#Scourge of war waterloo how to cavalry charge code#
His Code Napoleon is an extremely enlightened law code. In many ways, he was also an enlightened ruler. He’d be a very amusing and stimulating companion. You and I would enjoy having dinner with Napoleon. Yes, it made me admire him far more than I used to. Did researching and writing this book change your view of Napoleon? In 1815, nobody would have denied that the two greatest soldiers of the age were Napoleon and Wellington. On the other hand, they had great faith in him. At Waterloo, the men said that when he rode along the line, which he did all day, nobody cheered. ‘The Iron Duke,’ as Wellington was known, was not as approachable as Churchill or Nelson. Wellington gave his name to a boot and a beef dish, but not much else, did he? Nelson and Churchill are Britain’s most popular and colorful military heroes. For most men that was what the battle was like. He gets bayoneted and stuck with a lance somebody shoots his thumb off, then the French come along and steal everything he has including his trousers. He’s a good Methodist and he thinks, I need to shout something.” So he shouts “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!”Īt that point, somebody clobbers him over the back of the head and knocks him off his horse. But Weaver is impressed by this because he doesn’t have a battle cry of his own. The Frenchman shouts, “Vive l’Empereur!”-his war cry.īut both of them decide the game isn’t worth a candle. Our chap charges away and clashes his sword against a Frenchman’s sword. There comes a moment in the battle where his regiment has take on a battalion of French heavy cavalry. But he was there and he was going to do his bit. He really wasn’t cut out to be a soldier. We don’t know why this poor man joined the British cavalry. The one I like most of all is Paul Weaver. Are there particular characters that inspired you? You tell the story from the point of view of the ordinary soldier. What they can’t see is what’s behind the ridge, where his main force is. And they can see various horsemen and people on top of the ridge. The French, who are staring at his ridge, can see his cannons, because obviously they have to be on the front side of the ridge. He puts them behind, on the reverse slope. But he doesn’t post his troops on top of the ridge, and he certainly doesn’t put them in front of the ridge where they’re exposed to enemy cannon fire. The ridge is the line you’re going to defend. It didn’t have to be a very high ridge, and the one at Waterloo at Mont St. What he always looked for, if he was going to fight a defensive battle, was a ridge. We still have the map with his notes on it.
But he traveled up to Brussels and made a note of the ridge of Waterloo. I’m sure Wellington thought that was the end of him. Napoleon had been defeated and sent to Elba.
I don’t think he ever thought he’d have to fight again. Wellington toured the French border to see whether the defences were adequate. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Īt that time Belgium was part of Holland and its existence was guaranteed by British troops. I write the book to find out what happens and that is actually quite difficult. Some fiction writers plot the whole story before they even begin writing, but I can’t do that. The difficulty in writing fiction is finding the story. How is writing nonfiction different from writing fiction? Was it harder for you? I said to the reporter I was filming with, “I’m gonna marry that one.” And I did. It was an uncomfortable and awkward childhood.īut I ended up going into television and while I was working for the BBC in Northern Ireland, an American blonde walked out of an elevator. They were essentially evangelicals, with a huge list of things of which they disapproved: cosmetics, films, theatre, even symphony concerts, books that weren’t the Bible or Christian books, Roman Catholics, wine, tobacco, and television. I was adopted by this couple that belonged to the Peculiar People. My father was a Canadian Airman and my mother was in the Women’s Royal Air Force in Britain. The Peculiar People were a sect in Essex in England. Tell us about ‘the Peculiar People’ and how you came to America?
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