拿破仑在圣赫勒拿岛对手下诸元帅的评价

高守业

出自钱老的On theNapoleonic Wars P111到P113页。需要注意的是圣赫勒拿岛的拿破仑在叹息自己的失败时很容易就将过错归结于手下身上，因此以下部分评价的公正性是有待商榷的。

Augereau: 'It is a long time since themarshal was truly a soldier; his courage, his outstanding virtues certainlyelevated him far above the crowd; but honours, titles, and money plunged himback into it. The conqueror of Castiglione could have left a cherished name toFrance; but she will recall the memory of the deserter of Lyons.'

Bernadotte: 'I can only say that Bernadottebetrayed me. He had become a sort of Swede, but never promised or declared anintention to stay true. I can therefore accuse him of ingratitude, but not oftreason.'

Berthier: 'I have been betrayed byBerthier, a true gosling whom I had made into a kind of eagle' (1814). Therewas not in the world a better Chief of Staff; that is where his true talentlay, for he was not capable of commanding 500 men...' (St Helena).

Bessieres: 'If I had had Bessibes atWaterloo, my Guard would have brought me Victory.'

Brune: '... was justly proclaimed thesaviour of the Batavian Republic. The Romans would have awarded him the honourof a Triumph. By saving Holland he also saved France from invasion.'

Davout: '... will have his place in Historybecause of Auerstadt. He also performed well at Eylau, but, urged on at Wagram,he was the cause of the loss of a possible battle the previous day... He alsomade mistakes at the Moskowa (Borodino) .

Gouvion St Cyr: 'My mistake was to haveemployed St Cyr; he never exposed himself to fire, made no visits, left hiscomrades to be beaten, and should have been able to save Vandamme' (at Kulm,1813).

Grouchy: 'Marshal Grouchy, with 34,000 menand 108 cannon, solved the apparently undiscoverable secret of being, on themorning of the 18th June 1815, neither on the battlefield of Mont St Jean noron that at Wave... His conduct was as unforeseeable as if his army, on themarch, had undergone an earthquake and been swallowed up.'

Jourdan: 'I certainly used that man veryill; nothing would be more natural than that he should think that he owed melittle. Ah well! I have learned with great pleasure that since my fall heinvariably acted very well. He has thus afforded an example of thatpraiseworthy elevation of mind which distinguishes men one from another.Jourdan is a true patriot, and that is the answer to many things that have beensaid of him.'

Kellermann: 'I think that I was probablythe boldest general who ever lived, but I wouldn't have dared to take postthere the ridge topped by a windmill at Valmy.'

Lannes: 'In the case of Lannes, his couragein the first place carried him further than his spirit; but each day his spiritrose to the occasion, and restored the balance. He had truly become a superiorbeing by the time he perished; I found him a pygmy, but I lost a giant."

Lefebvre: 'A truly brave man... whose onlythought was to fight better... He had no fear of death... He possessed thesacred fire.'

Macdonald: 'He was a reliable man, good tocommand between 15,000 and 20,000 men. Brave, but slow and lazy.' 'Macdonaldand others like him were good when they knew where they were and under myorders; further away, it was a different matter.'

Massena:"... was once a very superiorman who, by a very special dispensation, possessed that greatly desiredcoolness in the heat of an action; he came alive when surrounded by danger.Massena, who was endowed with rare courage and such remarkable tenacity, alsohad a talent that increased the greater the danger; when defeated, he was alwaysready to begin again as if he was in fact the victor.'

Marmont: 'The ungrateful fellow - he willbe much unhappier than I' (1814). 'Many others were worse than he, who did nothave the sense of shame that he felt... Vanity was his undoing - an excess of folly.'

Moncey: '... was an honest man.'

Mortier: 'The three best of my generalswere Davout, Soult and Bessieres. Mortier was the most feeble.'

Murat: 'I cannot conceive how so brave aman could be so lax. He was only brave when confronted by the enemy, and thenhe was perhaps the bravest man in the world ... but if he was placed in councilhe was a poltroon with no judgement and was quite incapable of making adecision. Murat's character, however, was nobler than Ney's, for he wasgenerous and frank.'

Nay: 'Ney only got what he deserved. Iregret him as a man very precious on the battlefield, but he was too immoral,too stupid to be able to succeed.' 'He was good for a command of 10,000 men,but beyond that he was out of his depth.'

Oudinot: 'He was a brave man, but none toobright. He let himself be dominated by his young wife of good family.' 'Ishould not have made either Marmont or Oudinot marshals. We needed to win awar.'

Perignon: Napoleon is not known to haveever commented upon this deserving officer.

Poniatowski: 'He was a man of noblecharacter, brimming-over with honour and bravery. I intended to make him Kingof Poland had I succeeded in Russia.'

Serurier: '... retained all thecharacteristics and the severity of an infantry major - an honest man, withintegrity and reliability, but unfortunate as a general.'

Soult: 'I should have made a great exampleand had Soult shot; he was the greatest pillager of them all.' 'Both (Soult andTalleyrand) put money before everything else; they wanted a royal suite andmoney, always money.'

Suchet: Asked by Dr O'Meara to say who wasthe ablest of his generals. Napoleon replied: 'That is difficult to say, but itseems to me it may have been Suchet; once it was Massena, but eventually onehad to consider him as virtually dead; Suchet, Clausel and Gerard were the bestFrench generals in my opinion.'

Victor:"... was better than you mightthink. At the passage of the Beresina he commanded his corps very well indeed.'

蓝色拿破仑

这个在拿破仑文选里有一点雷同的。

卡佩

打开，直奔内伊~~     immoral就映入眼帘了。。。。。。不道德的~~= =
话说这句话很眼熟，手头只有老麦的版本，上面是这么写的“他（雷纳）和内伊这种人，只要有利就不惜叫你开肠破肚。不过在战场上他们倒是无价的。” 老麦的版本我已经不打算信了 ，敢问这里的雷纳是何许人

高守业

卡佩 发表于 2012-2-20 19:18
打开，直奔内伊~~     immoral就映入眼帘了。。。。。。不道德的~~= =
话说这句话很眼熟，手头只有老麦的版 ...

是第几章 第几页？手头有麦克林恩版《拿破仑》，正好帮忙查一下。

jzha086

什么意思？皇帝是怪达武在阿斯本艾斯林没尽力吗？这可不大公道。。。

iron duke

这个网站也摘录了钱老书中引述拿破仑对元帅的评价，附上了元帅们的一些亲笔手迹。

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/30272-napoleons-marshals/

jzha086

皇帝对马塞纳评价很高啊，都有点不太像皇帝风格了？从意大利战场两人不就在互相看不顺眼的吗？

装甲掷弹熊

jzha086 发表于 2012-2-20 19:51
什么意思？皇帝是怪达武在阿斯本艾斯林没尽力吗？这可不大公道。。。

指瓦格拉姆第一天日间表现过于慎重，未能按照拿破仑原计划配合乌迪诺军和马塞纳军总攻击奥军并造成野战态势

不过瓦格拉姆的黑锅主要还是贝尔纳多特和萨克森军队背的

卡佩

高守业 发表于 2012-2-20 19:32
是第几章 第几页？手头有麦克林恩版《拿破仑》，正好帮忙查一下。

我刚合上，我的是06年4月版 的中文= =

卡佩

内伊的字就不吐槽了，不是学过神学么，这神职人员的签名~~