Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-07-08
VISITS FAMo, BATTLE FIELD
General Rogers Sees Place ef Napoleon
Defeat while al Brussels.
LRY E. NJ. RoarRsl

/ a = oASS' anu bSAtte at war Win EHRla
Napoleon could not expect to hold it.
Napoleon rushed sale of Louisiania
before the English navy could take it.
He chafed at the dilatory action of the
United States government in not ac-
cepting the bargain which had been on
the bargain counter for months. The
negotiation ended, the transfer made,
Napoleon put the money in cannon anc
war materials, moved his army north
fought and won Austriiitz. The can
non purchased with that mo, rS- was
abandoned in The flight from W terloO
it was taken by the Belgium govern.
ment and made INTO the bronze lion,
overlooking the field of Waterloo where
now stand. From the elevated DO.
sition. splendid outlook over the field
of carnage, where the wonderful mar
of destiny lost his empire, as Huge
says; Because Of the rain the night
before and failure of Grouchy to attnck
Blucher or come to Napoleon's aid. -
Wellington marched to Quartra Bras,
Blucher to Ligney. Wellington fell
back so Mont st. Jean and Blueher te
Wavra. Wellington chose his owr
field, good for defense. undulating fields
ofswheat and barley, meadows, pas
lures and orchards, brick enclosure 8,
hedged fields and gardens. Wellington
formed his troops in position with both
flanks well thrown back. Napoleon s
army marched in rain all night, the
artillery delayed the early formation,
which prevented the attack till Ii a.
m. instead of in the morning.
IH the rear of the mound is Mont ST.
Jean, where Wellington established
Headquarters. On the same highway
one mile away is Belle Alliance, where
Napoleon located his headquarters.
Between the two lines is Chateau
Hugomont and La Hay Saint. Ma
polean played his artillery on the Eng
lish, Belgian. Nassau and Hanoverian
troops. He sent his infantry forward
and met the English regiments at
Hougemont. The French troops
reached the hedge behind which is brick
wall protecting the English infantry and
artillery. There was a scene of saw
ageryf around the old chatean and
chapel equalled only by the angle at
Spotsylvania. Ii was hand to hand,
bayonet and saber. The French carried
the garden, held the orchard for time
and then with fresh troops and new
ttilG GAINitk AHCiNng tllG EIOutlA Was INV
lost to the French Brigades and di-
visions went forward. The French
fought hard; the English troops had
rests,i the night before, but the French
had marched in the rain all night. To
break Wellington's line before Blucher
should arrive, Napoleon placed the Hus-
sars under Ney, and ordered him to
charge Wellington's line. In the am
nails of warfare, says chronicler,
''that assault of the French cavalry
stands unparalleled in heroism, and Ney
was the brayest saberuer who ever led Q
forlorn hope. =
Napoleon had not been advised of the
sunken road over which the troopers
had to ride, and behind which stood the
English squares. Onward charged that
brave cavalry corps; they reach the
artillery and cut down the cannoneers;
they ride on, and there is the sunken
road, and into il plunges the leading
squadrons; the second line ride and
horses and men plunge on top of the
first line; the third line riders over
horses and men to find themselves con-
fronted with the squares of the Eng
lish into which they ride, and bayonet-
ed and dubbed, the cavalry has failed
and are lost to the army. Ney three
times led the charge to break yelling
toms square. -Four horses had been
killed from nnder him; he wanted to die
with his men, but fate left him to be
shot by order of Louis XVIII. He
was the bravest man Europe ever pro-
duced. The French army is exhausted.
Blucher arrives at O'Clock, and strikes
the French's right; Wellington ordered
his army TO move forward all along the
line. The French yielded, then panic,
demoralized route, and once more the
man of destiny is mingling with a de-
feated army pressing to the rear
Wellington, In the nobleness of his
heart and great humanity for an out
awed foe, halted his army, as further
pursuit was murder Blucher remem-
bering only Australia, urged his troops
forward They rod. over, bayoneted
and sabered the fleeing and wounded
soldiers, showing no mercy, no quar-
ter, no humanity for men who for
eight hours had fought with q desper-
alton. charged columns behind walls,
filed ditch with horses and men that
the following cuirasses might ride over
their mangled forms; or Chasseurs who
had stood defying death till not man
was left but dead or wounded.
rode down the highway, now as was
then, to Hugomont. | turned in to
Hugomont, where still stands the kitch-
en- of the chateau, where the English
and French fought with desperation
fought in the yard, through windows
and doors, fought in cellar, garret and
on the roof while the chateau was burn
ing. | passed into the garden where
the French passed over hedge and
brick wall, on TO the orchard and to the
cops If trees. Fifteen hundred fell in
this enclosure; were thrown into heap
the following day and burned Near
By the chateau was a well, and into
that three hundred Wrench soldiers
were thrown to get them out of sight.
rode to La Hay, then to Mont st.
Jean. where il to be seen a monument
to General Pieton.
Blucher did not write the massacre of
the helpless French soldiers; Yelling
ton would not. Until Victor Hugo
came here f0rty-five years later, the
story was never published. Returning
to Brussels after day, to me Of much
interest, | visited monument Queen
Victoria caused TO be erected few
years before her death 1t is heroic
BritanIa, with sword in hand. AT her
feet is an exploded cannon, fragments
If shells, broken wheels, muskets, bay
onets, knapsacks and cartridge boxes.
Here were reinterred the bones Of En-
gIish officers who fell in the garden at
Hugomont. Near by is the Palace of
the Kings, where the ex-empress of
Mexico, Carlotta, is confined, who has
been maniac since the execution Of
Maximilian in Mexico more than forty