#cavalry charge

[victusinveritas]

[illustratus]

[fawnweb]

eylau cavalry charge - le colonel chabert (1994)

[rougeaud]

“The cavalry charge at Waterloo – was it not Ney's own initiative?”

The traditional 'Saint Helena School' (the position interpreting Napoleon's assertions as 100% factual) has held that the cavalry charge at Waterloo was Ney's unilateral decision. However, recently, counterarguments to this view appear to have emerged. The following is from the opinion of the recently published British author Brian Williams. I found it persuasive, so I quote part of it.

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…The decision to launch the assault was made by Napoleon who felt had no option…

…In the thick of the fighting around La Haye Sainte Ney received the message from Napoleon to advance against Wellington's centre with Milhaud's IV Reserve Cavalry Corps- two cuirassier divisions. If such a note ever existed it was lost. Perhaps it read something like 'The Emperor is counting, to effect a victory, on the energy of the Prince of the Moscowa'…

…It should be remembered that in the years after Waterloo none of the surviving French cavalry commanders wanted to take responsibility for the disaster. Ney was dead. Napoleon was alive and busy writing his history…

…The picture now gets more confused. Milhaud is said to have ridden over to General Lefebvre-Desnouettes commanding the Guard Light Cavalry Division positioned behind his corps. Milhaud took him by the hand 'I am going to charge; support me!' The Guard traditionally only ever took orders from Napoleon himself but now the crack Red Lancers of the Guard and the Chasseurs a' Cheval of the Guard-2000 sabres-would follow behind the cuirassiers…

…It takes time for three divisions of cavalry to form up in lines of regimental columns, ample enough time for Napoleon at La Belle Alliance to notice the movement and send an aide galloping to Ney with an order to abort…

…If Napoleon was too focussed on the threatening Prussian movements on his right to observe what Ney was doing then Soult would have alerted him to any unauthorised movement of the cavalry. If as sometimes suggested Napoleon was having a nap then he would have been woken. No order to stop was issued because Ney was doing exactly what Napoleon had ordered him to do.

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Although the Imperial Guard cavalry were directly under the Emperor’s command, they were nevertheless swept up by the heat of the moment and charged forward in an avalanche-like rush, a fact recorded in the testimonies of Heymès and de Brack.

[redarmyscreaming]

Charge of the 1st Bavarian Uhlans, 1914. By Anton Hoffmann Muenchen

[unabashedqueenfury]

Reign 2013-2017/02-22

Toby Finn Regbo as Francis Valois

[madcat-world]

Gendarmes Charging (1 of 3) - Edouard Groult

[microcosme11]

La charge de la Garde Républicaine sur l'hippodrome Paris-Vincennes

the whole thing