May 5th…On This Date In History
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 05-05-2018
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May 5, 1821, Napoleon Bonaparte died on the Isle of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic….in exile…said to have been one of the greatest commanders in the history of the world. He rose from the ranks in the Army of France from an artillery officer to the rank of general by age 24. He was a war hero and became Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1814 and again for a short period in 1815, trying to lead a revolt. He met his Waterloo,, er, at the Battle of Waterloo. He was exiled and died six years later on the island of Saint Helena. He did some good during those years he was Emperor, influencing the territories he conquered or controlled bringing equality before the law, property rights, religious tolerance, modern secular education and sound finical programs, among other things. Click on Wikipedia to read all the details of this interesting man.
I agree! Napoleon Bonaparte was and interesting man, and he probably was one of the greatest military commanders in history, but he wasn’t the greatest. He was too self-serving for that. I will still go with one of my heroes in life, General Robert E. Lee of Virginia, who gave up a very promising career in the U. S. Army because he did not want to be in a position of fighting against his countrymen and fellow Virginians. General Lee was not only a great military strategist, but he had heart and he held a love both for his men who fought under him as well as his fellow Virginians and countrymen that he devoted the remainder of his life as President and Provost of George Washington University (now Washington and Lee University) to the training of a new generation to make a living in a post-civil war world.. He even contributed his favorite horse, Traveler, to his men after the war to be used as a work animal for the purpose of making a living in the new environment after the war. Napoleon Bonaparte had a great military mind, but he had none of that. He was always fighting for himself and his own glory and for what he perceived as the “glory of France”, which did not necessarily coincide with the “glory” perceived by most of his countrymen.