Wellington - Life and Legacy

Wellington month, as chosen by my Command Patrons, launches on the Napoleonicist, with a run through of the Duke's life, his achievements, and his failings - be warned, I'm more critical than you might expect!

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‎Education · 2021

Zack White produced another interesting podcast, starting with Wesley - do I notice some improvement in pronunciation? - Marmont - without a t - but then Soul instead of Soult - there is quite a useful threat on The Napoleonic Wars Forum where those finer points are discussed in full.

Just to rant on - it is not Auerstadt (Auerstudt - like in but) but Auerstedt like in hat - so yes like in English, this battle is written correctly (and you know my morbid fascination about detail) either Auerstedt (German) or Auerstaedt (French) - Auerstadt is a severe misnomer created by Anglo Saxon authors, like e.g. Arcola.

Now back to topic, in my view it is quite unfortunate to compare Wesley and Nabulieone as commanders and give the Corsican ogre a superiority. In my view it is impossible to compare, both commanders commanded very different armies of varying quality - with different geo strategical aims and different operational art of war. Yes - in its prime - from 1805 - 1807 Boney had trusted corps commanders which more or less stayed unchanged and also the corps themselves stayed pretty much the same, it was a team that was extremely successful and I cannot see any army in the world, which could possible stop them then.

Wellington stayed much longer on the success road and I cannot see such disastrous botched campaigns as Boney waged (like in Syria, 1812 - 1815). I agree that it is much more difficult to command an army of Allies than a one national one. By the way, from 1809 onwards Nabulieone had to rely on Allies as first line troops heavily as well and he used them before as second line troops or on different theaters of war.

Also I find - as you do - the accusation that Wellington was a defensive general hilarious, I wonder who he was able to start in Portugal and end up in Southern France, just defending???

Seemingly it is much easier to be critical about Wesley than of Boney, and I fail to see the outrage of Wellington fawners so far.😉