The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-09-10
NEY AS A FIGHTER
Napoleon Called His Marshal the
"BraVeSt Man | Ever Saw"
THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW.
Where the Heroic Commander With a
Mere Handful of Men as a Rear
Guard Fell Back, Facing the Foe.
Minor Heroes of the Great Conflict.

"a
Mere Handful of Men as a Rear
Guard Fell Back, Facing the Foe.
Minor Heroes of the Great Conflict.
Three towering personalities came to
the clinch on the field of Waterloo
There are perhaps a half dozen names
remembered in connection with that
epoch making battle, but they are little
more than names; only Bluecher, Ma
poleon and Wellington have contrived
to outlive the memory of their contem-
poraries.
Yet there were some at Waterloo who
were not only brave fighters, but vastly
interesting individuals, and it is more
than unfortunate that they should have
suffered eclipse. There is perhaps one
exception. One cannot scratch the his
tory surrounding any of the three great
commanders who met at Waterloo with
out encountering Michael Ney, Napo-
Icons ''bravest of the brave"
1t is impossible to think Of Ney ex-
cept in superlatives. 1t is impossible
to collect dry facts about him: the tenn
per that matched his hair smolders
through and sets them ablaze. Even
Napoleon, always so unpleasantIy eager
to shift the blame for failure to other
shoulders, wrote from the solitude of
st. Helena, "Ney was the bravest man
| ever saw"
One of his officers once asked him
If he ever felt fear. Never had time"
was the curt reply.
The tales of his daring, his hair
breadth escapes, his unbelievable In
difference to shot and shell, are legion.
He was always calmest in time of
the greatest peril, and it was this quail
ity that Napoleon appreciated. Again
and again France and the crown were
In Michael Neys hands. Whenever
Napoleon saw that the issue Of a bat
tie turned on a single point he sent
Ney to that point. At the battle Of
Bautzen the emperor lay on the
ground which is sheltered by height
from the town. He heard Neys guns
on the left A bomb burst over his
head. He sat down and wrote Marie
Louise that the victory was gained.
He waited only TO learn that Ney was
where the crisis turned to be sure of
victory.
But the most dramatic chapter Of
this gallant fighters life is that headed
1.-THE Retreat from Moscow" Meis-
sonier might better have painted the
rear Of the Corsicans army than the
van. He would have had more ap-
pealing, more gallant subject In Mi
chael Ney, retreating with his face to
the enemy. With a mere handful of
men he flung himself between the fee
Ing French and the Russian army and
backed slowly, stubbornly from Mos
cow.
This Is the man who a little later
was publicly shot as q traitor to
France
Ney's fellow marshal, Grouchy, does
not fare SO well. Grouchy was q loyal
French patriot, and he had record of
engagement in 200 battles, which of
fered copious proof that he was no
coward. But light headed, irresolute.
vacillating he surely was The Water
loo mistake is merely a repetition of
earlier failures of Judgment.
One of the most interesting of the
minor heroes of Waterloo was the SOL
dier-musician Graf Friedrich Will
helm Buelow. He had been thrown a
little in the shade by the vehement
personality of his chief, Bluecher, and
the intrepid Gnelsenau. But the man
who at the head of his 10000 emerged
at l O'Clock in the afternoon of June
1S, 1915, from the wood of ST. Armand
and turned the tide of the battle Of
Waterloo stands out as a romantic fig
ure. Probably no one of Germany's
brave fighters of that racking period,
excepting not even "Old Forward"
himself, was so well loved, so vigor-
ously admired. as Friedrich Buelow
He was gehsseman and a man of well
seasoned culture.
But to find the most truly plctur-
esque In the group Of lesser generals
at Waterloo one must go over to the
English side "As rough, foul mouthed
q devil as ever lived, said Wellington
himself of Sir Thomas Picton. But" he
added, mo man could do better In the
different services assigned to him"
He always carried a stick to tap on
the horses name when he felt over i'm
patient and wave in the air to en-
phasize his commands. Sometimes he
carried an umbrella, as at Vittoria,
where he used 1t to beat Wellington's
butler over the head The unfortunate
man was escorting the headquarters
baggage and got in the march of Pic
toms division.
The visitor to the field Of Waterloo,
even though he know little of the per-
sonality of this fine old fighter, feels
a thrill when the guide says, Here
Picton fell"
There could be no sharper contrast
to Tom Picton than Sir Rowland Hill.
The mild eyed, sweet tempered, ruddy
checked general. soon to become the
most influential politician in Europe,
was the complete picture of an English
country gentleman-Chicag Herald.