"We are perhaps used to considering Napoleon's regimental officers as being young heroes, who fought their way to glory on the battlefields of central Europe. Men who, in their twenties, led their men forward, shako on the tips of their swords, on such historic and glorious occasions as Austerlitz, Jena, Borodino or Waterloo. But, in many cases, the truth was more prosaic, the glory elusive.
Napoleon's officers were a mixed lot. Some, indeed, were comparatively young, but others had begun their careers in the decade of conflict which followed the French revolution. They had been unsuccessful in their attempts to rise up beyond the rank of company officers, but laboured away in the service of the republic, consulate or empire, remaining at the sharper, more brutal, end of their profession.
Nor did all of them witness the glory of French victory in the set-piece battles which elevated France to hegemony over Europe, and confirmed Napoleon as the greatest soldier of the age. Indeed, many were to live out their lives in the forgotten wars of the republic and the empire, securing territory, suppressing dissent, and rarely experiencing battle against their Austrian, Russian or British counterparts. They were absent from the pages of the victorious bulletins, but kept dangerously close to the insurgent's knife…"
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Amicalement
Armand
returns to Flintloque to paint an Ogre.
