NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, Emperor of the French, was born at Ajaccio, in the Island of Corsica, August 15th, 1769. At the age of ten, he entered the military school at Brienne, as a king's pensioner. Here he remained five years and a half. During that period he displayed a great aptitude for mathematics, history, and geography, and an indifference to merely verbal and literary studies. In October, 1784, he proceeded to the military school to complete his studies for the army, and in rather less than a year obtained his commission as sub-lieutenant in an artillery regiment. When the Revolution broke out, Napoleon was in garrison at Valence. He petitioned the Convention for employment, and was sent to assist in the reduction of Toulon, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel of artillery. The city was captured (December 19th, 1793) entirely through the strategic genius of Napoleon, and the following February he was raised to the rank of brigadier-general, and placed at the head of the artillery in the army of the south. In the beginning of 1795, he was again in Paris seeking active employment. The Convention was now in great peril on account of the mutinous spirit of the arrondissements of the capital,and Napoleon was made commander of the troops provided for its defence. On October 4th, 1795, the National Guard, 30,000 strong, attempted to force its way into the Tuileries where the convention was sitting, but was routed and dispersed by a terrible cannonade directed by the young artillery officer. Napoleon was immediately appointed to the command of the army of the interior. About this time he made the acquaintance of Josephine Beauharnais, to whom he was married March 9th, 1796. A few days before, he had been appointed to the supreme command of the army of Italy, and he was obliged to leave his bride almost at the altar. Leaving Nice at the close of March, he won his first victory over the Austrians at Montenotte, which opened the Appenines for him; three days later, a second success at Millesimo, separated the allied armies; and finally, his victory at Mondovi compelled Sardinia to implore peace. He now hoped to utterly crush the Austrian army under Beaulieu, and at the battle of Lodi (on the 10th of May) nearly accomplished it. Napoleon immediately entered Milan and took possession besides of all the principal cities of Lombardy. Meanwhile Austria had resolved to make another effort for the recovery of Lombardy. About the close of July, Marshal Wurmser advanced from Trent at the head of 60,000 men, forced Napoleon to raise the siege of Mantua, but was himself defeated, with the loss of all his cannon, near Castiglione (August 5th), and again at Bassano (September 8th), in consequence or which he was driven to take refuge within the fortress of Mantua with some 16,000 troops - the scattered remains of his 60,000. Austria, however, was not disheartened. A third army was dispatched in two divisions; 30,000 from Carinthia, under Marshal Alvinzi; and 20,000 from the Tyrol, under General Davidowich. This was a terrible campaign for Napoleon; his veterans were exhausted, his new supports had not arrived; he himself was despondent, while the Austrians were fresh and hopeful. At first the Austrians were completely successful but the great victory of Arcola, won by Napoleon (November 17th) after three days' fierce fighting, in which he lost nearly all his general officers, decided the fate of the campaign.
In January 1797, a fourth campaign was commenced by Austria. At the head of 50,000 fresh troops, Alvinzi descended from the Tyrol, but was completely routed by Napoleon at Rivoli, on the 14th of the month; while not long after Wurmser was starved into surrender at Mantua. A fifth army was assembled on the Tagliamento, under the command of the Archduke Charles; but his troops were mainly raw recruits, while those of Napoleon were inured to war, and flushed with innumerable triumphs. In consequence, he was forced to retreat. The Austrian government was seized With alarm, made overtures of peace, and finally, on the 17th of October, 1797, the famous treaty of Campo-formio was signed, by which Austria ceded the Netherlands, Lombardy, and some other smaller territories to France. It is generally said that Napoleon's military genius was never more brilliantly displayed than in the early Italian campaigns. In December, 1797, Napoleon returned to Paris, where he was received with the utmost enthusiasm. An expedition against Egypt was resolved upon by the Directory, and on the 19th of May, 1798, Napoleon sailed from Toulon, with a fleet containing 30,000 soldiers, and a body of savants to investigate the antiquities of the country. He reached Alexandria on the 29th of June. He landed his troops, captured Alexandria, and marched on Cairo. The Mamelukes prepared resistance; but on the 1st of July, at the battle of the Pyramids, they were completely defeated and the French became masters of Egypt. Meanwhile, on the 2nd of August, Nelson had utterly destroyed the French fleet in Aboukir Bay, and so cut off Napoleon from communication with Europe. A month later the Sultan declared war against him. This was followed by disturbances in Cairo, which were suppressed by horrible massacres. It was obviously necessary that Napoleon should go somewhere else. He resolved to meet theTurkish forces assembling in Syria, and in February, 1799, crossed the desert at the head of 1o,000 men, stormed Jaffa on the 7th of March, after a heroic resistance on the part of the Turks. He then marched northwards by the coast, and reached Acre on the 17th. Here his career of victory was stopped. All his efforts to capture Acre were foiled through the desperate and obstinate valor of old Djezzar Pasha. On the 1st of May he commenced his retreat to Egypt, leaving the country on fire behind him, and re-entered Cairo on the 14th of June. About the middle of July, the Sultan landed a force of 18,000 men at Aboukir, who were attacked by Napoleon on the 25th, and routed with immense slaughter.
On the 23rd of August, he sailed from Alexandria, leaving his army behind him, under the command of Kleber, and landed near Frejus on the 9th of October. He hastened to Paris, soon mastered the state of affairs, threw himself into the party of Sieyes, and overthrew the Directory. A new constitution was drawn up, under which Napoleon became First Consul, with the power of appointing to all public offices, of proposing all public measures in peace or war, and the entire command of all the administrative affairs, civil or military. In a word, he was ruler of France. About the end of January 1800, he took up his residence in the Tuileries. The country was tired of revolutions, discords and confusions; it therefore regarded his assumption of sovereign power with positive satisfaction. Napoleon displayed extraordinary vigor as an administrator, recruited the national treasury by various sagacious expedients, repealed the more violent laws passed during the Revolution, such as punishment for matters of opinion, reopened the churches, and terminated by policy the Vendean struggle. But he knew well that his genius was essentially military, and that his most dazzling and influential triumphs were those won on the battlefield. France was still at war with Austria, and he resolved to renew the glories of his first Italian campaign. Leaving Moreau in command of the army of the Rhine, he assembled with wonderful rapidity and secrecy, an army of 30,000 men on the shores of the Lake of Geneva, and on the 13th of May (1800), began his magnificent and daring march across the Alps. Almost before the Austrian general, Melas, was aware, Napoleon had entered Milan. Twelve days afterwards, was fought the fiercely-contested yet decisive battle of Marengo, which compelled the Austrians to resign Piedmont with all its fortresses, and (for the second time) Lombardy to the French. Later in the year hostilities were recommenced, but the Austrians, beaten by Moreau in Germany (at Hohenlinden, etc.), and by Napoleon in Italy, were at last forced to make peace, and on the 9th of February, 1801, signed the treaty of Luneville. In the course of the same year, France and England also made peace. In January, 1802, Napoleon became President of the Cisalpine Republic; and on the 2nd of August following, was declared consul for life by a decree of the French Senate.
Peace between France and England did not last long, Napoleon's policy in Italy irritated the British government, and as remonstrances were ineffectual, war was declared against France May 18th, 1803. The English fleet scoured the seas, paralyzing the commerce of France, while Napoleon threatened to invade England. and assembled a large army at Boulogne. On the 18th of May Napoleon assumed the title of Emperor at St. Cloud, and was crowned in the presence of the pope on the 2nd of December. In the following summer (May 26), he was also crowned King of Italy, in the great cathedral of Milan, and Eugene Beauharnais, his stepson, was appointed to the office of Viceroy.
This policy of aggrandizement alarmed the other nations of Europe, especially Austria, which saw her Italian possessions seriously threatened. In 1805, a coalition between England, Russia, Austria and Sweden was formed, and war again broke out in September. Napoleon acted with amazing celerity, concentrating his widely-scattered forces at Mainz, he marched at once across Bavaria, compelled General Mack to capitulate at Ulm with 20,000 men (October 17th); and on the 13th of November entered the capital of Austria. France was electrified; the rest of Europe was thunder-struck. But a more glorious triumph was yet to come. The Russian army was yet in Moravia, under the immediate command of Alexander I, and was there being joined by the scattered Austrian troops. Napoleon did not lose a moment. Hurrying northward, he gave battle to the allies at Austerlitz, on the 2nd of December. The contest was tremendous, but the victory was complete. Napoleon's opponents were utterly crushed, and next day the Austrian Emperor sought an interview and sued for peace. A treaty was signed at Presburg, on the 26th of December, by which Austria ceded to France all her Italian and Adriatic provinces.
In February, 1806, a French army conquered Naples, and the, crown was conferred by Napoleon on his brother Joseph; in the following year, another brother, Louis, was made king of Holland. Prussia, now when it was too late, assumed a hostile attitude. Austria, with more magnanimity than prudence lent her help, but the star of Napoleon was still in the ascendant. The battle of Jena (October 16) absolutely annihilated the power of Prussia; five days later, Napoleon entered Berlin, whence he issued (November 21) his celebrated "Decrees" against British commerce, hoping to ruin her by shutting out her ships from every harbor in Europe. His expectations, it need hardly be said, were disappointed. After the capture of Berlin, Napoleon proceeded northwards to encounter the Russians, who were advancing to the help of Prussia, and on the 13th of June fought and won the great battle of Friedland, which led to the treaty of Tilsit, signed on the 7th of July. In August, Napoleon created his brother Jerome Sovereign of Westphalia, and soon after entered on a war with Portugal - the beginning of the great Peninsular War. Spain rose in insurrection, and an English force under Sir John Moore, was dispatched to its assistance. Napoleon invaded the country about the close of October, defeated the Spanish forces, and took Madrid. But his presence was urgently needed elsewhere, and he was forced to let Soult and other generals conduct the war in the Peninsula. Austria, again irritated and alarmed at his agressive policy, once more prepared for war, which broke out in the spring of 1809. Napoleon hurried into Bavaria, and routed the Archduke Charles at Eckmuhl (April 22nd), compelled him to retreat into Bohemia, and on the 12th of May entered Vienna for the second time. But the struggle was not over. The Archduke rallied his scattered forces, worsted Napoleon in the conflicts of Aspera and Essling, and forced him to take refuge for a time on an island of the Danube. The battle of Wagram (July 6th), however, once more prostrated Austria; and on the 14th of October, she signed the peace of Schonbrunn.
Napoleon appears to have now come to the conclusion that he could only put a stop to the hostile machinations of the old dynasties by inter-marrying with some of them. Besides, his wife Josephine had no children, and he was ambitious of perpetuating his power in his family. With that callousness to everything except his own interests, which is a prominent feature of his character, he immediately proceeded to divorce her. Less than three months afterwards, he married Maria Louisa, Archduchess of Austria. He was now at the zenith of his power. In May, 1812, Napoleon declared war against Russia, and in spite of the advice of his most prudent counsellors, resolved to invade the country. Every one knows the dreadful history of the Russian campaign. Napoleon, wringing contingents from all his allies - Germans, Austrians, Italians, Poles, and Swiss, concentrated between the Vistula and the Niemen, an army of half a million men. The vast horde crossed the latter river (June 24th and 25th) in three divisions, captured Wilna (June 28th), and ravaged Lithuania. The Russian generals retreated before the invading host, deliberately wasting the country and carrying off the supplies, but avoiding as far as possible all engagements. Napoleon followed up the retreating foe with reckless resolution. He risked everything on the chance of striking some overwhelming blow. The horrors of his march - in Lithuania alone, 100,000 dropped off (dead sick, or captured by the swarms of Cossacks who hung upon his flanks) - are too familiar to require description. When he reached Smolensk, (August 16th), the Russians had just left it - on fire! Three weeks later he overtook the enemy at Borodino, where an obstinate and bloody battle was fought (September 7th). The French remained in possession of the field, but nothing else. A week after, Napoleon entered Moscow, hoping to find rest for a time in the ancient metropolis of the country. But the city was deserted by its inhabitants; and on the 16th a fire broke out, which raged till the 19th, and left Moscow a heap of ruins. After five weeks stay, Napoleon was obliged to commence his retreat. His army was reduced to 120,000 men. The winter set in much earlier than usual, and he had to return through the very districts which had been wasted on his advance. When he left Smolensk (November 14th), he had only 40,000 fighting men; when he crossed the Beresina (November 26th and 27th), he had not more than 20,000.
With the excuse - which was in itself no doubt true - that his presence was urgently needed in France, he now abandoned the miserable remains of his army; and on the 5th of December, leaving Murat in command, set out in a sledge for Paris, where he arrived on the 18th of the same month. He instantly set about a fresh conscription, and in the spring of 1813, marched into Germany at the head of 350,000 men; but the Russian campaign had broken the spell of terror which his name had till then exercised. The spirit of all Europe was roused. A conviction was - somewhat unconsciously - seizing every mind, that the world had had "enough of Napoleon." Prussia, in particular, was burning to wipe out the disgrace of Jena, and all the bitter humiliations to which she had subsequently been subjected. An alliance was formed between the King of Prussia and the Emperor Alexander. At first Austria remained neutral, but afterwards she joined the coalition. Napoleon's military genius, it has often been remarked, never showed to greater advantage than in this and the next campaign, which cost him his crown and his liberty. He was for some months successful in winning battles - at Lutzen (May 2nd) Bautzen (May 1st) and Dresden (August 24th, 25th and 27th); but the invincible temper of the allies, whok new that he was playing his last card, made these victories almost fruitless. They were convinced that one grand defeat would neutralize all his triumphs. This was inflicted, after several minor defeats, at Leipzig, the great Battle of Nations, as it has been called, (October 16th, 18th and 19th). The result justified their expectations; Napoleon was hopelessly ruined! He commenced his retreat towards France, followed by the allies. When he recrossed the Rhine, he had only 70,000 or 80,000 men left out of his 350,000. All the French garrisons in the Prussian towns were compelled to surrender. Napoleon appeared at Paris, November 9th, and though great discontent prevailed in the country, and a spirit of opposition showed itself even in the legislative body, the senate decreed, at his bidding, another conscription of 30,000 men, with which Napoleon began, in January, 1814, to attempt to drive the allies out of France. The skill and energy which he displayed were extraordinary, but they only marked the intensity of his despair.
On the 30th of March, the allied forces captured, after a severe engagement, the fortifications of Paris; the next day the Emperor Alexander and the king of Prussia entered the city, amid the shouts of the populace; on the 4th of April, Napoleon abdicated at Fontainebleau. He was allowed to retain the title of emperor, with the sovereignty of the island of Elba, and an income of 6,000,000 francs, to be paid by the French government. After a lapse of ten months, most of which was spent in intrigues, Napoleon made his escape from the island, reached Paris, re-assumed the supreme power, and prepared once more to try the fortune of battle with the allies. At the head of 125,000 men, he marched (June 15th) towards Charleroi, on the Flemish frontier, where the English and Prussian forces were assembling. The Duke of Wellington, who, the year before, had completed the deliverance of Spain, was appointed by the Congress of Vienna, commander-in-chief of the armies of the Netherlands. The campaign lasted only a few days. On the 17th, Napoleon defeated the Prussians under Blucher, at Ligny; this compelled Wellington to fall back on Waterloo, where, on the 18th, was fought the most memorable battle. It resulted in utter and irretrievable ruin to Napoleon. The despot, who knew what waited him, returned to Paris. The House of Representatives fiercely insisted on his abdication. He did so (June 22nd) in favor of his son, Napoleon II. They further demanded that he should leave the country forever, and he retired to Rochefort, with the design of embarking for the United States. On the 7th of July, the allies again entered Paris, and refused to acknowledge the acts of the French provisional government. Napoleon, who saw that he could not escape either by sea or land, voluntarily surrendered (July 15th) to Captain Maitland, of the Bellerophron, claiming the protection of British laws! It was, however, resolved by the British government to confine him for life on the islet of St. Helena, a lonely rock in the Southern Atlantic, one thousand miles from the coast of Africa. He was conveyed thither by Admiral Cockburn, and landed at St. Helena, October 16th, 1815. The remainder of his life was politically insignificant. After more than a year of bad health, he expired, May 5th, 1821. He was buried with military honors. In 1840, his remains were removed to France, and deposited in the Hotel des Invalides.