Putting Napoleon in Perspective: Insights, Notes & Quotes from "The Campaigns of Napoleon"

How significant was Napoleon? How large was his footprint on history? Is Napoleon worthy of a "big" Hollywood epic like Ridley Scott's latest production? 

In answer to the last question, Napoleon is indeed a worthy subject for a major motion picture. It waits to be seen if Hollywood can produce a film worthy of the man himself.

I myself became interested in Napoleon after reading the intro to James A. Arnold's Grant Wins the War: Decision at Vicksburg. In his prologue Arnold wrote that according to military historians there were only two military campaigns from the U.S. Civil War worthy of comparison to the genius and skill of Napoleon, Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Campaign and Grant's conquest of Vicksburg. Naturally this sparked in me a desire to learn more about Napoleon, so I did a little research and found the best book I could find, Chandler's 1200 page The Campaigns of Napoleon. His battlefield exploits were so astonishing that twelve of his battles are cited in the top twenty military campaigns of all time. For more than twenty years the battles of Napoleon consistently rose above the expected.

The quotes and observations below were primarily taken from the 120 page introduction to that volume.  

* * * 

"His powers were his own, but circumstances rendered them effective."
--Hudson  

"All that is to happen is written down. Our hour is marked and we cannot prolong it a minute longer than fate has predestined."
--Napoleon

His great skill: Translating (War) Theory into Activity.

· Napoleon was a Man of Action... not necessarily Original. He borrowed from history.

· He was "a developer and perfecter of the ideas of others." (p. 135)

He drew his major ideas from books.

· "I have fought sixty battles and I have learned nothing which I did not know at the beginning."

· "Read and meditate upon the wars of the great captains. This is the only means of learning the art of war."

Importance of Speed

· Seize the initiative & Keep it at all costs.

· The Objective: Swift destruction of the enemy's will to resist.

Importance of Planning

· Napoleon was "extremely thorough in his planning. Very little was left to chance.

· Yet, at the same time, he recognized Chance as a variable and believed

every plan should allow a period of time to remedy or exploit the unpredictable.

Importance of Time

· The loss of time (in war) is irreparable.

· Strategy is the art of making use of time & space. However, "space we can recover, time never."

· "I may lose a battle but I shall never lose a minute."

Importance of Moral Force

· The Moral is to the Physical as three is to one.

· Moral force, rather than numbers, decides victory.

Two Main Qualities of a Soldier

· "If courage is the first characteristic of a soldier, perseverance is the second."

Summing Up

I took an interest in battle strategies not because I wanted to be a soldier some day but, rather, because of a book by Al Ries & Jack Trout called Marketing Warfare, which AMSOIL founder Al Amatuzio loaned me more than 35 years ago. The twin topics--marketing and battle strategies--became a lifelong interest. 

Many people remember Napoleon only for Waterloo. Few Americans realize that Napolean was the most written about human being of the nineteenth century, with more than 100,000 books devoted to analysis of the man, his actions, his ideas and his life.

 

Bonus Tracks
A.I.-generated images based on Jacques-Louis David's Napoleon Bonaparte