"Most Obscure Napoleonic Fact" Topic

Hi chaps.

Weather its that you know that the Brandy that Blucher bathed in after being trampled by horses was from Lyons, or Quedlinburg gave up 1.5 square miles of territory at Tilsit, we all know some pretty ruddy useless stuff about the Napoleonic period.

Shout out here the most useless fact you know.

101 – cannon shots fired in celebration for the birth of Napoleon's son.

21 – celebratory cannon shots if Napoleon had a daughter born.

Pretty useless, don't you think?

Napoleon was called "The Corsican Ocher" due to his habit of painting hismself deep orange before battle.

Private James Talbot of the 45th got the pennisular war medal with the most bars (aside from Wellington)

Josephine had two webbed toes.

"Weather its that you know that the Brandy that Blucher bathed in after being trampled by horses was from Lyons, "

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!

We all know Napoleon habitually wore his Legion of Honor medal in the field. But what was the other military decoration he usually wore in the field?

Answer: The "Order of the Iron Crown" or Coronne de Fer which he created in 1805 when he created the Kingdom of Italy.

This brings up a related question. If Napoleon wore these two medals at Waterloo, what medals did his opponents wear? I guess the Duke of Wellington would have worn his Star of the Order of the Bath. Any others? As for Blucher, I have no idea. I would guess at least an Iron Cross of some level appropriate for his rank and status.

I read a book of Riply's beleive or Not facts on Military history. Very wierd and obscure facts in that book about Napoleonis era and other eras.

Wellington's horse was named Copenhagen.

The Prince of Orange was shot by a ne'er do well ex officer of the 95th.

Actually, Wellington invented the bricole.

I'm sure I read on an earlier thread that the Prussians actually invented the bricole, and Wellington took all the credit for himself.

Rick

The French were just playing mind games with the rest of Europe when they changed the names of all the months.

M C LeSingeDew – Napoleon used fake tan? I won't be able to see Dale Winton without thinking of Napoleon from now on!

Josephine wore false teeth made of wood

Blucher started his military career in the Swedish army

When Wellington stopped at St Helena returning from India, he stayed in the same house that would eventually be Napoleons'residence

The Military General Service medal was awarded 40 odd years after the war finished

hussarbob1746.webs.com

An elephant really did make Blucher pregnant.

During the Peace of Amiens, British companies resumed their trade with France. Had Napoleon invaded the UK in 1804-05, approximately 1/3 of his men would have been wearing boots made in England.

The square wooden plate on which food was served to British sailors, gives us the expression "three square meals".

The height of the "raupenhelm" worn by Bavarian troops gave NCOs space store paybooks and other paperwork.

"An elephant really did make Blucher pregnant."
Yes, it's a little known fact.
And their offspring are still around today.
You can read about them in Dan Brown's best seller 'The Babar Code'.

picture

Lady Hamilton had a broad Lancashire accent, totally at odds with polite society.

Wellington and Nelson met once, in a waiting chamber of the war office. Welling was going in, Nelson was leaving for what would be his last voyage.

Wellington's horse was named for the battle of Copenhagen, where it was captured.

The skeleton of Marengo, Napoleons horse, is in the National Army Museum at Chelsea.

HMS Victory is the world's oldest warship still in commission, the flagship of 2nd Sea Lord.

The American drive on the wrong side of the road because of the French revolution.

Young Wellington went to a military school in … France!

The english actualy invented the GAU-8 30mm gattling gun,
But Wellington didn't want to use it, as it was unsporty to fire 4500 30mm rounds a minute with pinpoint accuracy

The good folk of Hartlepool are famous for hanging a monkey:

link

In 2002, the people of Hartlepool also elected a monkey as mayor. Actually, it was the mascot of the football team…..

Napoleon's penis was removed when he was being prepared for burial and now resides with a collector in New Jersey.

There were two cavalry regiments – one Austrian, one Saxon – which shared the same "inhaber" and, as a consequence, officers often transferred from one to the other in order to facilitate promotion. The two units clashed during the 1809 campaign.

Blucher took part in a Russian football (soccer) game in 1945 – his head was used as the ball!

During the French Republic period they created 2 Balloon companies for observation. Napoleon subsequently disbanded them when he came to power.

During the big bunny hunt, Napoleon and his Marshals lost to the bunnies who outflanked the Marshals on both wings and drove Napoleon from the field.

The Brunswick Jagers ate the 95th Rifles' mascot, a dog named Rifle.

Kruschev fought under British command during the
Napoleonic Wars.

This Kruschev was the captain of a Russian frigate
temporarily assigned to the Royal Navy.

The officer commanding the British military hospital at Lisbon was a Major Cimetiere (= french for "cemetery")

"The Brunswick Jagers ate the 95th Rifles' mascot, a dog named Rifle"

First dog eating, then the holocaust, proof that the germans always will be barbariens

Wellington's horse was named for the battle of Copenhagen, where it was captured.

Not quite. Ol' Copenhagen was all English:

Copenhagen had been a surprise foal. …Her owner had taken Lady Catherine [Cope's mum] on the British military expedition to Denmark in 1807 not knowing she was in foal. At that time the Duke of Wellington was in charge of a division in the force that occupied the city of Copenhagen and seized the Danish fleet. Once home the mare produced a strong chestnut foal who was named in honor of the Copenhagen siege. The colt was by the famous Meteor who was a son of the even more famous Eclipse, the legendary race horse of the 18th century. Copenhagen raced as a three-year-old but was not really successful, so he was sold and ended up with the Duke of Wellington on campaign in Spain.

link

Now that's obscure…

King Friedrich of Wurttemberg was so fat he had to have a semi-circle cut out of his dining table to get him close enough to his food.

And no, Gunfreak, there is no record of him ever having eaten dog.

Napoleon's Doctor was Irish cannot remember the name but iirc from Donegal!

Wellington ordered one regiment to use its regimental buttons on their touser flys after they broke down a monestry door and raped some of the Nuns during the sack of Badajoz.. I don't know which one but it was most likely one in the 3rd Division.

There was a soldier called "Pierre" in the French army.

You'll never find that plastered all over the history books !

Also a very super secret fact is that the french preferd wine over beer.

Oh and the french lost trafalger

Surely the most obscure Napoleonic fact would be the one that is known to none of us?

As a very occasional visitor to the Napoleonic board…
what the Hell is a bricole?

Baron Marbot had a horse name Lissette, and she had a nasty habit of biting people.

Sigmund Freud theorised that Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812, and then uncharacteristically performed so miserably because, subconsciously, he wanted to punish himself for the way in which he had treated Josephine.

TW.

@ Mashrewba

Bricole = a leather and rope contraption to aid gunners in moving a field piece by hand. The strap went round a gunner's shoulder, the rope hooked on the gun carriage. With a bricole, a gunner could put his whole weight into the job.

It became notorious on TMP due to a bitter debate between two rival writers with different theories about who first invented it. The mere mention of a bricole sent us running for tin hats and kevlar armour.

It's now passing into myth and legend, like how Isildur cut the One Ring off Sauron's hand.

"Lady Hamilton had a broad Lancashire accent, totally at odds with polite society."
It wouldn't have made any difference then, as most aristocrats in Britain had a regional accent. There were exceptions, of course, but received pronunciation only became "polite" in the later Nineteenth Century. Admiral Lord Collingwood spoke broad northumbrian, and wasn't thought any less of because of it. The tendency to send their kids to public schools meant the end of regional accents in the nobility, and the upper middle classes that aped them.
Talking of apes…..
"In 2002, the people of Hartlepool also elected a monkey as mayor. Actually, it was the mascot of the football team….."
He was the mascot of the Rugby team, Hartlepool Rovers, not the football team.
A student at the University of Teesside researched the story of the Hartlepool Monkey and concluded that it was true. I was told this by the professor who was his supervisor for his dissertation.

Thanks footslogger!!
It just that it seemed to get a name check in every other post that I looked at lol.

There is a sex position named after Napoleon's Hat.

link

So THAT'S what it is called……..

Don't we wish….

Yep, I reckon you win this one Correus!
top man!
(research can be so tough).

Wrong, Last Hussar. Although the colonists were primarily British descendants, the wagons were made by the Germans who drove on the right as opposed to the British style.

First they came after the Bourbons, and I switched to Scotch, then they came after the vodka, and I looked the other way, & drank rum; then they came after the beer and I began drinking wine…finally, they came after me and I was so drunk I hardly noticed…..

Sincerely,
Wayne

Correus wins hand down or up or whatever………….