The Duke of Wellington (1769-1852)
Two great generals were born in 1769. One was Napoleon Bonaparte; the other was his final conqueror, Arthur Wellesley, who became the first duke of Wellington. Arthur Wellesley was born on May 1, 1769, in Dublin, Ireland, the fourth son of an Irish nobleman. He attended the preparatory school at Chelsea and Eton College. Later he was sent to military school at Angers, France, for a year.
At 17 he entered the British army. Through the custom of purchasing commissions, he became a lieutenant colonel at 23, but his later achievements justified his quick promotion. In the hill country of India from 1796 to 1805, he conquered Mahratta chiefs who had sworn to drive the English into the sea. In making treaties that closed the war with these tribes, he proved himself an able diplomat as well.
In 1805 he left India for the war with Napoleon in Europe. He won a notable victory in his first campaign on the French-held Spanish peninsula, but the results were lost by incompetent superiors. In 1809 he returned as commander in chief. In five years he drove Napoleon's generals from the Iberian Peninsula.
After Napoleon's first exile Wellington was in Paris as Britain's ambassador to the restored king of France. Napoleon's escape from Elba sent Wellington back into military service. Finally at Waterloo, with the aid of Prussian troops, Wellington met and vanquished Napoleon himself.
For years Wellington was one of the most influential men in all of Europe. As prime minister of Great Britain from 1828 to 1830, however, he was less successful. He was an aristocrat who failed to note the changing times. He dismissed without consideration the demand for parliamentary reform and the extension of the right to vote as the work of agitators. He was forced to resign and had to protect his house from a mob. When the angry passions of the times subsided, people granted that Wellington, while not always an able statesman, had tried to do what he believed best for the nation. He died at Walmer Castle in Kent, England, on Sept. 14, 1852.
Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Napoleon Bonaparte. Emperor of the French (1804-14). One of the great conquerors of all time and a gifted administrator as well, Napoleon created a short-lived French empire that included virtually all of continental Europe. By his conquests, he helped to spread liberal reforms instituted in France and thereby affected the subsequent development of modern Europe. Napoleon was born in Corsica, became an artillery officer in the French Army (1785), and served with the republican army during the French Revolutionary Wars.
Napoleon was given command of the republican army in Italy (1796). He quickly reorganized the units under his command into an effective fighting force, and his Italian campaign (1796-97) was overwhelmingly successful. Napoleon's campaign in Egypt (1798-99) proved disastrous. At the same time, France's armies on the Continent suffered serious reverses, and the revolutionary government was on the verge of collapse. Napoleon returned to France and, with the aid of his brother, L. Bonaparte, and J. Sieyes, overthrew the Directory (Nov. 9, 1799). Napoleon was given dictatorial powers as head of the Consulate. He consolidated his position and from 1800 to 1802 brought the French Revolutionary Wars to a successful conclusion.
In following years he instituted reforms in education, law--notably the Code Napoleon and government. He also restored relations with the church (1801), severed during the French Revolution. Napoleon seized on the opportunity presented (1804) by an assassination plot against him (by G. Cadoudal and others) and made himself emperor. He was crowned by the pope (Dec. 2) at Paris. With the empire thus established, Napoleon set about creating a nobility and a court. He ultimately named rulers to various states (notably Spain, Holland, Naples, and Sweden). But when he made himself king of Italy (1805), the British (already at war with him) and other powers organized against him and the Napoleonic Wars broke out. Napoleon enjoyed his greatest military successes during these wars (notably at the Battle of Austerlitz), and by about 1808 he had extended French control throughout the Continent.
But his invasion of Russia proved disastrous. Napoleon marched into Russia (June, 1812) with some 600,000 troops and hardly managed to escape (Nov., 1812) with fewer than 30,000 troops. The defeat cost Napoleon his empire. One by one former allies joined the coalition of powers against him and by Mar., 1814, the Napoleonic Wars had come to a close. Napoleon abdicated (Apr. 11, 1814) and was exiled to the island of Elba. Napoleon's final defeat did not come until 1815, however. In that year he returned to France and triumphantly entered Paris (Mar. 20). Thus began his famous Hundred Days in which he attempted to reestablish his empire. Defeated utterly at Waterloo, Napoleon again abdicated (June 22, 1815) and lived out the rest of his life in exile on the island of St. Helena.
Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742 – 1819)
Gebhard von Blücher was born in Rostock in the northern state of Mecklenburg on Dec. 16, 1742. The son of a captain in the cavalry, he became a cadet in a Swedish regiment. He was captured by the Prussians during the Seven Years War and, like so many others, allowed himself to be pressed into the Prussian service. He had reached the rank of captain when, in 1770, Frederick the Great dismissed him in his usual brutal fashion for some minor transgression.
After Frederick's death Blücher rejoined the Prussian army. He distinguished himself in the wars against revolutionary France and eventually became a general. Fortunately for Blücher, he had not been given a major command in the disastrous campaign of 1806, so he escaped its disgrace. As it was, he was forced to surrender to the French in the later stages of that campaign. Both the Prussian chancellor, Prince Hardenberg, and the minister of war, G. J. D. von Scharnhorst, thought highly of Blücher's talents; thus in 1809 he was given command of the Prussian cavalry with orders to reform and modernize it. In 1811, however, he was dismissed at Napoleon's insistence.
At the outbreak of war between Prussia and France in 1813, Blücher was given command of a joint Russo-Prussian army. After defeating the French in three engagements and recapturing Leipzig from them in October 1813, Blücher was promoted to field marshal. His impetuosity and dynamism, which contrasted sharply with the conduct of the generals of Prussia's other ally, Austria, earned him the nickname of "Marshal Forward."
In 1814 Blücher commanded the Prussian army that attacked France. After an initial success he was outmaneuvered by Napoleon and lost a series of engagements. Although he was forced to retreat across the border, Blücher was undaunted by this reverse. He resumed the attack as soon as his defeated army was assembled and rested, and he soon won a major victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Laon (March 10, 1814). Blücher then joined his army with that of the Austrians under Prince Schwarzenberg, and at the end of the month the Allies entered Paris and forced Napoleon to abdicate.
When the Emperor returned from his exile in Elba in 1815, Blücher was once again given command of the main Prussian army. Napoleon planned to defeat his enemies one at a time, thus forcing them to accept his return; he almost succeeded. Blücher, who was badly outmaneuvered, faced the French alone in the Battle of Ligny (June 16). He lost the battle, a good part of his army, and came close to losing his life. Fortunately for the Prussians, Blücher's chief of staff, Count August Gneisenau, was able to organize an orderly retreat in the direction of the English army, which was under the command of the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon had preceded Wellington and came within an ace of beating the English at Waterloo (June 18). But the English infantry held, and the arrival of Blücher's diminished army was enough to turn the tide once and for all against the French.
Prussia's success in the Napoleonic Wars was due as much to Gneisenau's organization and planning as to Blücher's leadership, and the field marshal readily acknowledged this circumstance. But it was the grizzled and energetic Blücher who captured the imagination of the Prussians, and many other Germans as well, becoming perhaps the first German national hero. Blücher died on Sept. 12, 1819, in Silesia.
