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To assist with command and control of the infantry, each soldier would wear a colourful military uniform visible from a distance, even through the black-powder clouds hovering over the Napoleonic battlefields. Napoleon himself did not underestimate the importance of morale and said once that, "Moral force rather than numbers decides victory." [5]
The strategy of the central position (French: stratégie de la position centrale) [1] was a key tactical doctrine followed by Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars. [2] It involved attacking two cooperating armies at their hinge, swinging around to fight one until it fled, then turning to face the other. The strategy allowed the use of a smaller ...
As part of Napoleon's plans to invade the United Kingdom, the French and Spanish fleets combined to take control of the English Channel and provide the Grande Armée safe passage. The allied fleet, under the command of the French admiral, Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, sailed from the port of Cádiz in the south of Spain on 18 October 1805.
Napoleon seized power in 1799, establishing a military dictatorship. [35] There are numerous opinions on the date to use as the formal beginning of the Napoleonic Wars; 18 May 1803 is often used, when Britain and France ended the only short period of peace between 1792 and 1814. [36]
The central position had a weakness in that the full power of the pursuit of the enemy could not be achieved because the second army needed attention. So overall the preferred method of attack was the flank march to cut the enemy's logistics. Napoleon used the central position strategy during the Battle of Waterloo.
Napoleon's Wars: An International History 1803–1815 (2008), 621pp; Gates, David. The Napoleonic Wars 1803–1815 (NY: Random House, 2011) Hazen, Charles Downer. The French Revolution and Napoleon (1917) online free; Nafziger, George F. The End of Empire: Napoleon's 1814 Campaign (2014) Parker, Harold T. "Why Did Napoleon Invade Russia?
Napoleon and Francis I after the Battle of Austerlitz. Napoleon did not succeed in defeating the Allied army as thoroughly as he wanted, [3] but historians and enthusiasts alike recognize that the original plan provided a significant victory, comparable to other great tactical battles such as Cannae. [94]
Napoleon had been planning an invasion of England for some time, with the first Army of England gathering on the Channel coast in 1798. Napoleon's concentration on campaigns in Egypt and Austria, and the Peace of Amiens caused these plans to be shelved in 1802.