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"Wow, what do you mean I'm absolute autocrat of just one island? This fucking sucks. I'm going to commit a war"
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2025
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The strategic blunder was not taking Davout to Waterloo. In my reading of Napoleonic history it's quite often Davout that made his most uncanny victories possible.
I read a convincing analysis that one of Napoleon's problems was that by that point, many of his Marshals had died, and at any rate he wasn't as much of a threat because everyone had copied or adapted to the French innovations.
Well, In a way. Napoleon was never the infallible general he''s portrayed to be. He often got very lucky and got quite far by way of the aura he had aquired. Tactically he was often bailed out. After Russia and Neurenberg the allied soldiers no longer believed in his invincibility and he made quite a few tactical mistakes at Waterloo.
But I think that Davout was his best Marshall who made his most incredible victories possible. However he is not talked about much.