#battle of austerlitz

[josefavomjaaga]

Letter from Duroc to Oudinot

This letter was written four weeks after the battle of Austerlitz, and in a way caused by one Jean Andoche Junot: When Junot had unexpectedly shown up at headquarters on the eve of the battle, all orders of command had already been given. But Junot now needed a post. So Napoleon gave him that of Duroc, who was placed under Oudinot's orders instead and commanded a unit of grenadiers. Duroc, as shown below, took it in stride and with his customary amiability.

Translated from the book Correspondance du grand maréchal du palais de Napoléon Ier, edited by Samoyault/Vial, Paris 2023, page 422

Munich, 3 January 1806 – To General Oudinot I can only thank you, my dear general, for the kind manner in which you speak of what concerns me at the battle of Austerlitz; I would have wished for the occasion to have provided me with the means of proving to you the pleasure I had of serving there under your orders and of commanding some of your brave grenadiers. I will never forget your kindness towards me, I wish to have shown you by my conduct how much I appreciated it, and I am delighted to have established a more personal relationship with you. Receive, my dear General, the assurance of my attachment and my most distinguished consideration. Duroc.

[illustratus]

The Battle of Austerlitz, 2nd December 1805 by François Gérard

[empirearchives]

I’m crying, this author was UNHINGED 😂😂

[totally-india]

Battle of Dunkirk

Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Leningrad

Battle of Białystok Minsk

Battle of Paris

Battle of Brannkyrka

Battle of Panipat

Battle of Delhi

Battle of the Indus

Battle of Hydasles

Battle of Ghazni

Battle of Guntur/Pollilur

Battle of Palnadu

Battle of the pyramids

Etc

Any battle at all except Waterloo. Reblog if you can think of one!

[sachermorte]

you would slay in ouji fashion honestly

I don't disagree with you, Anon, but the issue is that the ouji fashion I really like all looks like THIS

it's big black coats and shiny boots and silver buttons and red accents

it's all very well and good if we stay early in the 19th century but sometimes I really like a cleaner line and big blocky shapes, and, well. it's very easy to fly too close to the sun on that one. you remember when that woman told me I'd make a great fascist based on the way I dress? I don't need to be feeding those allegations, no matter how hot I'd look

[spineless-lobster]

Linear warfare except when they run at each other they meet in the middle and start passionately kissing each other on the mouth with tongue

[portuguesedisaster]

Just came back from watching Napoleon and ugh.

[illustratus]

Fight for the Banner (1805) by Wiktor Mazurowski

[josefavomjaaga]

Okay, same question as always from the blind fish, i.e. me - who is who?

Murat and Bessières are clear. Guy to the right of Murat should be Soult. On the rearing horse probably Bernadotte? Who is Bessières whispering to? And who's the one on the left watching them? Theguy in the fancy uniform with his back to us? (Junot? But not a marshal.) And the one with the moustache, who can be seen over the fancy guy's left shoulder?

Also, where's Berthier?

L'Empereur donnant ses ordres aux maréchaux de l'empire, le matin de la bataille d'Austerlitz by Carle Vernet (1808)

[empirearchives]

“I regret to think that I will lose many of these brave men. I feel bad, it makes me feel that they are truly my children, and, in truth, I reproach myself sometimes for this feeling since I fear that it will end up making me incapable of war.”

— Napoleon wrote on the eve of the Battle of Austerlitz (source)

[toskarin]

the lesson of arknights is that france would have lost the battle of austerlitz if sauron had a say in it

[ripstefano]

“Poor Blucher went mad for some time. He had shown off before some of our ladies, and got a fall from his horse and a blow on his head. This gave him all sorts of strange fancies. When I went to take leave of him, he positively told me he was pregnant! And what do you think he said he was pregnant of? – An elephant! And who do you think he said had produced it? – A French soldier!…”

- Recounted by Wellington to Stanhope, unknowingly exemplifying the dangers of directly translating your language to English without any context.

There’s a bit of a comedic story involving a Prussian diplomat during the War of the Third Coalition, Prussia being one of the main boss enemies during the early revolution was dragging its feet to declare war this time. Finally about to do it, the diplomat arrives just in time to hear the result of the battle of Austerlitz, and instead congratulates the French.

Queen Louise being one of Napoleon’s biggest haters on the continent is another funny little quirk about the Prussians.

As for their uniforms? The reference book really only covered the later army, but you can get a feel of the military practicality present. Overcoats, blankets, blues and grays, the Russo-German legion was dripped out a bit. The cavalry wasn’t too bad either.

From Blucher’s Army, 1813-15.

[josefavomjaaga]

Something that has irked me from the beginning is how they casually tell the story about French artillery firing on the frozen Lake Satschen during the battle of Austerlitz, causing the fleeing Russians and Austrians to drown in droves - with one soldier even shouting "Ice! It's a trap!" - Yeah, buddy, got that right. Those evil Frenchmen have put that lake there on purpose!

In truth, I understand that story had already been refuted shortly after the battle by the very people whom Napoleon had fought and on whose territory the battle happened. The Austrian administration had the lake emptied, and all they found was like, one or two bodies and a couple of dead horses. So, most likely, some stray cannonball had hit the lake's surface and started this legend.

But apparently, nothing can stop this kind of story to be told and retold throughout centuries?

Some new snippets of scenes in these TV spots

[secretmellowblog]

Happy Julius Caesar gets stabbed day! Here’s a Les Mis take on the subject, courtesy of Grantaire’s Drunken Rambles:

Whom do you admire, the slain or the slayer, Cæsar or Brutus? Generally men are in favor of the slayer. Long live Brutus, he has slain! There lies the virtue. Virtue, granted, but madness also. There are queer spots on those great men. The Brutus who killed Cæsar was in love with the statue of a little boy. This statue was from the hand of the Greek sculptor Strongylion, who also carved that figure of an Amazon known as the Beautiful Leg, Eucnemos, which Nero carried with him in his travels. This Strongylion left but two statues which placed Nero and Brutus in accord. Brutus was in love with the one, Nero with the other. All history is nothing but wearisome repetition. One century is the plagiarist of the other. The battle of Marengo copies the battle of Pydna; the Tolbiac of Clovis and the Austerlitz of Napoleon are as like each other as two drops of water. I don’t attach much importance to victory. Nothing is so stupid as to conquer; true glory lies in convincing. But try to prove something! If you are content with success, what mediocrity, and with conquering, what wretchedness! Alas, vanity and cowardice everywhere. Everything obeys success, even grammar. Si volet usus, says Horace. Therefore I disdain the human race.

[napolebonasacc]

Allegory Of The Battle Of Austerlitz, 2nd December 1805

By Antoine Francois Callet

[bunniesandbeheadings]

What did Betsy do to get exiled on Sainte Hélène? For some reason, I thought she arrived either at the same time or a bit later than Napoléon, not before!

I know nothing about her

Ha ha! Well, I was being a little facetious before: Betsy Balcombe wasn't exiled to Saint Helena. But she did live there with her family: mother, father, a sister and two brothers.

We often forget that like, Saint Helena isn't really a deserted island. Until the Suez Canal, it was vital to trade. The Portuguese even used it as a bit of an "ace in the hole" when they discovered it: an island with fresh water and the capability to be farmed almost halfway between the water route between Europe and India? That is like, a save point, or a gas station, and hundreds of ships stopped at Saint Helena every single year, including the years of Napoleon's imprisonment. Which is one of the many reasons I think the idea that Napoleon could never have escaped the island laughable: he didn't, because Hudson Lowe was good at his job, but that was by no means a guarantee.

Like, people live there even today. And they pay rent and everything. And I don't blame them. Ignore everything Napoleon says about Saint Helena being nothing more than a rock to chain "Prometheus" to. Like:

It's gorgeous. The Duke of Wellington probably wasn't even lying when he claimed that he believed that Napoleon could be kept comfortably there. Wellington had stayed there before, too, and indeed even met a toddler!Betsy.

Anyway, so Betsy's father worked on Saint Helena as a provisioner and naturally kept his family with him. Which brings about when Betsy and Napoleon enter P v P mode.

The people of Saint Helena learned that Napoleon escaped from Elba, reclaimed the throne of the French, lost the battle of Waterloo, abidcated again and was being exiled to their island about 24 hours before Napoleon landed on the island. They had to learn all of this in about one conversation. I imagine many eyebrows were raised.

Anyway, since they learned Napoleon was coming approximately around the time they would've seen his ship on the horizon, they didn't really. Have a place to put him. Like, it was unsafe to keep Napoleon at an inn in Jamestown for too long and also he doesn't want to do that, but where do we put him?

Enter: the Balcombe house.

While being taken on an excursion to review where his future home/prison would be located, Napoleon saw the Balcombe house, known as the Briars, and asked if he could stay there instead. And the Balcombes said, "uh, I guess."

And so Napoleon Bonaparte became the weirdest house guest anyone could ever expect with less than 24 hours notice. Betsy, meanwhile, had grown up hearing the whole "if you don't do your homework, Boney will eat you" schtick, and so was a little weirded out when Napoleon Bonaparte was just. Having dinner in her house.

Fun fact: the Balcombe adults did not understand or speak French. And Napoleon's English was ass. Betsy, however, knew French from having a French governess. So she became de facto translator.

I like to imagine that his first dinner there with the middle class family had to be the weirdest experience anyone there had had. And Napoleon had had a lot of weird experiences but I feel like this had to rank among them.

Napoleon stayed with them for a few months and even when he left he remained on friendly terms with the family, although he does seem to have had a falling out with the father probably becaues Mr. Balcombe may or may not have been using Napoleon in a weird embezzlement scheme or because Napoleon may or may not have been sleeping with his wife.

Anyway, Betsy would proceed to menace Napoleon like it was her job or something. She pushed him down a ravine, burned him with hot wax, tried to stab him with the sword he wore at Austerlitz, sicced her dog on him, tried to destroy his memoirs, cut the coat he wore at Waterloo, laughed at him when he was in pain post-tooth pulling, may or may not have bribed her brother to give Napoleon poisonous candy, insulted Napoleon for wearing his jammies too late in the day etc. al; Napoleon, for his part, stole a dress she wanted to wear to a ball, weirdly taught her how to shoot a gun which brings about the question of why we still allow Napoleon to have guns, gaslit her into thinking she was haunted by a ghost of her dead tutor, and tried to bribe her into setting the French commissioner on fire.

She may not have been exiled to Saint Helena

But I feel like she would have deserved that.

Ironically, she and her family were later exiled from Saint Helena, either because they were too friendly with Napoleon or because, again, Betsy's father may have been skimming so much money off the top with embezzlement that the government couldn't ignore it anymore. Scam everyone even your government.

Anyway, it's a delightful anecdote in history! thank you for asking!