Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-05-29
who lest Waterloo.
By J lhn g. Ropes.

In p sense the harsh expressions of
Chpsney and Others about the utter sta te
Of ignorance n which the Emperor WAS hs
to the Sur tegy of MS eneme-, that be ditl
not take at ali into Consideration of tht
possibility Of the march cf the Wilde
Pru>sian army firm Wavre to join WI.
| ngton. and SO on. are true. They arr
true 50 far as this that Napoleon, ha gi0g
intrusted the whole duty of finding out
about the Prus. ians-where they were, and
whether they were going to uni:e with thu
English or motto Gr"ucny, AMI hA wing
given hin com eta nj force ind plenty Of
cavalry and an expr So warning the
danger of the union { their army wit the
English had CONS dered that hs hal done
ali that was nee 1fui, and undo2bteGly he
was taken Dv surprise wlen the blow came
But they are not true in the sense that
Napoleon WIS throughout bIInd TO the
possibility of thi- junction of the allied ar
niles. an TOOK no measures to prevent It
If an experienced sta captain on APP
proacnimg dangerous coast, g trusts tb.-
deck 10 one of his officers t, whom be
give q sufficient number of IN n, ana
whom he warns to be are of the danger
arts ny from the rec of certain currents
and then goes b. ~, he l. undou te1ly
taken by surprise when the ship runs
ashore. In his BERT, a-laep he certainly
did not foresee the saastr"p g HIS prIn-
cIple. if not his only t-ult, was in his
chuice of the officer to whom he entrusted
the deck. As to his knowledge "f tue
peril- ofthat part of the voyag that can-
not he Que>tioned.
So with Napoleon. His throwing the
entire responsibility of taking care Of the
Pru,sian IN Marsral Groucny Was his
hIet fault for Or uchy was not able To
SIsi 0In ht;p DIN yUb .Txa kn
! light have had. and ougnt to have bad.
| in q euch,'s place, would have success
| tull carried out bis idea. And while |
fully admit the Emperors dilator ness on
| the morning of the 17th, by which the
Concentrates of the Prus ian army at
" ovre Was sss0r, d, which IN fact IN 4de it
impossible for Gruucby, or or D4voust
even, to prevent this ConCen;rntlnn and
W lie [ also fu ly ad nit the negligence of
| tue Emperor in letving Grouchy so long
without any IN tru tluns, except the warn
! ing of the possibly intended melton of the
allied a mics continued in the Bertrand
| tier, yet L cann t agree with those VINO,
! like Chesuey, say that tho notion that
GrOucby is responsible for the Waterloo
defeat must be dismissed, by those who
choose to weigh the evidence, from the
| domai of authentic history to the Inn boo
of national fgments.' The respo sibll-
| ty must b. divided between the Emperor
| aud his lieut. nant. Charging On NJ
| poleon, es we must lbs FAULTS above
specified, it must not be f,rgOtten that had
Groucby ntelligently c ried out the
the Emperor instru crions contained 10 the
Bertran letter he might have been IN
position to def at or at least to hinder the
juc elton of the allied armies:
1t is hardly to be Questioned that If
Grouchy had moved at 4 och ok in the
morning by way of MoGsty, and mad put
himself In communication with the man
army. his forces would have stopped the
Prussian advance and allowed he Z nper-
or the use his whole army against the
mum bers aud compo is en- Instead OF
being obliged to detaeh 1900 infantry
against the P,ussi.ns, Napoleon could
have used then. against the English. and
frnm what wa know of the condition of
| Wolllngton's armr IL tie latter part OF the
afCernoo the result would have been a
deci1ed victory for Napoleon. IT, on the
! other hand, Grouahey had, even as late