The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1914-04-03

actually weeping bloody tears. At nigh
lthey would sleep in close groups to IT.
to keep warm. but often the morning
would find whole groups frozen in
pile. The farther they trudged th'
more rapidly they died. Some becam,
crazed with the intense suffering anC
struggled off through the desolate woods
It was a march Of woe, anguish and
death.
In their retreat the French marched
back over field where, just few weeks
before, they had fought a battle with
the Russians. Fifty thousand corpses
were still lying unbufed in the snow on
the fateiuI field. Wounded horses were
lying around, not yet dead, and neighed
to the passing soldiers. What COM
ment or the dreadful business Of war.
What solemn rebuke TO the pride and
ambition Of Napoleon. What capital
piece OF wisdom it is for men to line up
in battle and at the command of some
dictator blow each other into eternityl
Napoleon's army wasted away like a
train Of fire that dies out from the rear
with ever increasing rapidity, but at last
he reached the Niemen with the ragged,
haggard, shiyering, frazzled remnant OF
the Grand Army, while over hill and
dale, through wood and plain there
reached back behind him, almost to
ruined Moscow, CHASTITY line OF frozen
corpses-the great body Of NapoIeon's
veterans. His splendid cavalry was
swept away. Marshall Davant's divi-
sion OF seventy thousand men had
dwindled down to four thousand-a
pretty fair index to the general destruc-
ton visited on the wlsDle army. Even
Davant got back without shirt on his
back, but he probably had on some
stout Russian lady's waist or shirt
None but men Of iron frames" he
said, can support such hardships; it |
is physically impossible to resist them. "
After a desperate struggle and with the
loss Of twelve thousand men drowned /
in the river the ghost OF the Grand
Army recrossed the Niemen out Of
Russia.
Ia justice to Napoleon we must adj
nit If it had not been for the unprece-
Tented deed Of the destruction OF Mos
low, which no one could have been ex-
oected to anticipate, that his Russian
invasion very probably would have been
! brilliant success But it was reck-
essly unwise in Napoleon, without any
special necessity, to risk the fate OF his
,ntire army upon the achievement Of
yery hazardous feat, wherein failure
rom any cause must result in disaster
ind ruin. 1t is the glory, however, Of
his man Napoleon to have been defeat
ID by nature rather than by man.
It may be well to briefly trace Napo-
cons subsequent career The Allies,
liter his disastrous Russian invasion,
edoubled their energies to ruin him.
"a million men stood up in battle ar
ay and pointed their bayonets toward
Paris" But Napoleon's energy, reso-
ution and genius rose with the occasion
md shone forth in surprising bright
less and with astounding power. He
aised great but raw army as il by
magic. Again he rushed forth, thun-
lerbolt Of war, and dashed the Allies
o pieces at Dresden, Bantzen, an else
where. Then followed his disastrous
lefeat by greatly superior force at Liep-
ic, the surrender Of Paris, the abdica-
ion OF Napoleon, his Punishment to
1lba, the conference at Vienna, his re-
urn to Paris, the uprising Of the French
0 his support, the memorable hundred
lays of preparation for war, and finally
be battle Of Waterloo, where Napole-
ms star once more flashed out with its
gonted splendor for while above the
'orizon Of destiny and then dropped in
louds TO rise no more.
But il Grouchie had detained Butcher
$ Napoleon had commanded him to
o, or else have come to the aid OF
as Butcher did to the relief
I Wellington, there is but little doubt
nat the English would have been se-
erely defeated and routed. Napoleon 3
srrifc onsets we're telling dreadiully on
Vellington's solid squares and he him
III was beginning to despair when
'lucher came. AT four o'clock says
iidpath, everything portended ruin to
10 English and victory to the French. f"
tut Butcher came, and Grouche did
~ and Nanalanss sAsaa rsaissasl .
Napoleon with all his faults, to my
lind, deserves more praise than blame. 4