A simple name evokes martial glory for all time. Hannibal with his Carthaginian army and elephants crossing the Alps.  Caesar and his systematic conquering of the Gallic tribes.  Washington leading his ragtag patriot army through hardship and eventual freedom. One name that resonates through history and evokes immediate recognition as a master of the battlefield, from the sands of Egypt to the bitter cold of the Russian Empire, is that of Napoleon.  Napoleon Bonaparte’s martial leadership style and methodology inspired and influenced military leaders of his time up to the modern age.

Napoleone di Buonaparte (the Italian spelling of his name used until about 1796) or rather Napoleon Bonaparte (August 15, 1769-May 5, 1821), was born in Ajaccio on the Mediterranean island of Corsica that lies to the West of Rome and to the South of France. The future Emperor of the French came from a rather influential patrician family in Corsican society, whose father was a socially conscious lawyer, a mother of iron-will and disposition and eight siblings, four of which would eventually become monarchs of various European countries.

Napoleon’s early education and adoption of all things French from their Italian leanings, began with his acceptance into the Royal School of Brienne on April 23, 1779. Here, due to the intervention of family friend and French Governor of Corsica, General de Marboeuf, Napoleon was able to attend this state paid-for school. Napoleon’s time at the school, of which he spent about five-and-half years until the age of fourteen, sharpened his language (both French and Latin) and mathematics skills while also fostering a deep appreciation for history, which Napoleon carried on with for the remainder of his life.

It was during his time at Brienne that Napoleon’s leadership qualities began to stand out.  Having suffered at the hands of the far more well-to-do from French society, not to mention ridicule from some of his instructors, Napoleon became the de facto leader for his fellow first year students. In this time, Napoleon led his fellow first years’ to victories in elaborate snowball fights, while devising his own war games to replay old conflicts from antiquity. A precursor of what was to come.

Graduating from Brienne and choosing artillery as his field, Napoleon was accepted to the prestigious École Militaire in Paris on October 30, 1784, at the age of fifteen. The time spent at the academy was one of struggle both financially and with the death of his father, but Napoleon remained undeterred. He utilized his time to read voraciously until his graduation and commissioning as a second lieutenant and his first appointment. Napoleon’s choice of the artillery was extremely telling in two important ways. First, promotion in the artillery was based on performance and talent, unlike the others which were grounded in family wealth and status.  Second, his time in the artillery during his first duty assignment forced Napoleon to go through an artilleryman’s basic training, learning from the ground up. During this time, Napoleon developed his ability to speak with, relate to and inspire men of all ranks. This ability to inspire his men and their affinity for him would later be so profound that it would be said that “of all of his soldiers, not one forsook him, till affection was useless, and their first stipulation was for the safety of their favourite.”

After many months of leave back and forth to Corsica, as well as career setbacks such as losing his artillery commission due to his service with Corsican volunteers, Napoleon returned to Paris to regain his artillery commission. During this critical period, Napoleon demonstrated a key leadership trait that now had taken form and would serve him well, perseverance. Not being deterred by the escalating chaos and violence between the mobs and the government, Napoleon secured his artillery rank of captain as well as lieutenant colonel of volunteers. 

The young Napoleon in relatively short order and due to a healthy dose of political destabilization, determination, and luck, soon found himself having experienced successes with the siege of Toulon in 1793, the famous “whiff of grapeshot” that saved the Directorate in 1795 and led to his promotion to major general and then command of the Army of Italy in 1796 at the age of 26. It was these field experiences now of leading men into battle that honed Napoleon’s leadership methodology, that would affect Europe and the world from that point onward.