ARTICLE: Fighting for Napoleon, 1815

Today I thought I’d go back a bit further than usual, and bring you something from the Napoleonic wars. Specifically, the Hundred Days in which Boney came back from the dead and inflicted more misery on Europe. Because it’s me, I thought I’d do it from the perspective of the French…

I’ll start with the Battle of Ligny, which took place on 16th June 1815, two days before Waterloo. Here, Napoleon experienced his last victory, but though the Prussians were defeated, they lived to fight another day; which would have dire consequences for the French. Lieutenant Martin had to wait until mid-afternoon before he was sent forward. By this time, he had already witnessed wagons trundling past bearing the wounded:

What a horrible thing to see! I can assure you that you need more courage to walk casually to the enemy when the battlefield is already covered with dead and dying than to assault frontally the most formidable battery. Those were certainly not the first [dead men] that I had seen, but I do not think that it is possible to pass this crowd of happy men, so ready a moment before, and now soaked with blood, piled without order and all this anguish painted on their faces, without feeling your heart race.

The[wounded] looked the least affected by their unfortunate fate; they were the ones who took the keenest interest in our success, forgetting their pain to encourage us. Some, raising their pale faces on top of the wagon, told us with a strong voice: ‘Go! Comrades: do not be afraid. All is good. A bit more courage and the cowards will run! I have seen some that were followed closely by death, and who had only a little bit of life left, using it to scream: Long live the Emperor! Fuck the Prussians.’

Others, waving bloody, mutilated arms, looked still threatening and were only sad because they could not avenge their own demise. What soldiers are these people that neither death nor pain can scare them and who can remain faithful to the nation, until their very last moment! I must also admit that I have never seen soldiers so animated with such enthusiasm as in this campaign. Such courage was not in vain. The Prussians were defeated, chased off from all sides, almost entirely cut off from the rest of the Allied army and forced to retreat all night. The French army slept on the battlefield.’

Holding Hougoumont Farm (National Army Museum)