Miilitary Career of Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon possessed in abundance the skills of a great military strategist, tactician and commander --including sound professional training, wide-ranging but acute intelligence, extraordinary memory, strength of will and purpose, courage and boldness in taking risks, boundless energy, ruthless ambition and charismatic leadership abilities. As a strategist, he planned and organized his campaigns in order to win decisive victories. Napoleon was master of the battlefield and provided inspired leadership to France's revolutionary forces.

In his later years (1812-1815), Napoleon fought wars which often exceeded French military capabilities and made decisions which reflected his overweening imperial ambitions. His military prowess, while still formidable, declined as his own control over his key subordinates and operations waned.

Early Background, Successes and Rise to Power

The son of petty Corsican aristocrats, Napoleon attended military school from ages 9 to 16 in Brienne and as an artillery cadet at the Ecole Militaire in Paris. He served as an artillery o

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t. With increasing difficulty, he maintained that dominion and extended his conquests further east. Austerlitz. In late 1805, Napoleon was opposed by the Third Coalition of Russia, Austria and Sweden supported by Britain. In one of the most rapid land marches in military history, 200,000 French troops moved 375 miles from the Channel coast to the Rhine at a rate of 12 to 15 miles a day. Napoleon's strategy was to destroy the Austrian army before the slower moving Russians could join them. He surprised the Austrians at Ulm which he encircled and captured on October 19. Napoleon caught up with a joint Austro-Russian force at the Moravian village of Austerlitz. In a perfectly coordinated turning movement, French forces then smashed both Austro-Russian flanks. Marshall-Cornwall said "the battle of Austerlitz was Napoleon's military masterpiece" (145). 1807. Marshall-Cornwall said "Napoleon's genius on the battlefield was only equalled by his brilliance as an organiser" (169). At the end of a long logistical chain, he reorganized the Army in late 1806 so he could strike the Russians before they could fully mobilize. His first major assault at Eylau in East Prussia on February 7, 1807 resulted in a bloody slogging match in a blindi
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