Frederick II, King of Prussia, 1712-1786
This volume consists of a series of essays on Great Commanders of Modern Times, and of two papers on the Campaign of 1815. I have to thank the Editor of _The Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine_, in which these studies originally appeared, for thinking them worthy of repub...
This volume consists of a series of essays on Great Commanders of Modern Times, and of two papers on the Campaign of 1815. I have to thank the Editor of _The Illustrated Naval a...
3. CHAPTER I.I remember hearing a soldier of promise remark that war had so completely changed that it was useless to study the campaigns of Napoleon. This foolish paradox represents ideas t...
4. CHAPTER II.A thorough estimate of Marlborough would fill a volume, and I must confine myself to the military career of one described by a great historian as “a prodigy of turpitude,” who “...
5. CHAPTER III.Frederick II. of Prussia, known as the Great, was born in 1712. The associations of his boyhood and early youth were ill fitted to bring out the qualities of a nature which, wit...
6. CHAPTER IV.The years that followed the peace of Hubertsburg were a period of repose, if not for mankind, at least for five-sixths of Continental Europe. Russia, indeed, half an Asiatic Pow...
7. CHAPTER V.The return of Pitt to power, at the call of the nation; the aggressive foreign policy of the first Consul, and the atrocious execution of the Duc D’Enghien--a crime that may be...
8. CHAPTER VI.The Emperor, on his return to Paris, found a rupture with Austria already imminent. That great Power, tenacious but always prudent, had been forced to accept the Peace of Pressb...
9. CHAPTER VII.Napoleon--he had travelled in disguise through Poland and Germany--returned to Paris as 1812 was closing. On his arrival he had proofs, not to be mistaken, of the increase of th...
10. CHAPTER VIII.I must pass over the attempt to resettle the boundaries, at Vienna, of a changed Continent; nor can I dwell on the pretensions of the Czar to sit in the seat of Napoleon without...
11. CHAPTER IX.Arthur Wellesley was born in 1769, a few weeks before the birth of Napoleon. His family belonged to “the English in Ireland”--a happy expression of Mr. Froude; and the future so...
12. CHAPTER X.I feel it difficult to attempt a sketch which must be inadequate, and perhaps partial. Moltke is a living man, though in extreme old age; flattery and envy have obscured his rea...
13. CHAPTER I.I purpose, in this and a subsequent chapter, to describe the main features of the Campaign of 1815, and to endeavour to pronounce a fair judgment upon it. Of the interest of the...
14. CHAPTER II.In one of the last and fiercest struggles at Ligny, Blücher had been unhorsed and severely hurt, and the command of the Prussian army devolved on Gneisenau, a capable and scient...