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Some of my Napoleonic blades.

Walking on the battlefield of Waterloo again.

Which one of these depictions of Napoleon is your favourite?

I have seen a resurge of interest in this miniseries since the release of Ridley Scott's disaster. There is an excellent version on youtube that you can watch.

This scene depicts a situation that did actually happen between Napoleon and Josephine. Josephine either faked a pregnancy or mistook a possible pregnancy to avoid having to travel to Italy during Napoleon's campaign in 1796. Eventually she was pushed/forced to visit Napoleon in Italy because Napoleon began to slack his military campaign out of worry/desperation for his wife. Of course it would become obvious that she wasn't in fact pregnant. This scene depicts Napoleon finding out about the 'miscarriage'.

Even though this miniseries is not that historically accurate, it does capture the character of Napoleon so much better than Ridley Scott's new film.

Napoleon's General outfit is definitely my favourite of all the Napoleonic uniforms.

Military exercises continue through the autumn and winter. Moments I am glad wearing a uniform made from thick wool. (for those curious, I am the person second from the right in the upper photo and second from the right in the second line in the lower photo)

Berezina Retreat

Between 26-29 November, Napoleon's Grande Armee crossed the Berezina river at Borisov. The losses for Napoleon were great, more than 22,000 French forces would not make it to the other side of the river. Of these casualties, five of them were family members of mine (tragically enough four out of five were brothers as well). Despite the heavy losses, the crossing is seen as a logistic victory as Napoleon with the remnants of his army managed to escape and return to France.

As Napoleon's army reached Bobr, 50km away from Borisov, Napoleon was informed that the bridge at Borisov had been destroyed and the French garrison captured. At the same time a French cavalry brigade discovered a spot where they might be able to cross the river 13km north of Borisov. So on 25th November, the construction of bridges were started by mainly Dutch engineers. The water was close to freezing, only 40 of the 400 Dutch engineers survived the construction of the bridges.

To draw the Russian's attention away from the bridges being built, a diversion was undertaken by Oudinot's corps which led the Russians to believe that the French would either attempt to attack at Borisov and repair the bridge or cross the river south of the place. This resulted in the bulk of the Russian army moving southwards which enabled Napoleon to cross the army.

During the night of 26-27 November, the crossing began but the Russian forces also became aware of the French attempt and tried to return northwards, they were however stopped by Oudinot's battalions. By midday of the 27th, Napoleon and his imperial guard had crossed the river, Marshal Davout's and Prince Eugene's corps also managed to cross the river before the day's end. Meanwhile Marshal Victor's IX corps was given the order to defend against the approaching Russians in order to buy more time for the others to cross. Unfortunately the Dutch regiments were part of Oudinot's forces and most of them sadly died defending the Berezina crossing.

On 28th November, the Russian forces attacked Napoleon's army on both sides of the river. The crossing turned into a completely chaotic stampede as thousands of people, soldiers and stragglers rushed for the bridges. Some of the men tried to swim across the river which was a futile attempt since the water was so cold. There was a mad rush to cross the river since the stragglers knew that the temporary bridges would be destroyed, which happened at 08:00 in the morning on the 29th. tens of thousands of stragglers, both civilian and soldiers, did not manage to cross the river and were now at the mercy of the Russians.

As the bridges were set on fire, the Russians were no longer able to pursue the French army. The French retreat was therefore almost complete, with the Russians no longer on their tail and friendly territory nearby, the remnants of the army had escaped. The casualties were heavy, between 20-30,000 French soldiers died, the IXth corpse was hit particulary heavy as they lost half of their strength trying to protect the bridgehead. Besides the 20-30,000 military casualties, an additional 30,000 noncombatants died as well as result of the crossing and capture by the Russians. 40,000 French soldiers managed to cross the river, with Napoleon's imperial guard still being relatively intact.

Harking back on these relatives of mine, four out of five who died during the Berezina crossing were brothers, but there were other relatives of mine who participated in the Russia campaign, nine to be precies, of the 14 family members who served under Napoleon. Only two out of these nine relatives survived the Russia campaign, which is why those two are my 3rd great grandfathers and the other six are my 3rd great grand uncles as they all died young without partners or children. Here are the names of my relatives who died during the Berezina crossing:

Here are the names of my other four relatives who participated in the 1812 Russia campaign:

Images include: pictures of the crossing, a red lancer defending his family while crossing, Dutch engineers building the bridge in ice cold water, remains found at the Berezina during ww1 by German soldiers and a document of one of my five relatives who died at Berezina.

Napoleon and Josephine in Napoleon & Josephine a love story (1987)

Raymond Pellegrin in NAPOLÉON (1955).

It almost looks like a real historical photograph.

Scene from: Napoleon & Josephine a love story (1987).

Even though it is quite historically inaccurate, I really enjoyed this three-part miniseries. Napoleon provokes one of his own men in this scene by pretending to dislike Napoleon, of course that doesn't end very well for Napoleon.

Happy Birthday to Napoleon who was born today on 15th August 1769.

Napoleon at the siege of Toulon.

Napoleon having dinner with the actor François-Joseph Talma.

François-Joseph Talma was Napoleon’s favourite actor and they became friends before Napoleon became famous. Talma and his then wife, Julie Carreau, had rented out their house to increase their finances, the new tennant was none other than Rose de Tascher de la Pagerie, the future wife of Napoleon (Josephine). Napoleon and Josephine even married at their house and Napoleon eventually bought the house from Talma in 1798.

At the time they became friends, Talma was much more popular than Napoleon in France and often provided him with free tickets and even on some occasions money. It is even said that the two enjoyed telling ghost stories to each other in the dark.

They remained good friends for the rest of their lives. Talma even visited Napoleon in disguise after his abdication following the disastrous battle of Waterloo in 1815.