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Napoleon, Ch. 21 Wagram

Extraordinary horseman--600 miles in six days to check on his army--leaving Spain and returning to Paris to put together a new army to put down Austria.

Enormous size of army:  230,000 troops called up to join nearly 500,000 troops.

Austria at war.  Tsar Alexander, supposed to be an ally of Napoleon, sends troops to fight Austria, but the troops make no effort to engage. Two casualties in the entire campaign! N. furious.

Some of the troops fighting the Austrians (Bavarians, for example) fought without a single French soldier in their company.  Tremendous belief in Napoleon as leader and as bringer of a more just society.

Napoleon, outside the walls of Vienna, looks up to see Viennese citizens looking down at him.  When they recognize him, they cheer.  Amazing--their country is at war with him.  The same thing happened at Brandenburg. Napoleon rode around to cheering for 30 minutes.

Crossing the Danube to fight the Austrians:  "Through intense planning & preparation, Napoleon got this enormous polyglot force, roughly the same number as attacked Normandy on D-Day, across one of Europe's largest rivers into enemy territory in a single night, with all its horses, cannon, wagons, supplies and ammunition, and without losing a single man. "

Able to sleep on a battlefield with 700 cannon firing--Austria defeated.

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