The war drama of the Eagles

THE FIGHT FOR THE STANDARD 396 Sergeant Ewart of the Scots Greys taking the Eagle of the 45th at Waterloo From the picture by R. Andsell, A.R.A., at Royal Hospital, Chelsea

Napoleon Bonaparte became Emperor, “by Divine Will and the Constitution of the French Republic”--Imperator and hereditary Caesar of the Republic--on Friday, May 18, 1804. Three...

The Coronation, Napoleon first proposed, should take place in the Chapel of the Invalides, on the historic day of the 18th Brumaire (November 9). Directly after it he would proc...

The Eagles made their _début_ on the battlefield amid a blaze of glory. Within a twelvemonth of the Field of Mars they had swooped irresistibly across half the Continent, leadin...

Napoleon there lured the enemy on into attacking him at apparent disadvantage on ground of his own choosing. Then, availing himself to the fullest extent of the flagrant blunder...

Prussia, in September 1806, threw down the gage to Napoleon and drew the sword for a trial of strength, with the full assurance of victory. There was no doubt in Germany as to t...

The loss of twelve Eagles in one battle made a deep and lasting impression upon Napoleon. That twelve of his cherished emblems, those mementoes of victorious Caesar, for whose p...

Napoleon’s regimental Eagles made their début on the battlefield in the Wagram campaign of 1809, when Austria challenged Napoleon to a second trial of strength in her premature...

There are thirteen of Napoleon’s Eagles in England, among the trophies of the British Army at Chelsea Royal Hospital; or, to speak strictly, twelve Eagles and a “dummy” Eagle, t...

Napoleon’s Eagles made a second appearance before the London populace in the following year. That was on September 30, 1812, and the Horse Guards Parade was again the scene of t...

There are seventy-five standards of Napoleon’s Grand Army of 1812 now in Russia, trophies of the Moscow disaster. Rather more than half of the number are Eagles. The remainder o...

The Battalion Eagles of 1804, those of the second and third battalions withdrawn by the decree of 1808, together with the Light Cavalry (Hussar, Chasseur, and Dragoon) Eagles re...

They “flew from steeple to steeple across France,” in Napoleon’s expressive phrase, “from the shores of Fréjus until they alighted on the towers of Notre Dame.” The enthusiasm t...

They had their part at the outset in that intensely dramatic display on the morning of the battle, when, before the eyes of Wellington’s soldiers, drawn up with muskets loaded a...

The remnant of the Waterloo army, as mustered and officially reported to Paris on July 1, 1815, after it had been withdrawn by convention with the Allies beyond the Loire, numbe...