Ney

na, Michel (1769-1815), a French soldier. He was born in a French village named Saar Louis. He was the son of a soldier who gave him a fairly good education and desired to make him an engineer, but young Ney preferred to enlist in the French Hussars. Ordinarily he might never have risen from the ranks, but amid the upheavals of the Revolutionary War his ability as a soldier was noted by his superiors. He rose rapidly from one position to another until he became Napoleon's most trusted marshal. He commanded in Switzerland, on the Rhine, and in France. Wherever there was a hard fight Ney was sure to be there. He was in nearly all the great battles of the period. It was Ney whom Napoleon called the "Bravest of the brave," and decorated with the grand eagle of the legion of honor, and Ney again whom he made a prince on the field of battle. Ney headed the delegation of French officers who, in the name of the army, requested Napoleon to declare himself emperor. When the empire was declared Napoleon loaded him with honors and dignity. During the disastrous retreat from Moscow Ney brought up the rear and saved what was to be saved of the grand army from destruction. He served at Lutzen and at Leipsic, and was faithful to Napoleon to the last. When the emperor was sent to the Isle of Elba, and a Bourbon king, Louis XVIII, was placed on the throne, Ney accepted command of the French army.

When, in 1815, Napoleon landed from Elba and the French soldiers began to desert to his standard by companies and regiments and brigades, Ney went too, and placed himself at the head of his colors at his old emperor's side. He fought the battle of Quatre Bras, and at Waterloo led the last ineffectual charge of the old guard. Napoleon was banished to St. Helena. Ney scorned to flee or to ask for mercy. By order of the degenerate Bourbon prince, he was arrested, tried for treason, and shot in the gardens of Luxembourg. No act of the Bourbon government could have done more to exasperate the feelings of the French people. Ney was buried in the beautiful cemetery of Pere Lachaise, where his remains still rest. He was a brave soldier, an able general-one of the most heroic figures of the Napoleonic wars.

See Murat; Napoleon