9. The Badass General Who Became a Model for Generations of Other Generals
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821), one of history’s greatest military geniuses, had a military career that spanned nearly three decades. In that time, he fought over sixty battles and lost only eight times. He revolutionized warfare with tactical, strategic, and organizational innovations, and for generations after his death, he was the model general whom all military commanders sought to emulate. At heart, he was an artillery officer, with an instinctive feel for the cannons’ potential. Until the late eighteenth century, commanders usually saw field artillery more as a defensive than an offensive weapon. However, in the years that preceded the French Revolution, military theorists began to challenge that conception. Napoleon took their ideas and ran with them.
Napoleon did not see artillery as an adjunct but as a central part of his battle plans. Rather than use artillery to simply break up attacking infantry or cavalry, Napoleon realized its offensive potential. He concentrated it in grand batteries to devastate key enemy positions. He also studied the relationship between the placement of his own guns and the potential movements of his troops and those of the enemy. Napoleon then positioned his artillery accordingly, in anticipation of the flow of battle. When things began to happen – and happen quickly as they often do in battle – he had his guns already in place or ready to move to where they could do the most good.
