Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1855-01-04
From the Cumberland Presbyterian.
Colonel LebmanOWSky.

Instructive lecture, delivered oy tnls War-Worn vet
eran, on the character of Napoleon Bonapart
The lecture commenced by giving kind of sy
nopsis of his own personal history. He stated
that he was native of Poiand-had been sent tc
France to complete his education, where he be-
came Assistant Surgeon to one of the Regiments
of the French army. Being at the time young
and not wholly destitute of ambition, his soul be-
came fred with the idea of becoming great mil
itary General. Under the influence of this idea
he joined the army of Napoleon, in which he serv-
ed for the long term of twenty two years; most
of which time he filled the distinguished pest OF
Colonel. In 1914 he was condemned, along with
the brave and gallant Ney to be shot, more FORUM
ate than Ney, however, he effected his escape,
and made his way to this scountry, the asylum OF
the oppressed When he landed at Philadelphia,
such was his extreme destitution, that his entire
wardrobe consisted of one pair of pantaloons and
red flannel shrt-no money in his pocket, and
unable to speak word of English.
| In this condition, he was found BY an old Qua
| ker gentleman, who took him to his own house,
clothed him in the plain garb of that sect and 9TH
erwise administered to his necessities, with char
acter;stic generosity. Thus, from gay French
| Colonel, he was metaphorised into a sober Qua
ker; not however, without passing through some
intermediate shades. He is, at this time, regu-
larly ordained minister Cor Bishop as they have it,
Of the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The lecturer stated, that he had examined
thirty nine lives and memoirs of Napoleon, writ
ten, some by French and some by English authors,
all of which were to his certain knowledge, ma.
terialy defective, with solitary exception; the
name of this author We could not catch, owing to
the brogue of the speaker.
Sir Walter Seott's life of the Emperor, the
Colonel condemned in unmeasured terms, as be-
ing defective in its details, in its geographical de-
scriptions, and in the character given to Napole-
on. Severalinstances were here adduced in which
the errors of Scott were mani est.
The lecturer here called the attention of the
audience to the oft repeated assertion. that Ma
Peleon BonaParte was an ambitious man. This
oP MON he regarded as being incorrect; and cited,
in proof the fact that Napoleon Rad conquered
numerous countries and provinces, and some of
them number of times, and had resigned them
into the haads of those from whom he had taken
them. This, in his opinion, was good evidence of
the incorrectness of the opinion. We thought it
might be evidence that he was not ambitious to
rule, however much SO he might have been to
conquer.
In illustration Of the fact that the En- oeror
was beloved by his soldiers the speaker narrated
the following touching incident In certain bat
tie, where hundreds were killed and wounded.
there was one poor soldier who hadbot his
legs broken and mangle1 by a cannon ball,
to such an extent to render amputation
necessary to preserve his life. In order to the
performance Of this operation the soldier was seat
ed upon rock. Soon after the Surgeons (the
lecturer being one of them) had commenced their
unpleasant task, the Emperor approached the
spot mounted upon his white charger. The SOL
der, forgetting his misfortune, and in the exuber
ance of his JOY becoming insensible to pain, placed
his hands upon the shoulders of the Surgeons as
they kneeed before him, and shouted, at the top
of his voice, "LOng UUe tie Em2eror,'' Napoleon,
overcame by this demonstration of attachment to
his person, dismounted, and embracing the wound
ed soldier, wept tears of unmnged sorrow And
as an evidence of his appreciation of the soldiers
love- lie stuck upon the left breast of his coat the
insignia of the Legion of Honor
Amid all the "Pomp and circumstance of war"
and the glory of imperial station, Napoleon never
forgot his Mother, nor neglected to paw to her
that homage and respect ever due to an houora-
BILE parent. When seated upon the Throne of
his Empire, and surrounded by conquered sover-
elgns, who stood ready to do his bidding, he could
descend from his lofty emnence, upon the enter.
ance of his mother, and imprint uyon her wither
ed hand, the kiss of a sons affection.
Much as the lecturer admired the spirit and
genius OF Napoleon, he saw much in him which
he felt called upon to condemn-he did not think
him perfect man.
That he could dictate to three secretaries at
the same time, the speaker declared he knew to
be literally true; he himself having peen one of
three to whom he thus dictated He would give
sentence to one, and while that was being writ
ten, he would turn to Others and so on, until the
three dispatches we're completed.
On one occasion, in the heat of battle, a divis-
ion of his army, consisting mainly of ConscEpt re-
cruits, was likely to yield and fall back frcn the
line; this intelligence having been conveyed to
the Emperor, he at once mounted his horse and
repaired to the SPOT. On reaching the line he
saw that the report even too true Some of
the men having even gone so far as to refuse to
obey the commands of their officers. Bad as this
state OF things appeared to be, the remarkable
presence of mind of Napoleon was sufficient for
the occasionally brave men, said he, ,,you have
been slandered. A report has reached me- that
you are going to yield the contest This cannot
be true. Frenchmen can nerer be corards.p
The effect of this short language was eleetr-
cal. The shout "Long live the Emperor" burst
from the Conscript ranks, as they rushed again in
to the deadly conflict, which resulted in trium-
phsnt victory. The voice of their chief inspired
them with fresh courage.
The speaker closed with rendering his thanks to
the audience for their attention.