The Character of Napoleon Bonaparte
"Bonaparte's reception by the troops was nothing short of rapturous. It was well worth seeing how he talked to the soldiers..."
From: 1769 C.E. To: 1821 C.E.
Location: Autun, France
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Readings in European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources by James Harvey Robinson, 1906.
Boyhood of Napoleon
When nine years old Napoleon Bonaparte and his brother Joseph accompanied their father to France, where the boys were to go to school and learn French. One of their teachers in Autun thus writes of them:
Napoleon brought with him to Autun a somber and pensive character. He never played with any one and ordinarily walked by himself….He had much ability; understood and learned readily. When I was teaching him his lesson he would fix his eyes upon me with his mouth open. If I tried to recapitulate what I had just said, he would not listen to me. If I blamed him for this, he would reply with a cold, not to say imperious, air, "I know that, sir."
I only had him under me for three months….He had by that time learned French so as to make use of it freely in conversation, and could write little themes and make little translations.... At the end of three months I sent him off with a certain Monsieur de Champeaux to the military school at Brienne.
Joseph also had much ability: although he took but little interest in study, and knew no French at all when he arrived, he learned it very promptly, as well as the beginnings of Latin….He was as decent and agreeable in his manner as his brother was imperious. His nature was sweet, engaging, and appreciative. He was fond of his companions and protected those whom others annoyed. I never saw in him the least indications of ambition.
Personal Characteristics of General Bonaparte
The son of Madame de Remusat thus recalls how, when a little boy, he caught a glimpse of the First Consul:
One day my mother came for me (I think she had accompanied Madame Bonaparte into the court of the Tuileries) and took me up a staircase full of soldiers, at whom I stared hard. One of them who was coming down spoke to her; he wore an infantry uniform. "Who was that?" I asked, when he had passed. It was Louis Bonaparte. Then I saw a young man going upstairs in the well-known uniform of the [corps known as the] guides. His name I did not need to ask. Children in those days knew the insignia of every rank and corps in the army, and who did not know that Eugene Beauharnais was colonel of the guides?
At last we reached Madame Bonaparte's drawing-room. At first there was no one there but herself, one or two ladies, and my father, wearing his red coat embroidered in silver. I was probably kissed—or, perhaps they thought me grown; then no one noticed me any further. Soon an officer of the consul's guard entered. He was short, thin, and carried himself badly, or at least carelessly. I was sufficiently drilled in etiquette to observe that he moved about a great deal and made rather free. Among other things I was surprised to see him sit on the arm of a chair.
From thence he spoke across a considerable distance to my mother. We were in front of him, and I remarked his thin, almost wan face, with its brown and yellowish tints. We drew near to him while he spoke. When I was within his reach he noticed me; he took me by my two ears and pulled them rather roughly. He hurt me, and had I not been in a palace I should have cried. Then turning to my father, he said, "Is he learning mathematics?" Soon I was taken away. "Who is that soldier?" I asked my mother. "That soldier is the First Consul."
Bonaparte's disregard of others and his insolent attitude toward those who served him are seen in the following incident reported by Madame de Remusat.
Bonaparte dictated with great ease. He never wrote anything with his own hand. His handwriting was bad, and as illegible to himself as to others; and his spelling was very defective. He utterly lacked patience to do anything whatever with his own hands. The extreme activity of his mind and the habitual prompt obedience rendered to him prevented him from practicing any occupation in which the mind must necessarily wait for the action of the body. Those who wrote from his dictation—first Monsieur Bourrienne, then Monsieur Maret, and Meneval, his private secretary—had made a shorthand for themselves in order that their pens might travel as fast as his thoughts.
He dictated while walking to and fro in his cabinet. When he grew angry he would use violent imprecations, which were suppressed in writing and which had, at least, the advantage of giving the writer time to catch up with him. He never repeated anything that he had once said, even if it had not been heard; and this was very hard on the poor secretary, for Bonaparte remembered accurately what he had said and detected every omission….
He always derived amusement from causing any one uneasiness and distress. His great general principle, which he applied to everything, both great and small, was that there could be no zeal where there was no disquietude.
Bonaparte might freely tease his attendants and secretaries, but, in his early days at least, he took great pains to win the hearts of his soldiers.
Bonaparte's reception by the troops was nothing short of rapturous. It was well worth seeing how he talked to the soldiers,—how he questioned them one after the other respecting their campaigns or their wounds, taking particular interest in the men who had accompanied him to Egypt. I have heard Madame Bonaparte say that her husband was in the constant habit of poring over the list of what are called the cadres of the army at night before he slept. He would go to sleep repeating the names of the corps, and even those of some of the individuals who composed them; he kept these names in a corner of his memory, and this habit came to his aid when he wanted to recognize a soldier and to give him the pleasure of a cheering word from his general. He spoke to the subalterns in a tone of good-fellowship, which delighted them all, as he reminded them of their common feats of arms.
Afterwards when his armies became so numerous and his battles so deadly, he disdained to exercise this kind of fascination. Besides, death had extinguished so many remembrances that in a few years it became difficult for him to find any great number of the companions of his early exploits; and when he addressed his soldiers before leading them into battle, it was as a perpetually renewed posterity to which the preceding and destroyed army had bequeathed its glory. But even this somber style of encouragement availed for a long time with a nation which believed itself to be fulfilling its destiny while sending its sons year after year to die for Bonaparte.
Robinson, James Harvey. Readings in European History: A Collection of Extracts from the Sources. Vol. 1. Ginn and Co. 1906.
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