Holdich, Colonel St George Gore and Sir Adelbert Talbot; and when Ney Elias crossed from China through the Pamirs and Badakshan to the camp of the commission, identifying the great " Dragon Lake," Rangkul, on his way.
Proc. G.R.S., 1886; Ney Elias, " Explorations in Central Asia," see vols.
R.G.S., 1897; Ney Elias and Ross, A History of the Moghuls of Central Asia, from the Tarskh-i-Rastisdi of Mirza Haidar (London, 1898); Grenard, Mission scientifique sur la Haute Asie (Paris, 1898); Dr Sven Hedin, Through Asia (London, 1898); Central Asia and Tibet (1903); Geographie des Hochlandes von Pamir (Berlin, 1894); Captain M.
Next came the marshals, namely, Berthier, Murat, Massena, Augereau, Lannes, Jourdan, Ney, Soult, Brune, Davout, Bessieres, Moncey, Mortier and Bernadotte.
Ney, who had said that Napoleon ought to be brought to Paris in an iron cage, joined him with 6000 men on the 14th of March; and five days later the emperor entered the capital, whence Louis XVIII.
Corps (Ney) at Pegnitz; in the centre, Bernadotte's T.
Unfortunately, Ney with his VI.
Before his advance both Ney and Bernadotte (the latter, between Ney and the Baltic, covering the siege of Danzig) were compelled to fall back.
His orders were at once issued and complied with with such celerity that by the 31st he stood prepared to advance with the corps of Soult, Ney, Davout and Augereau, the Guard and the reserve cavalry (80,000 men on a front of 60 m.) from Myszienec through Wollenberg to Gilgenberg; whilst Lannes on his right towards Ostrolenka and Lefebvre (X.) at Thorn covered his outer flanks.
During the night Augereau and the Guards had arrived, and Ney and Davout were expected on either flank in the forenoon.
Napoleon's own forces thus became the " general advanced guard " for Ney and Davout, who were to close in on either side and deliver the decisive stroke.
But here too the weather and the state of the roads operated adversely, for Ney came up too late, while Davout, in the full tide of his victorious advance, was checked by the arrival of Lestocq, whose corps Ney had failed to intercept, Campaign Of 1807 In Poland And Prussia Scale.
Meanwhile Bennigsen had prepared for a fresh undertaking, and leaving Lestocq with 20,000 Prussians and Russians to contain Bernadotte, who lay between Braunsberg and Spandau on the Passarge, he moved southwards on the 2nd, and on the 3rd and 4th of June he fell upon Ney, driving him back towards Guttstadt, whilst with the bulk of his force he moved towards Heilsberg, where he threw up an entrenched position.
The latter at once assumed the role of advanced guard cavalry and was ordered to observe the enemy at Friedland, Ney following in close support.
Here he was overtaken by Murat and Ney, but the French columns had straggled so badly that four whole days elapsed before the emperor was able to concentrate his army for battle and then could only oppose 128,000 men to the Russians' 110,000.
Murat and Ney as " general advanced guard " attacked the town in the morning of the 16th of August, and whilst they fought the main body was swung round to attack the Russian left and rear.
The march was then resumed, the Guard leading and Ney commanding the rearguard.
Napoleon halted a whole day to let the army close up; and then attacked with his old vigour and succeeded in clearing the road, but only at the cost of leaving Ney and the rearguard to its fate.
By a night march of unexampled daring and difficulty Ney succeeded in breaking through the Russian cordon, but when he regained touch with the main body at Orcha only Boo of his 6000 men were still with him (2 ist).
On the 28th, however, Tschitschagov and Wittgenstein moved forward on both banks of the river to the attack, but were held off by the splendid self-sacrifice of the few remaining troops under Ney, Oudinot and Victor, until about 1 p.m.
Oudinot's and Victor's men were relatively fresh and may have totalled 20,000, whilst Ney can hardly have had more than 6000 of all corps fighting under him.
On the 8th of December Murat reached Vilna, whilst Ney with about 400 men and Wrede with 2000 Bavarians still formed the rearguard; but it was quite impossible to carry out Napoleon's instructions to go into winter quarters about the town, so that the retreat was resumed on the 10th and ultimately Konigsberg was attained on the 9th of December by Murat with 400 Guards and 600 Guard cavalry dismounted.
As soon as possible the army pressed on in pursuit, Ney being sent across the Elbe to turn the position of the allies at Dresden.
Ney, who had joined Oudinot after Grossbeeren, had been defeated at Dennewitz (6th Sept.), the victory, won by Prussian troops solely, giving the greatest encouragement to the enemy.
On the 26th of October 1808, when Moore's troops had left Lisbon to join Baird, the French still held a defensive position behind the Ebro; Bessieres being in the basin of Vitoria, Marshal Ney north-west of Logrono, and Moncey covering Pampeluna, and near Sanguessa.
Soult (over 20,000), leaving Ney in Galicia, had taken and sacked Oporto (March 29, 1809); but the Portuguese having closed upon his rear and occupied Vigo, he halted, detaching a force to Amarante to keep open the road to Braganza and asked for reinforcements.
Writing to Soult from Austria, Napoleon had placed the corps of Ney and Mortier under his orders, and said: "Wellesley will most likely advance by the Tagus against Madrid; in that case, pass the mountains, fall on his flank and rear, and crush him."
Marshal Massena with 120,000, including the corps of Ney, Junot, Reynier and some of the Imperial Guard, was to operate from Salamanca against Portugal; but first Soult, appointed major-general of the army in Spain (equivalent to chief of the staff), was, with the corps of Victor, Mortier and Sebastiani (70,000), to reduce Andalusia.
Ney, commanding Massena's rearguard, conducted the retreat with great ability.
Here Ney was directed to make a firm stand; but, ascertaining that the Portuguese were at Coimbra and the bridge there broken, and fearing to be cut off also from Murcella, he burnt Condeixa, and marched to Cazal Nova.
Researches (Washington, 1866); Ney Elias, in Journal R.G.S.
Farkas (9th ed., Vienna, 1816), Mailath (2nd ed., Pest, 1832), Kis (Vienna, 1834), Marton (8th ed., Vienna, 1836), Maurice Ballagi or (in German) Bloch (5th ed., Pest, 1869), Topler (Pest, 1854), Riedl (Vienna, 1858), Schuster (Pest, 1866), Charles Ballagi (Pest, 1868), Remele (Pest and Vienna, 1869), Roder (Budapest, 1875), Fiihrer (Budapest, 1878), Ney (loth ed., Budapest, 1879), C. E.
Among authors of other historical or humorous romances and tales which have appeared from time to time are Francis Marton alias Lewis Abonyi, Joseph Gaal, Paul Gyulai, William GyOri, Lazarus Horvath, the short-lived Joseph Irinyi, translator of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Francis Ney, Albert ' D affy, Alexander Vachott and his brother Emeric (Vahot), Charles Szathmary, Desider Margittay, Victor Vajda, Joseph Bodon, Atala Kisfaludy and John Kratky.
The reputation of John Szilasy, John Varga, Fidelius Beely and Francis Ney arose rather from their works bearing on the subject of education than from their contributions to philosophy.
In the southwest corner of the town is the esplanade, with an equestrian statue of the emperor William I., and monuments to Prince Frederick Charles and Marshal Ney, commanding a fine view of the "pays messin," a fertile plain lying to the south.
Marshal Soult was appointed chief of the staff, a post for which he possessed very few qualifications; and, when the campaign began, command of the left and right wings had perforce to be given to the only two marshals available, Ney and Grouchy, who did not possess the ability or strategic skill necessary for such positions.
Again, the army was morally weakened by a haunting dread of treason, and some of the chiefs, Ney for example, took the field with disturbing visions of the consequences of their late betrayal of the Bourbon cause, in case of Napoleon's defeat.
Marshal Ney joined the army, was given the command of the left wing, and ordered to drive the Prussians out of Gosselies, and clear the road northward of that place.
Ney took over his command just when the attack on Gosselies was impending.
Ney pushed on his advance up the Brussels road.
The day was now drawing to a close, and Ney decided wisely not to push his advance any farther.
Napoleon spent the early morning in closing up his army, and writing what proved to be the most important letter of the campaign to Ney (Charleroi, about 8 A.M.): "I have adopted as the general principle for this campaign to divide my army into two wings and a reserve....
To assist this operation the reserve would move at first to Fleurus to reinforce Grouchy, should he need assistance in driving back Blucher's troops; but, once in possession of Sombreffe, the emperor would swing the reserve westwards and join Ney, who, it was supposed, would have in the meantime mastered Quatre Bras.
In pursuance of this object Ney, to whom Kellermann was now attached, was to mass at Quatre Bras and push an advanced guard 6 m.
Ney spent the morning in massing his two corps, and in reconnoitring the enemy at Quatre Bras, who, as he was informed, had been reinforced.
He at once wrote to Ney saying that these could only be some of Wellington's troops, and that Ney was to concentrate his force and crush what was in front of him, adding that he was to send all reports to Fleurus.
Napoleon ordered Ney to master Quatre Bras, and added that the emperor would attack the corps which he saw in front of him.
Ney had allowed the valuable hours to slip away when he could have stormed Quatre Bras with ease and ensured co operation with his master.
But by boldly scattering his force and by making use of the Bossu wood and the farms, he covered the cross-roads and showed a firm front to the very superior force which Ney commanded.
Picton at once stopped the victorious French advance to the east of the road, but the remaining division (Jerome) of Reille's corps now reached the front and Ney flung it into the Bossu wood to clear that place and keep his left flank free.
When Ney received Napoleon's 2 P.M.
Ney now realized that he could only capture Quatre Bras with D'Erlon's help.
When this attempt to master the cross-roads had ended in failure, Ney received a verbal message from the emperor, enjoining him that, whatever happened at Quatre Bras, D'Erlon must be allowed to carry out the movement ordered by the emperor.
Corps was carrying out, strove to induce Ney to reconsider D'Erlon's recall; but the marshal refused and ended the discussion by plunging into the fight.
It had already reached the edge of the Ligny battlefield when the counter-order arrived, and conceiving that he was still under Marshal Ney (for the officer who bore the pencil-note directing Ney to detach Quatre Bras.
When the fighting was over, at ro P.M., Ney wrote a short and somewhat one-sided account of the action to Soult On the other flank there had meanwhile been waged the bitterly fought battle of Ligny.
Further, he could order up Lobau, and direct Ney to move his rearward corps across and form it up behind Blucher's right.
Much depended on whether Ney would grasp the full purport of his orders; in a similar case at Bautzen he had failed to do so, and he failed as badly now.
At 3.15 P.M., when the battle was in full swing, Napoleon wrote in duplicate to Ney, saying, "The fate of France is in your hands," and ordering the marshal to master Quatre Bras and move eastwards to assist at Ligny.
Immediately afterwards, hearing that Ney had 20,000 men in front of him, he sent the "pencil-note" by General La Bedoyere which directed Ney to detach D'Erlon's corps to Ligny.
But neither order made it sufficiently clear to Ney that co-operation at Ligny was the essential, provided that Wellington was held fast at Quatre Bras.
In other words, Ney had merely to hold Wellington with part of the French left wing all day, and detach the remainder of his force to co-operate in the deathblow at Ligny.
This is clear when the first letter to Ney is studied with the orders, as it was meant to be; but Ney in the heat of action misread the later instructions.
To a proposal made by General Campan (who was to attack the fleches) to lead his division through the woods, Napoleon agreed, though the so-called Duke of Elchingen (Ney) ventured to remark that a movement through the woods was dangerous and might disorder the division.
Napoleon's generals--Davout, Ney, and Murat, who were near that region of fire and sometimes even entered it--repeatedly led into it huge masses of well-ordered troops.
Ney and Berthier, standing near Napoleon, exchanged looks and smiled contemptuously at this general's senseless offer.
Ney, who had had a corps of ten thousand men, reached Napoleon at Orsha with only one thousand men left, having abandoned all the rest and all his cannon, and having crossed the Dnieper at night by stealth at a wooded spot.
Then we are told of the greatness of soul of the marshals, especially of Ney--a greatness of soul consisting in this: that he made his way by night around through the forest and across the Dnieper and escaped to Orsha, abandoning standards, artillery, and nine tenths of his men.
