery”, or Batterie Volante:  batteries of horse artillery would be massed and then moved to one section of the field, where they would quickly deploy, fire on their targets, and then swiftly redeploy and fire another barrage, repeating the process for as long as possible.  This was revolutionary for armies in the Age of Revolutions, when standard combat doctrine for horse artillery units was for them to accompany infantry formations into the field and support them from their positions rather than hold back or advance by themselves.  However, this tactic was not without its risks; it depended entirely on the training and conditioning of the artillerymen and horses, as well as careful coordination and coolness when under pressure (such as the enemy’s own artillery batteries), but when successful the Batterie Volante was able to quarter off an entire portion of the enemy’s army thanks to its near-constant stream of massed cannon-fire into well-aimed target areas.  The Grand Armée gets another perfect score (5) in this category.

 This is a portrait of Joachim Murat - commonly held to have been the perfect cavalry officer.  Another of the Emperor's Maréchals, he was courageous, dashing and monumentally vain. Maréchal Murat was the head of the Grand Armée's cavalry forces, a position that he relished in.  At the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805 CE, Maréchal Murat led the cavalry reserve - a unit assembled specifically for the battle, consisting of all of the Imperial Guard cavalry (including the Mamelukes), the army's hussars, chaussers, and cuirassiers, and altogether numbering upwards of four thousand soldiers.  This titanic block of cavalry was the force that broke the Austro-Russian army and pursued it after the battle; by day's end, one in three Russian soldiers died on the field and in the rout, and almost all of the Austrian soldiers were killed or captured.  This image was not uploaded by me, and is used without permission from http://www.artsunlight.com/.

~Morale.  The morale of the Grand Armée was generally very high – they were often more numerous and better-trained than their opponents, and had very personal relationships with their leaders; men who used their gifts of charisma and sheer willpower to coax their soldiers into killing-fields all over Europe.  The French military seldom broke, if ever, as to do so would be too great a risk to their honor and espirit d’corps.  Additionally, few soldiers feared getting wounded in combat – despite the dangers of being wounded (and worse still, being operated upon) the surgeons of the Grand Armée were very well-trained for their time, and wounded survivors were often treated as heroes, awarded medals, pensions and even provided with primitive prosthetic limbs if needed.  Knowing they would be honored and well-looked-after once back home, the soldiers of the Grand Armée did not often suffer from lacking morale from fear of combat.  Observing the speed with which the Grand Armée’s horse artillery was able to maneuver around the battlefield, Surgeon General Baron Dominique Jean Larrey implemented the first military ambulance system with which to collect wounded soldiers.  This system was eventually adopted by armies throughout the world, making a testament to its efficiency.  However, if the top of the Grand Armée pyramid was broken off, the rest would follow it – at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 CE, the Old Guard (the most elite, well-equipped veteran soldiers in the army, with some of them having served on more than twenty campaigns) broke under intense cannon-fire and repeated charges from the coalition forces set against them, and when word of this happening reached the rest of the French lines the entire army lost its cohesion and fled in disgrace.  For that dependence on a set example to follow, only four (4) of five (5) points are awarded here, as even with that weakness there was formidable morale among the men of the Grand Armée.

~Protection.  Emperor Bonaparte was not as great of a fan of defensive works as he may have otherwise, instead preferring the devastating attack and quick-pace assault to prolonged conflicts.  To that end, he would often outmaneuver his foes, forcing them into a direct confrontation where the superior training, numbers and equipment of his soldiers would crush his opponents with overwhelming violence.  Despite the lack of static defenses, personnel defensive systems were in use, primarily for the cuirassier cavalry – they wore thick steel chest- and back-plates and steel helmets gilded with brass to make them look fiercer.  These steel elements worked very well in the crush of melee combat (as was the intention in using them) but were less impressive against gunpowder weapons, and did not cover the limbs, face, or neck.  All told, two (2) of five (5) points are given here.

Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was remembered as a man that was difficult to define; he was astute, charismatic, and yet domineering and ambitious.  He thought of himself as a man of integrity and honor, and yet had the gall to name himself Emperor of a Republic of free-thinkers, destroying any and all opposition regardless of its origin.  He sought to rule Europe under his own banner, and nearly succeeded if the elements themselves had not turned against him.  In the end, though, with nearly all the world against him, the man was banished to an island far from his own people, and died there.  But his loss was not forgotten - an entire period of history is named in his honor, and the methods of war that he invented were the guidelines by which conflicts were fought for more than a hundred years.  This image was not uploaded by me, and is used without permission from http://onbey.wordpress.com/.