Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life

by Alan Schom

  [775] For a detailed account of these events, see Schom, One Hundred Days, pp. 15ff.; Henry Houssaye, 1815, vol. 1, La Première Restauration — Le Retour de L’ile d’Elbe, Les Cent Jours (Paris: Perrin, 1896), pp. 181ff.; Charles Alleaume, “Les Cents Jours dans le Var,” Mémoires (Draguignan: Societe d’Etudes Scientifiques et Archeologiques/Oliver Joulian, 1938) vol. 49, p. 15; Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires pour servir l’histoire (Paris: Rauveure Cornet, 1901), vol. 1, p. 93; Napoléon, L’ile d’Elbe et les Cents Jours. Correspondance 31, 24; Jean Orieux, Talleyrand, ou le Sphinx Incompris (Paris: Flammarion, 1970), pp. 617ff.; Charles Florange, Le vol de l’aigle (1815): Napoléon, La marche sur Paris (Paris: Clavreuil, 1932), pp. 11-13; Henri Gracien Bertrand, Lettres à Fanny, 1800-1815 (Paris: Albin Michel, 1979), p. 403; Comtesse de Boigne, Mémoires de la Comtesse de Poigne (Paris: Mercure de France, 1986), vol. 1, 307; Hubert Dhumez, “Cannes et les Cents-Jours,” Melange inédits relatifs au passe du pays cannois. Collection: Documents, textes, inconnus pour servir a l’Histoir du pays de Cannes et de sa region (Cannes: Aegitna, 1961), vol. 6, p. 117-27; Archives Nationals, fte III. Var 12 (liasse 1813); “La nuit de Malijay,” published in Illustration, 21 Sept 1931; Paul Canestrier, “Rapport d’un envoyé secret de Napoléon, p. 1. Report dated 2 June 1815, Antibes, by Officier d’ordonnan Rey, “Sur les bords du Var, pendant les Cents Jours.”

  [776] Houssaye, Cent Jours, pp. 138, 321-22, 340-43; the treasury paid out the full sum of four hundred thousand francs at 4:00 P. M. that same day; Vitrolles, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 291, 321-323; Auguste Frédéric Louis Viesse de Marmont, Mémoires du duc de Raguse (Paris: Perrotin, 1857), 9 vols.

  [777] Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires, vol. 1, pp. 210, 248; Manceron, Napoléon reprend Paris, p. 49; Houssaye, 1815. Cent Jours, pp. 344, 326, 354ff., 360ff.; 413-33; Vitrolles, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 321ff.; Journal des Debats, 18 and 19 mars 1815; Bertier, Restauration, 102-3; Beauharnais, Mémoires de la Reine Hortense, vol. 2, pp. 329-33.

  [778] Mowat, Diplomacy of Napoleon, p. 299; Talleyrand, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 561-65; Viscount Castlereagh, Correspondence, Despatches, Other Papers of Viscount Castlereagh (London: Murray, 1853), vol. 10, pp. 239-40, 243; Watson, The Reign of George III, p. 565; Lacour-Gayet, Talleyrand, vol. 2, pp. 333, 432.

  [779] Lazare Nicolas Carnot, Exposé de ma conduite politique, p. 22. Napoleon had also offered the Foreign Ministry to Lavalette. Etienne-Denis Pasquier, Histoire de mon temps: Mémoires du Chancelier Pasquier, duc d’Audiffret-Pasquier (Paris: Plon, 1894), vol. 3, pp. 165-66, 177.

  [780] Of 284,090 men, only 178,929 were available for the Army of the North and northern frontier garrison duty.

  [781] On budgets and fund-raising, see Schom, One Hundred Days, pp. 178-80.

  [782] On mobilization efforts, Schom, One Hundred Days, pp. 192 et seq.; Henry Houssaye, 1815: Waterloo (Paris: Bartillat, 1987), pp. 12, 36-37; entire correspondence of Napoleon with Davout throughout April-June, Corr de Nap, nos. 21779, 21819-22042; Madelin, Fouché, vol. 2, p. 277; Pasquier, Histoire de mon temps, Mémoires, vol. 3, p. no; Soult was ordered to prepare the marching plans for the Armee du Nord on June 3, 1815. Corr de Nap, no. 22005. See also Davout, Correspondance, vol. 4, pp. 441-43.

  [783] Louis Marchand, Mémoires de Marchand (Paris: Plon, 1952), vol. 1, pp. 149-50. Napoléon moved into the Elysée Palace on May 21, 1815.

  [784] Ibid., p. 145; Zieseniss, Berthier, p. 212; Houssaye, 1815: Cent Jours, pp. 595, 598, 599; Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 66-81; Corr de Nap, no. 21997; Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 66-81. A note on voting: In villages frequently the entire population queued up before a large leather register, and made their mark before soldiers, officials, and so on. There was no secrecy, and much intimidation. Napoleon gave the mayors powers that they have abused till this day. See John Cam Hobhouse’s reflections, Lettres écrites de Paris pendant le dernier règne de L’Emprereur Napoléon (Gand: Houdin, 1817), vol. 2, pp. 389-92; Corr de Nap, nos. 22038, 22044, 22045.

  [785] Schom, One Hundred Days, p. 236.

  [786] Scott Bowden, Armies at Waterloo (Arlington, Tex. : Empire Games Press, 1983), gives a figure of 112,652 men and 358 guns (p. 42); Houssaye, Waterloo; lists approximately 124,000 men and 370 guns (pp. 101-4); while Chandler, Campaigns of Napoleon, gives a figure of 122,721 troops, including 89,000 infantry, 22,100 cavalry, and 366 guns (pp. 1, 117). According to Gen. Bruno Chaix, the Ecole Royale Beige (military academy) gives Napoléon 126,088 men and 344 cannon; Wellington, 93,643 men and 186 cannon; the Prussians, 117,697 men and 312 cannon. Letter to author, June 2, 1991. For a detailed breakdown of French, English, and Prussian armies later at Waterloo, see Schom, One Hundred Days, appendix 3.

  [787] A sepoy was an Indian soldier.

  [788] Sir Herbert Maxwell, The Life of Wellington (London: S. Low Marston & Co, 1899), vol. 2, pp., 19-20; Chandler, Campaigns of Napoleon, p. 1040; for a different version, Carl von Clausewitz, Campagne de 1815 en France (Paris: Chapel, 1900), pp. 71,75-79; Clausewitz quotes the four orders issued by Soult/Napoléon to Ney on 16 June 1815, pp. 77-79; Camon, Batailles, p. 454.

  [789] Chandler, Campaigns of Napoleon, p. 1053; Camon, Batailles, p. 474 and n. 2; Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires, vol. 2, p. 134. Fleury and Baron Fain served as Napoléon’s personal secretaries at this time. Fleury was at Napoléon’s side throughout the campaign.

  [790] French artillery: the 12-pounder gun, model 1802-3, weighed 1,950 pounds and its limber 1,490 pounds. The French 6-pounder weighed 880 pounds, its limber 1,130, while the 6.54-inch howitzer (Gribeauval) weighed 700 pounds, its limber 1,565. The British nine-pounder weighed 1,510 pounds and its limber 1,760 pounds; the British 6-pounder weighed 576 pounds, its limber 1,065 pounds, and the British 5.5-inch howitzer, 448 pounds, its limber, 1,125 pounds. It took twelve horses to pull a French 12-pounder, ten to pull the 6.54-inch howitzer and the 8-pounder, and eight horses to haul the six-and four-pounders. The British on the other hand, used only six horses per team for their largest artillery piece there, the 9-pounder. Weller, Wellington at Waterloo, p. 177.

  [791] Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, p. 131; after deducting 18,421 casualties from 122,652, giving Grouchy 29,731. Napoléon gives a figure of 34,000 men. Corr de Nap, vol. 31, p. 179; Camon, Batailles, p. 203.

  [792] Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, p. 271; Bowden gives adjusted figure of 74,326. Chandler, Campaigns of Napoleon, gives Wellington a force of only 67,661, including a cavalry of 12,408 and 156 guns. (Napoleon incorrectly claimed that Wellington had 90,000 men and 255 guns. Corr de Nap, vol. 31, p. 156. Weller, Wellington at Waterloo, p. 177; Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, pp. 199, 201, 261-68, 327. The Prussian force (including officers), originally 130,246, 15,857 cavalry, 7,125 artillery, 103,345 infantry. Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, pp. 199, 201. On June 18, reduced to 99,374 (ibid., p. 327).

  [793] Chandler, Campaigns, p. 1076; Clausewitz, Campagne, pp. 149-151, 157, 166; Camon, Batailles, p. 500. In fact the 1:30 letter did not reach Grouchy until 7:00 P. M., according to Clausewitz.

  [794] Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, p. 252, 268-71; Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 140-41; for all statistics on Lord Uxbridge’s Cavalry Corps, see Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, pp. 268-71. Chandler, Campaigns of Napoleon, pp. 1078-79; Camon, Batailles, pp. 218. (Lieutenant General, the Earl of Uxbridge, Maj. Gen. Lord Edward Somerset (1776-1842) had commanded the Fourth Light Dragoons during the Peninsular War. Maj. Gen. Sir William Pensonby, killed at Waterloo.)

  [795] The Prussians used the term brigade instead of the rough British or French equivalent, “division.” The average Prussian brigade was almost six thousand men. Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, p. 197.

  [796] Houssaye, Waterloo, pp. 428-31, 432-40; Wellington, Dispatches, vol. 2, p. 510; Clausewitz, Campagne, pp. 189, 191, 193; Wellington, Dispatches, vol. 12, p. 242; vol. 20, p. 529; vol. 12, pp. 510, 499-500; Fleury de Chaboulon, Mémoires, vol. 2, pp. 155, 156; Girod de l’Ain, Joseph Bonaparte, pp. 317ff.; Clausewitz, pp. 202, 215, gives Blücher 60,000 men and Wellington 5
0,000; see Chandler, Campaigns of Napoleon, p. 1094.

  [797] Bowden, Armies at Waterloo, pp. 324-27. Total Coalition dead, wounded, deserters, prisoners at Waterloo, 24,143: 6,998 Prussians, and 17,145 Allies (Dutch, Belgian, British, Germans). Separate British losses at Waterloo were 8,458. France lost 64,602 men as casualties, including 43,656 at Waterloo and during the retreat (including POWs, and so on). The Allies suffered total casualties of 62,818, including Prussian figures of 40,237, and the other Allies, 22,581. Of the British losses of 8,458, some 460 included officers, thereby giving the British the highest percentage of battle casualties among the Allies — approximately 30 percent. The French of course had about 51 percent casualties, Armies at Waterloo, pp. 324-27. Thus, according to him, the entire campaign in Belgium resulted in 127,420 casualties.

  [798] This passage was carefully suppressed by Las Cases when he eventually published his Memorial de Sainte-Hélène, vol. 2, p. 533.

  [799] Bertrand, Cahiers de Sainte-Hélène, vol. 3, p. 19. For full details on the poisoning of Napoleon, including the scientific documentation, see Ben Weider and Sten Forshufvud, Assassination at St. Helena Revisited (New York: John Wiley, 1995), pp. 475ff.