Another Napoleon :: essays research papers

Most historians portray Napoleons return to France as anexample of his issue for hundreds of thousands of gosin order to satisfy his outsized ambition. We at Napoleon onthe Net, however, view the Hundred Days as an exampleof the Emperors superior charisma and the contend for him thatit inspired. The support of the common people of Francewas the basis of Napoleonic rule. The generals and thepoliticians did not strike to support Napoleons newadventure, but, as we will show, the front-line soldiers andthe common people were pertinacious to uphold the basicprinciple the Revolution that it is the peoples right to decidethe realize of their governwork forcet. Vincent Cronin, in hisacclaimed biography of Napoleon, entitled NapoleonBonaparte An Intimate narrative (William Morrow &Company, 1972, pp. 391-392), describes Napoleons firstmajor confrontation with French troops move by the Bourbonregime to kill or capture him. "Napoleon had 1,100 menagainst about 700. But he did not want bloodshed. Theabhorrence of well-behaved war he had felt twenty years before inProvence remained as strong as ever and, on landing, he had given up Cambronne strict orders that not a shot was to befired. What he did at a time ws to order his hundred Polishlancers to advance slowly. At this Delessart withdrew hismen, in tidy order, to new positions. The Polish lancerswere told to wheel and come back. Napoleon then had thetricolour unfolded and told the Guards band to play theMarseillaise, which he had described in Elba as the greatestgeneral of the Revolution. Forbidden since the return of theBourbons, the stirring tune had the effect, said maven observor,of electrifying the Grenoble soldiers. Napoleon startedriding towards the men of the 5th. At pistol-shot range hedismounted and walked towards the 700 crocked muskets.He was wearing his grey campaigning overcoat, familiar toevery Frenchman. master Randon, twenty years old, ofGrenoble, called to his men, There he is Fire After fetchinga few steps, Napoleon stopped and drew apart the lapels ofhis overcoat, exposing his face cloth waistcoat. If you want tokill your Emperor, he called in loud voice, here I am Backcame a tremendous shout of Long live the Emperor Themen of the 5th, waving their shakos on bayonets, rushedcheering towards him. secure see if we want to kill you,shouted one soldier, rattling his ramrod up and down thebarrel of his empty musket. In a matter of minutes thesoldiers had whipped from their haversacks the old tricolour