Napoleon faces the soldiers of the Fifth
From the Mémoirs of Napoleon I
We all remember that mythical scene from Waterloo (1970). The Emperor, a single man, walking towards an entire army sent by the King to capture him. That should have been the end of a hopeless march. But Napoleon conquered an entire army with but few words, reminding his old comrades who they had served and fought for. A simple appeal to their honor. These were deeds only heard of in the deep annals of History. Once could think of Caesar’s encounter with Legio X before his departure for Africa. Such stories are often dismissed as only the work of mythologers and propagandists. But one cannot deny an event that happened mere hundreds of years ago.
Today I bring you a passage from the Memoirs of Napoleon himself, very rarely encountered and to my knowledge entirely untranslated. An account of the Hundred Days, where he tells the tale, with his own words, of his encounter with the troops of General Marchand outside Grenoble. It is an immense pleasure and honor to bring the Emperor’s own account of the event to a modern audience.
General Cambronne, with the vanguard, left at the break of dawn and arrived at night in the little town of Mure, where he met the supply officers of a vanguard of Grenoble’s garrison, who had just established lodgings for a battalion of the Fifth line infantry regiment and a company of the Third corps of engineers, which were to arrive that night. General Cambronne chatted with these non-commissioned officers, who assured him that they were told they were marching to repel a band of brigands who, from the Piemont, had entered France; those were their official words, but they suspected the truth. As soon as they saw the hundred grenadiers of the vanguard, they pulled back to their battalion, which took position the entire night at a half-league behind Mure. This vanguard established itself militarily. General Cambronne sent grenadiers and officers to try to communicate: he found no way to do so; they answered that they were prohibited from parlaying with anyone no matter who they were. Their physiognomy was very hostile, and General Cambronne, quite alarmed, immediately gave his report to the Emperor, to let him know that he had in front of him a vanguard of the Fifth line infantry regiment; that being very advanced and very compromised he would pull back during the night to a league and a half behind the small river of Bonne.
The Emperor had left Gap at two hours in the morning; he had charged with the functions of prefect the general secretary of the department; he had recommended to the municipality to maintain tranquility and to provide everything which would be necessary for the passage of the troops and of the vanguard. A second company of officers at half-pay1 or reformed formed itself to follow the army. At around four o’clock, the Emperor passed through the valley next to the village of Saint-Bonnet. From all sides of the Drac valley, an immense populace had assembled itself on his route, and His Majesty was constantly obligated to continue at walking pace. It only arrived quite late during the evening at the village of Corps, where it spent the night. Next to the bridge of Saint-Bonnet, an old man of ninety years of age, poor and deciduous, was brought to him by one of the oldest grenadiers of the Guard, covered in wounds; this grenadier had taken the lead to see his father, and cried tenderly of the miserable state of his family. The Emperor instructed that this old man be given fifty Napoleons2, and had a certificate expedited from Grenoble for a pension of the same sum.
At eleven in the evening, General Cambronne’s dispatch was received and the news of disagreeable circumstances that forced a retrograde movement. This movement could have the most disastrous consequences. The Emperor sent to Cambronne the order to return immediately to the small town of Mure, in a manner that the vanguard which opposed him did not notice his retreat; to call for the national guards of the towns and cantons, to barricade himself in Mure if that was necessary; that at the break of dawn he would be there personally. However, word spread around the entire valley that it might be the case that there would be some resistance, and during the night, offers arrived from all sides, proposing a march in mass of the national guards of all the villages and neighboring towns. The Emperor simply asked that they prepared themselves, but that he hoped to not have need of them; that he had not come to France to start a civil war, and that he thought he knew the minds of the soldiers to think he would only need his presence to bring them back to the national flag.
Napoleon arrived at seven in the morning in Mure. The vanguard of Grenoble had retreated and taken position on the road to Grenoble, its left pressed on the lake of Pierre-Châtel and its right to the mountains. General Cambronne left to follow the movement of the battalion and placed himself opposite, at canon’s range. The Emperor remained two hours in Mure, in the middle of an immense populace, animated by all the sentiments of the most vivid enthusiasm. At eleven the national guard of Mure offered to march with the troops. At the same time, the inhabitants who knew the general dispositions of the army testified that it was impossible that French soldiers would not rally themselves to the party of the nation.
At noon the Emperor left; he went to the vanguard, with sixty or so light horses of the Guard, that had been brought up the road. He arrived in front of the battalion of the Fifth, examined its composition and recognized the position it occupied. He felt the impression that the sight of his grey coat produced on these soldiers as soon as they had seen it. He sent Captain Raoul to let this troop know that he wished to speak to their commander and announce that the Emperor had arrived to take back his throne and chase away from France the princes which the enemy had placed in it. An aide de camp of General Marchand, commander in Grenoble, answered that he had orders to not communicate. As soon as the Emperor knew of it, he went forwards alone at the gallop, and, when he was within earshot, he told them: “Soldiers of the Fifth, kill your Emperor, if you dare!” The soldiers raised their rifles in the air shouting the chant of “Long live the Emperor!” The enthusiasm was extreme, all wished to touch the Emperor. The battalion of the Guard with weapon at the ready and without bayonets on the rifles. The cavalry, that was following on the right, with sheathed sabers, pursued the aide de camp of General Marchand, who instantly took flight; he was almost grabbed by the light horses. He carried to Grenoble the news of this event.
Proclamations were immediately thrown about in the ranks. The soldiers displayed the tricolor cockade; they wished to give them some: they all had them in their bags. The Emperor saw many miners and soldiers of the Fifth that had served under his orders during the first campaigns of Italy: “What!” he told them, “you wanted to shoot me! You hesitated!” — “Look”, said an old grenadier by placing his rifle on the ground, “see if it’s loaded. All French soldiers are of the same opinion, they only carry bullets against enemies of the Fatherland.” The soldiers of the Fifth and the Guard embraced each other. This battalion requested to form the vanguard, and to march on Grenoble.
Mister Lessard, head of the battalion, who for twenty-four hours had been very strict, was a brave one covered in injuries; he had served in the Guard: “If your sentiments have changed, you are the master, you can retire in Grenoble; I would like,” said His Majesty, “only those men of good faith.” He protested for his French sentiments, for his attachment to the Emperor, and asked to march at the head of the vanguard. The Emperor therefore ordered to make a circle; he had the troops swear an oath; all the peasants of the neighboring villages ran to join in and mingled their acclamations and oaths to those of the soldiers.
It was thought that the battalion of the Fifth had a piece of artillery, but it was a crate containing tools to blow up the bridge of Vizille. At four in the afternoon the march began and the army passed through Vizille. It is in this small town that the Revolution had been born in 1789. Nothing could express the feelings of enthusiasm and patriotism which animated these lands. Arms were demanded: there were a few hundred at the city hall, which were distributed immediately.
After Napoleon’s first abdication, the royal ordinance of May 12th, 1814, places many officers of the Grande Armée in forced retirement. They are nonetheless still placed in reserve duty. The ordinance would reduce the numbers of the French army by more than a hundred infantry regiments (out of a bit more than two hundred), and thirty-eight cavalry regiments (out of two hundred). These officers therefore receive half their usual pay due to their inactivity, deprived of command and commission. They are socially degraded due to the fact that their pay was essentially lower than half of what they usually received. The governments subsequently keeps a close eye on them, they were not allowed to keep weapons, not allowed to travel or receive passports, and had to report their conduct regularly. They only truly return to polite society, civilian life, and military duty after the death of Napoleon in 1821.
A Napoleon was a gold coin weighing around 5 grams.