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Captain Blaze

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Captain Blaze
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Author(s): Elzéar Blaze
Date Published: 05/2007
Page Count: 196
Softcover ISBN-13: 978-1-84677-266-9
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-84677-255-2

Elzéar Blaze recounts his life and experiences in Napoleon’s army in a well written, articulate and companionable style, that draws the reader in as though listening to a master storyteller in the flesh. Whereas most writers of military memoirs deliver linear accounts of their recollections, Blaze concentrates on the different aspects of the military experience—the soldiers, the food, the uniforms, the camp, the march, etc.—and spins fact and anecdote, both personal and borrowed, into a seamless monologue that evokes the very spirit of the Napoleonic period. Comrades and acquaintances are drawn in convincing detail, with all their idiosyncrasies and humour. Blaze is a different kind of French Napoleonic soldier, and this is a different kind of military memoir. For those who are fascinated by the subject it is absolutely essential, taking the reader into the heart of the times, in an intimate portrait of life in the infantry on campaign throughout Europe.

I shall not set myself up for a hero by assuming the tone of a braggart. I shall, therefore, tell you frankly, that the finest battle I ever saw was that of Bautzen. Why so? you will ask. What was there in it more pleasing than in any other? Did the mortars, the balls, and the bullets, fall in a less dense shower?óNo; but the reason why I always thought that battle a very fine one was, because I was not in it. I was at it, to be sure, but on the top of a steeple. With a telescope in my hand, I saw everything; I judged of the passing events in a place of safety.
While they were knocking one another on the head in the plain, we were in reserve in a village; and, having nothing to do till an order should arrive to call us away, we ascended the church-steeple, and there witnessed all the exploits of our warriors. This way of being present at a battle is the most agreeable of any that I know. When you are yourself an actor you see nothing, and thenóand thenóand thenó
When you manoeuvre, when you fire, when you are actively engaged, these qualms go off; the smoke, the thunder of the cannon, the shouts of the combatants, intoxicate every one; you have no time to think of yourself. But, when you are forced to continue fixed in your rank, without firing, and exposed, at the same time, to a shower of balls, that is by no means an agreeable situation.
There are men, however, who, endued with extraordinary strength of mind, can coolly face the greatest dangers. Murat, the bravest of the brave, always charged at the head of his cavalry, and never returned without having his sabre stained with blood. This one may easily comprehend; but an extraordinary thing, which I have seen done by General Dorsenne, and by him alone, is to stand immovable, turning his back to the enemy, facing his regiment, riddled with balls, crying, ìClose your ranks!î without once looking be≠hind him. In other circumstances I have tried to imitate him, and turned my back too; but I could not remain in that position: curiosity always obliged me to look the way from which the balls proceeded.
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