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Iwo Jima at 80: Sacrifice, Victory, and the Photograph That Helped Win the Peace.

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FEATURE image: Original photograph by Joe Rosenthal, February 23, 1945. Public Domain.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the most costly and consequential American victories of World War II, securing a strategic foothold in the Pacific while producing iconic photographs and film footage that transformed a brutal military campaign into an enduring symbol of sacrifice, heroism, and national resolve.

The battle lasted from February 19 to March 26, 1945, and was among the fiercest engagements of the Pacific War.

Fourth Division Marines in Foxhole on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: “Fourth Division Marines in Foxhole on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Advancing Marine Flamethrower Squad, Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: “Advancing Marine Flamethrower Squad, Iwo Jima, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The Battle of Iwo Jima was a nearly 40-day battle campaign fought by the U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy against the Japanese Imperial Army on the island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific. With 110,000 total battle personnel (over 70,000 troops), the American objective of their invasion (called “Operation Detachment”) was to capture the island and its airfields. Iwo Jima was situated between Japan and the American bomber bases in the Mariana Islands. Since summer 1944 unescorted American B-29 bombers were flying nearly 3000 miles roundtrip to bomb Japan and being lost at sea from entrenched Japanese defenses. With Iwo Jima in American hands U.S. fighter planes could escort the long-range bombers as well as have any damaged aircraft find sanctuary on the island. The American victory after a five week campaign resulted in the capture of Iwo Jima with its immediate benefit that, by war’s end, 2,400 B-29s were able to make safe forced landings on the island.

A primary American objective was to capture Iwo Jima’s airfields, allowing fighter escorts for B-29 bombers and emergency landing facilities closer to Japan.

Iwo Jima in 1945. Mount Suribachi is a knob at the bottom of the map. PHOTO: “Map of Iwo Jima, 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Marines Detonating Japanese Mine on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: “Marines Detonating Japanese Mine on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The victory came at a tremendous cost, with thousands of American and Japanese casualties.

Marines Taking Shelter on the Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: “Marines Taking Shelter on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

There were 20,000 or so heavily-fortified Japanese defending the island to the death while U.S. Navy and Marine Corps aircrews had complete air superiority. The U.S. Navy provided heavy artillery gunfire support from the sea. The Battle of Iwo Jima, an American victory, took place from February 19 to March 26, 1945, and was one of the fiercest of World War II. That Americans could take the island was not the question. Its exact cost was. The casualty toll was heavy for both sides. The Japanese had 216 taken prisoner and up to 18,375 killed or missing in action. The American combat toll was also staggering: 6,821 killed in action, 19,217 wounded, and 2,648 experiencing battle trauma.

23d Regiment, Fourth Marine Division Command Post, Iwo Jima, 1945. PHOTO: “23d Regiment, Fourth Marine Division Command Post, Iwo Jima, 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Fifth Marine Division Command Post, Iwo Jima, 1945. PHOTO: “Fifth Marine Division Command Post, Iwo Jima, 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Joe Rosenthal (1911-2006), with his camera hanging at his side, surveys the landing beaches at Iwo Jima on March 7, 1945. Rosenthal was awarded the U.S. Navy Distinguished Public Service Award, as well as the Marine Corps Distinguished Public Service Award by the Marine Corps, for his war photography. Photo by AP/U.S. Marine Corps. Public Domain.

On Friday, February 23, 1945, Rosenthal landed on the island and heard that they were going to raise a flag on the highest point on the island which was the old volcano at the southwest end called Mount Suribachi. Rosenthal carried a Speed Graphic camera that was press standard issue and joined other photographers ready to ascend to the top. Halfway up they met a marine photographer coming down whose camera was obliterated by an enemy grenade explosion. Rosenthal and the others were told that the marines had already raised the flag. But the views were good from the summit anyway and still worth the climb. Once at the top Rosenthal and the rest saw marines who were working to affix a larger flag to a pipe under orders from a captain who wanted to replace it for the earlier smaller flag just raised. When the six marines started to raise that second larger flag on the heavy pole Rosenthal pushed his camera’s shutter. After taking the flag-raising photo, Rosenthal made his way back down Mount Suribachi to the shoreline. There, he took a transport boat out to the command ship, where he wrote captions for his photos and sent them, sight unseen, with the undeveloped film by seaplane to Guam.

Marines on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: “Marines on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

In the shadow of Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945. PHOTO: “In the shadow of Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Marines Advancing on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945 – 36324610020. PHOTO: “Marines Advancing on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945 – 36324610020” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

American flamethrowers in a foxhole on Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: Marine Flamethrowers in Foxholes, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Marine Firing 30mm, Iwo Jima, 1945. PHOTO: “Marine Firing 30mm, Iwo Jima, 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Iwo Jima – Mt Suribachi. PHOTO: “Iwo Jima – Mt Suribachi Detail” by Agsftw is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

“I took the picture. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.” — Joe Rosenthal.

In February 1945 Joe Rosenthal was a 33-year-old American photographer for the AP. Rosenthal’s poor eyesight prevented him from fighting in combat though his task as an embedded photographer placed him in Harm’s Way. Before Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal had landed with the marines on Guam and Peleliu. His Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima became a sign of hope for a war-weary American home front that victory in the Pacific would be theirs. It also became the iconic symbol of everything U.S. Marines. Rosenthal was very proud of his photograph of the six marines and the Marines overall, though modest about any accolades that came his way. Rosenthal put his role in perspective, saying: “I took the picture. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.” Yet it is not to be forgotten that Rosenthal was exposing himself to the same dangers as the six marines that day when he took his iconic photograph for history of the flag raising on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.

Photographer Joe Rosenthal’s image of the flag raising atop Mount Suribachi became one of the most recognizable photographs in history and a symbol of American determination.

Original photograph by Joe Rosenthal, February 23, 1945. Public Domain.

Color motion picture footage of the flag raising provided a rare and powerful visual record of the battle.

Iwo Jima Flag Raising 1945 – Rare Color Film by Sgt Genaust [#Upscaled#1080p#60FPS#ww2]. Three feet to Joe Rosenthal’s right, Sgt. Genaust captured the flag-raising from nearly the same angle using color motion picture film.

Unveiled in November 1954, the Marine Corps War Memorial in Washington, D.C. was dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in the defense of the U.S. since 1775. see – https://www.nps.gov/gwmp/learn/historyculture/usmcwarmemorial.htm – retrieved February 19, 2025. October 2003. Author’s photograph. All Rights Reserved.

U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) – (Arlington, Virginia) – August 1, 2015. PHOTO: “U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) – (Arlington, Virginia) – August 1, 2015” by cseeman is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

The image captured by Rosenthal’s photograph was widely used in war bond drives and helped rally a weary American home front during the final months of the war. The photograph also inspired the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial, ensuring the battle’s place in American memory.

US Marine Corps War Memorial, Washington, D.C. The centerpiece of the memorial is a colossal sculpture group by Felix Weihs de Weldon (1907-2003), then on duty with the U.S. Navy, depicting the six Marines who raised the second larger U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945. The memorial was designed by Horace Whittier Peaslee, Jr. (1884-1959) and dedicated in November 1954 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. October 2003. Author’s photograph. All Rights Reserved.

Felix Weihs de Weldon. Public Domain.

Marine Post Office, Iwo Jima, 1945. PHOTO: “Marine Post Office, Iwo Jima, 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

US Marine Corps War Memorial, Washington, D.C., was based on the iconic AP photograph by Joe Rosenthal taken on February 23, 1945 of the raising of the U.S. flag at the top of Mount Suribachi at the start of the Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19- March 26, 1945). Rosenthal’s photograph was flashed around the world for the first time on Sunday, February 25, 1945, and instantly became a symbol of the American war effort in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. The Marine Corps War Memorial Foundation organized the fundraising and creation of the monument. The complete cost of the memorial was $850,000 (about $10 million in 2025). The 32-foot-high bronze figures are erecting a 60-foot flag pole onto Mount Suribachi. Important dates in the history of the Marine Corps are burnished in gold into the Swedish marble base. The six marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima have all been identified and include a sergeant, 2 corporals, and 3 privates first class. Unveiled in November 1954, the Marine Corps War Memorial was dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in the defense of the U.S. since 1775. October 2003. Author’s photograph. All Rights Reserved.

See Iwo Jima war bond poster here = https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn520954  – retrieved February 19, 2025.

A Battle Remembered

Flags of Our Fathers (2006) is Clint Eastwood’s powerful film about the Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 to March 26, 1945) and the legacy of one of the most iconic images of World War II. Eastwood directed and co-produced the film and also composed its score. It was released alongside its companion film, Letters from Iwo Jima, which recounts the same battle from the Japanese perspective.

Distributed by Paramount Pictures in the United States and Warner Bros. internationally, the two films earned strong critical praise. Together they form one of cinema’s most thoughtful examinations of war, heroism, and historical memory.

The Photograph That Became a Symbol

The film is based on James Bradley and Ron Powers’ bestselling 2000 book, which explored the experiences of Bradley’s father, Navy corpsman John Bradley, and the five U.S. Marines who raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on February 23, 1945.

Captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal, the image quickly became one of the most recognizable photographs in American history. Its depiction of determination and sacrifice came to symbolize the United States’ war effort in the Pacific. Decades later, however, further research led the U.S. Marine Corps to revise the identification of several men originally believed to appear in the photograph.

Beyond the Battlefield

While the film contains intense combat sequences depicting the brutal struggle for Iwo Jima, its deeper focus is the human cost of turning soldiers into national symbols.

Three of the flag raisers were killed in action less than a week after the photograph was taken. The surviving participants were returned to the United States, where they became reluctant celebrities. As the war continued, they were enlisted to help promote a nationwide war bond campaign designed to finance the final push toward victory.

The Burden of Heroism

With the war in Europe nearing its end, the photograph and the men associated with it became powerful symbols of American courage and resolve. Yet Flags of Our Fathers questions the nature of heroism itself. The surviving flag raisers struggled with grief, survivor’s guilt, public expectations, and the uncomfortable reality that their fame was based on a single moment overshadowing the sacrifices of thousands of others.

Eastwood’s film ultimately argues that history often elevates symbols while overlooking the complex individuals behind them.

Legacy

More than a conventional war film, Flags of Our Fathers is an exploration of memory, mythmaking, and sacrifice. By examining both the ferocity of combat and the pressures of the home front, the film reveals how a single photograph came to represent a nation at war while forever changing the lives of the men captured within its frame.

Marines Advancing on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: “Marines Advancing on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Marine Field Gun Emplacement on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945. PHOTO: “Marine Field Gun Emplacement on Beach, Iwo Jima, February 1945” by Archives Branch, USMC History Division is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Rosenthal told Collier’s magazine: “The sky was overcast, but just enough sunlight fell from almost directly overhead, because it happened to be about noon, to give the figures a sculptural depth. The 20-foot pipe was heavy, which meant the men had to strain to get it up, imparting that feeling of action. The wind just whipped the flag out over the heads of the group, and at their feet the disrupted terrain and the broken stalks of the shrubbery exemplified the turbulence of war.” Quoted in https://www.usfca.edu/magazine/december-2024/feature/man-behind-the-camera – retrieved Feb. 19, 2025. Wire services flashed Joe Rosenthal’s photograph around the world where it was published on the front pages of more than 200 newspapers on Sunday, February 25, 1945. The photo appeared on magazine covers across the country as well. Following the battle of Iwo Jima, the photo was used for publicity in war bond drives from May 11 to July 4, 1945, which raised an amazing $26.3 billion – by far  the biggest haul of any of the seven U.S. war loan drives during World War II.. Rosenthal’s photograph became an enduring icon. 

USMC Iwo Jima War Memorial at Night, World War II, Veteran Soldiers, American Flag. PHOTO: “USMC Iwo Jima War Memorial at Night, World War II, Veteran Soldiers, American Flag” by Beverly & Pack is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

From Prose to Patriotism: How Thomas Paine’s Writings Defined and Emboldened the American Revolutionary Cause, 1776-1783.

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FEATURE Image: Thomas Paine, by engraver William Sharp (1749-1824), after portrait painter George Romney (1734-1802), 1793. NGA, London. Public Domain. See – https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw35502/Thomas-Paine?LinkID=mp03422&search=sas&sText=thomas+paine&role=sit&rNo=6 – retrieved June 1, 2024.

Thomas Paine’s writing served as a vital tool of psychological resilience and ideological conviction for the American Revolutionary cause during its absolute darkest hours. By juxtaposing the crushing military losses, near-total collapse of Washington’s army, and pervasive British contempt against the defiant, stirring language of The American Crisis, Paine’s prose transformed a desperate military retreat into an unyielding, spiritually justified struggle for freedom.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The American Crisis, 19 December 1776.

The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. The American Crisis, 19 December 1776.

Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated. The American Crisis, 19 December 1776.

The Fall of Manhattan and the Jersey Chase

With the capture of Manhattan, British Army Commander in Chief William Howe sent Cornwallis to pursue Washington into New Jersey just sixty miles north of Philadelphia. Washington’s army was down almost 90% in December 1776 (3500 soldiers) from just August 1776. Washington just escaped Cornwallis’ grasp. As the British set up a line of forts to house and feed their soldiers during winter, Washington was the outsider.

British Confidence and the “Undisciplined Rabble”

The British believed the end of the revolution of what they called “despised” and “undisciplined rabble” which Virginia planter George Washington led (by way of the efforts of troublemaker Massachusetts lawyer John Adams), was in hand. Paine’s writing took that fragmented group and gave them a shared, elevated vocabulary of sacred duty (“celestial an article as freedom”), fundamentally expressing how they viewed their own struggle.

The Captive General and the Low Ebb of the War

The British entered into winter by taking prisoner Charles Lee, one of Washington’s senior generals in the Continental army, and locked him up as well as their own fleet in Newport, Rhode Island which they took without resistance. The British kept Lee’s horse perpetually drunk out of spite for the Americans. Before Washington’s important crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 and surprised the mercenary Hessians, Washington’s first comeback victory, it was the lowest ebb of the war. Since July 1776, Howe had taken almost 5000 men as P.O.W.’s, including 4 generals, and hundreds of artillery pieces and many tens of thousands of rounds of Washington’s ammunition in the wake of winning battles. When Washington’s army had lost these men and material to General Howe, Paine’s prose provided the ideological “ammunition” that kept the rebellion alive.

Thomas Paine and the Times That Try Men’s Souls

It was then that 39-year-old Thomas Paine, serving in Washington’s army, wrote this propaganda tract (his Common Sense appeared earlier in January) that began with the famous line. “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.” This was Paine’s most explosive year. When he published Common Sense in January 1776, it fundamentally shifted public sentiment away from trying to reconcile with Britain and toward demanding total independence. He followed this in December 1776 with the first volume of The American Crisis, rallying a collapsing army.

A Sober Assessment from Washington

Washington wrote about the same events more soberly: “Our affairs are in a very bad way . . . the game is pretty near up—owing in a great measure to the insidious arts of the enemy.” Paine provided the psychological “engine” to reverse the momentum when the physical war was at its lowest ebb.

SOURCES: CHAPTER THREE. “The Peace Commissioners? THE HOWE BROTHERS,” The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History), Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, Yale University Press, 2013, p. 96.

The Sustained Campaign (1776–1783)

The American Crisis was not just a single essay; it was a series of 16 pamphlets published continuously throughout the entire span of the Revolutionary War. He wrote them in real-time as the conflict evolved, continuously boosting morale, clarifying the ideological stakes, and countering British peace overtures.

Paine officially closed the Crisis papers on April 19, 1783—exactly eight years to the day after the war began at Lexington and Concord—famously declaring, “The times that tried men’s souls are over—and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished.” Shortly after, in 1787, he left America to return to Europe, shifting his literary focus to the French Revolution.

Your failure is, I am persuaded, as certain as fate. America is above your reach….her independence neither rests upon your consent, nor can it be prevented by your arms. In short, you spend your substance in vain, and impoverish yourself without hope. To the People of England, The American Crisis: PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 21, 1778. see- https://www.ushistory.org/paine/crisis/c-07.htm – retrieved June 5, 2024.

The Shifting Tide: From Despair to Strategic Defiance

As the Continental Army endured, The American Crisis evolved into a masterclass in psychological warfare. Following the Battle of Brandywine in September 1777, Paine framed British territorial gains as a costly logistical trap that amounted to eventual defeats.

Turning the Tables on the Empire

By 1778, bolstered by a French alliance, Paine wrote as the intellectual superior of a fading global power. By 1780, he contrasted the comfortable lives of British soldiers in America with the burdens borne by ordinary American farmers and laborers.

The Glorious Accomplishment

In the spring of 1783, Paine concluded his final Crisis pamphlet celebrating the revolution’s success, famously declaring that the times that tried men’s souls were over and framing America’s birth as a triumph.

Celluloid Chronicles—The Revolutionary War to World War II on Popular Film: Honoring the Meaning of Memorial Day.

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FEATURE Image: Memorial Day Ceremony – North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial – May 31, 2010. PHOTO: “Memorial Day Ceremony – North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial – May 31, 2010” by US Army Africa is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Introduction

The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868, following the U.S. Civil War. Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a day of memorial “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.” (Source: Library of Congress). It is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty.

Films, music, and literature about the people, places, and events in history where military personnel as individuals and as a unit are asked to pay the ultimate price and make the greatest sacrifice for freedom are among some of the greatest stories ever told.

THE CROSSING (2000). American Revolutionary War (1775-1783).

Bringing Washington’s Gamble to the Screen

Directed by Robert Harmon and adapted by Howard Fast from his novel of the same name, The Crossing stars Jeff Daniels as George Washington.

A Revolution Hanging by a Thread

In December 1776 — barely six months after the Declaration of Independence — Washington’s Continental Army was collapsing. Starved of men, artillery, and supplies, the revolution hung by a thread. So Washington made the most dangerous decision of the war: he would gamble everything on a surprise strike at Trenton, where more than a thousand feared Hessian mercenaries held the town.

Forcing the Ice-Choked Delaware

To reach them, his exhausted army would have to force a night crossing of the ice‑choked Delaware River and march toward what looked like a hopeless fight. Instead, the attack became the stunning, against‑all‑odds victory Washington had scarcely dared imagine.

A Stunning and One-Sided American Victory

Washington’s surprise attack on the Hessian garrison at Trenton on December 26, 1776, produced a stunningly one‑sided American victory. The Continental Army suffered almost no combat losses — none killed in action, two men who froze to death during the night march, and only five wounded, including a young James Monroe, later of Monroe Doctrine fame, who took a musket ball in the shoulder.

The Destruction of the Hessian Force

The Hessians, by contrast, were effectively destroyed as a fighting force: 22 killed (among them their commander, Colonel Johann Rall), 92 wounded, and about 920 captured.

Detail. NYC – Metropolitan Museum of Art: Washington Crossing the Delaware. “NYC – Metropolitan Museum of Art: Washington Crossing the Delaware” by wallyg is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

GETTYSBURG (1993). The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865).

Directed by Ronald F. Maxwell whose screenplay is based on The Killer Angels, a novel by Michael Shaara, Gettysburg starred an ensemble cast including Martin Sheen, Tom Berenger, Jeff Daniels, Stephen Lang and Sam Elliott.

The Convergence of Command at Gettysburg

One of the Union army’s most respected senior commanders during the American Civil War was 42-year-old General John F. Reynolds (John Rothman) who was killed on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg at the very start of it. Reynolds was in command of the “left wing” of the Army of the Potomac commanded by Gen. George C. Meade and which included the cavalry division of 37-year-old Brig. Gen. John Buford (Sam Elliott).

Buford’s Defensive Stand

Buford had occupied the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with his “headquarters” atop the cupola of the Lutheran seminary. With light defensive lines he resisted superior numbers of Confederate infantry brigades along the Chambersburg Pike who were blind to the Union Army’s smaller numbers because Major General J. E. B. Stuart had gone missing

The Opening Clash and a Fatal Command

When Reynolds’ I Infantry Corps arrived, he rode out ahead, met with Buford, and then accompanied some of his soldiers into the fighting. As Reynolds was supervising the placement of the 2nd Wisconsin, he shouted: “Forward men! Forward for God’s sake! and drive those fellows out of those woods.” At that moment Reynolds was shot by a sniper and fell off his horse to the ground with a mortal wound to the back of the head.

The Impact of a Leader’s Loss

The death of Reynolds impacted his troops and fellow commanders deeply. At that particular moment, they realized that any one leader (and the Union army had been through several at the top), even if he had the necessary zeal, vision, and sense of purpose, would not be enough to win the fight to save the Union. It must be a coordinated effort. Reynolds, by supporting Buford’s decision to set up defensive resistance as well as engaging his infantry, even in death effectively chose Gettysburg as that hallowed battleground for the next three days.

The Retreat to High Ground

Since Confederate numbers were superior on that first day, Union troops eventually retreated through town and rallied on Cemetery Ridge where General Meade and Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, with many others, entrenched on the high ground. They faced Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee (Martin Sheen), and Lieutenant Generals Longstreet, Ewell, and A.P. Hill, among others. In the 1993 film, Confederate Major General Henry Heth is played by Warren Burton who was born and grew up in Chicago and attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Heth was from a coal mining area near Richmond, Virginia.

The Staggering Cost of Hallowed Ground

At the Battle of Gettysburg the two armies suffered between 46,000 and 51,000 casualties. Union casualties amounted to 3,155 killed, 14,531 wounded, and 5,369 captured or missing. Reynolds’ body was immediately transported to his home-town of Lancaster, PA, where he was buried on July 4, 1863. Buford died 5 months later possibly of typhus in Washington, D.C. and was buried at West Point Cemetery in New York. Like Lincoln, Buford was born in Kentucky and grew up in Illinois (Rock Island). His father was a leading politician, but as a Democrat supported Stephen A. Douglas and opposed Abraham Lincoln.

Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg. PHOTO: “Lutheran Seminary, Gettysburg” by josullivan.59 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

THE FIGHTING SULLIVANS (1944). World War II (1941-1945).

Hollywood’s Tribute to a Tragic Brotherhood

Directed by Lloyd Bacon based on a story by Edward Doherty, Mary C. McCall Jr., and Jules Schermer, The (Fighting) Sullivans starred Anne Baxter, Thomas Mitchell, Selena Royle, Edward Ryan, John Campbell, James Cardwell, John Alvin, George Offerman, Ward Bond and Trudy Marshall.

The True Story of the Juneau Disaster

Released as The Sullivans in 1944, this 20th-Century-Fox drama film tells the true story of five brothers – George, Frank, Matt, Joe and Al Sullivan – who grew up in Waterloo, Iowa, and who were all killed in World War II when their ship, Juneau, was sunk in combat at Guadalcanal in November 1942.

The Honest Price of a World War

The film is a tearjerker not so much because it is sentimental but that it is honest. The final scene where the naval officer who recruited the five brothers (Ward Bond) comes to the boys’ house to tell the tragic news to their parents (Thomas Mitchell and Selena Royle) and the youngest brother’s widow (Anne Baxter) and mother of his child is one of cinema’s best conveyances of the price paid in a world war that claimed 420,000 American lives.

Memorial Day Ceremony – North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial – May 31, 2010. PHOTO: “Memorial Day Ceremony – North Africa American Cemetery and Memorial – May 31, 2010” by US Army Africa is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Conclusion

Through the power of cinema and visual art, these Celluloid Chronicles serve as living monuments that permanently capture the profound weight of military sacrifice. From the frozen banks of the Delaware to the bloodied ridges of Gettysburg and the tragic depths of Guadalcanal, artistic expression bridges the gap between historical duty and modern remembrance. This creative preservation ensures that the ultimate price paid by service members in every conflict—from the nation’s founding revolutionary struggles to the modern battlefields of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran today—is never forgotten, keeping the sacred meaning of Memorial Day alive across generations.

Empire, Defeat, and Exile: Napoleon Bonaparte at Saint Helena at the 200th anniversary of his death on May 5, 1821.

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FEATURED image: Napoleon near Borodino, Vasily Vereshchagin (1842–1904), 1897, oil on canvas, State Historical Museum, Moscow. The image of a sullen dictator seated on his field chair with boots raised onto a battle drum, as his General Staff views in their spyglasses the men of the Grande Armée in harm’s way at the Battle of Borodino, can be seen as indicative of Napoleon’s exercise of arbitrary power as the first of modern history’s tyrants.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) transformed France and Europe through military genius, political ambition, and administrative reform, yet the same drive that built an empire ultimately led to its collapse. His final years, exile on the remote island of Saint Helena, and the creation of his death mask contributed to a legend that outlived both the man and the empire he forged.

The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries, 1812, Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Major facts of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) are well known. Known as Napoleon I, the French Emperor who died two centuries ago was a shrewd, ambitious and skilled military leader who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century.

Born on the island of Corsica that had recently handed authority from Italy to France, Napoleon rose rapidly in the French military during the unsettled period of the French Revolution after 1789 and until 30-year-old Napoleon seized power in a coup d’état in 1799.

Napoleon rose from a young Corsican artillery officer to become Emperor of the French in 1804.

In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in the presence of the pope. In the next decade Napoleon successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire. Following his disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812 explored in some detail in this post, Napoleon abdicated his throne in 1814 and was exiled to the island of Elba not far from his native Corsica in the Mediterranean Sea near Italy.

In 1815, he escaped Elba and returned to France where he briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. He received a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in today’s Belgium and was exiled until his death on May 5, 1821 to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean. Napoleon Bonaparte was just 51 years old at the time of his death stemming from mysterious circumstances, though likely something such as stomach cancer.1

Napoleon on St. Helena, Franz Josef Sandmann (1805-1856), c. 1820. Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau.

In 2021, the bicentenary of the death of Napoleon I is commemorated. While 200 years is a long time ago, in terms of History it is a relatively short span amount of time. In other words, Napoleon, who might have come to the United States (New Orleans) after his exile, is not very far away from modern times.

Napoleon Bonaparte, born in Corsica which had just switched allegiance from Italy to France, was born in 1769. In 1821 when he died on May 5 he was 51 years old. The former French emperor died far away from Europe on the island of Saint Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. Napoleon had been exiled there following his defeat at Waterloo in Belgium in 1815 and escape from Elba in the Mediterranean, the British Government’s first location for his confinement.

Between the continents of Africa and South America, St. Helena is much more remote. The island built its first airport only in 2011.

Napoleon lived on St. Helena for about 6 years and died there, somewhat unexpectedly, at Longwood House. Napoleon’s permanent residence was completed for him in December 1815.

Napoleon was buried on St. Helena. In 1840, stirring old wounds of controversy, the remains of the warring General and French despot were transferred to Paris. Napoleon’s tomb in Les Invalides had been a military hospital whose construction was by Louis XIV (1638-1715).

His death mask became one of the most famous relics associated with any historical figure.

Napoleon’s plaster death mask, known as the Malmaison mask, May 1821. The death mask was made on Saint Helena about two days after the former French Emperor’s death there on May 5, 1821 at Longwood House. see – http://www.lautresaintehelene.com/autre-sainte-helene-articles-malmaison2.html – retrieved May 5, 2021.

On St. Helena, Longwood House was Napoeleon’s permanent residence completed for him by his British captors in December 1815. In 1858, French emperor Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon I, purchased Longwood House and various other lands associated with Napoleon I on St. Helena for the French government. Though Napoleon’s remains were returned to France in 1840, Napoleon III’s purchase on St. Helena remains the property of France. It is administered by a French representative under the authority of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (see – https://fondationnapoleon.org/en/activities-and-services/preserving-heritage/operation-st-helena/ – retrieved May 5, 2021). PHOTO: “Longwood House (c) St Helena Tourism” by sthelenatourism is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

His military victories reshaped Europe and spread many principles of the French Revolution across the continent. The Napoleonic Code became one of his most enduring legacies, influencing legal systems worldwide.

Napoléon at Battle of Wagram, July 5-6, 1809, Joseph Chabord (Chambèry 1786-Paris 1848), 293 cm (115.3 in) x 224 cm (88.1 in), Museo Napoleónico, Rome, Italy. On July 5-6, 1809, the Battle of Wagram took place north of Vienna and was the greatest battle in world history up to that time. It was Napoleon’s last and greatest victory. The battle opposed the Austrian army led by Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen (1771-1847) against the Franco-Italo-German army under Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine. The painting depicts the plain of Wagram, the scene of the battle with the dominant figure of Napoleon, perfectly settled upon a wild-eyed horse. The emperor wears the uniform of Colonel of the Chasseurs on Horseback with the insignia of the Legion of Honor and the Iron Crown. The grandeur of the rider-horse group, which contrasts with the small figures of the soldiers in the background, accentuates the heroic character of Napoleon, a charismatic strategist who dominates events. The commemoration painting probably was linked to an official commission. The painting was in the collection of Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837), the daughter of Napoleon’s first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. in Arenenberg, where the former Queen of Holland lived from 1817 until her death. It remained there until 1905, when the last owner of the castle, the former Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, donated it to Count Giuseppe Primoli. Public Domain. See – https://www.museonapoleonico.it/it/percorsi/percorsi_per_sale/sale_i_e_ii_il_primo_impero/napoleone_sul_campo_di_battaglia_di_wagra

THE YEAR 1812: A BAD ECONOMY, CONTINENTAL BLOCKADES, AND A DISASTROUS INVASION OF RUSSIA BY NAPOLEON

During the War of 1812 which had ramifications for the U.S., world domination by Napoleon was being attempted within a sagging, uncooperative economy in Europe.

France had 300,000 French troops and a rafter of French generals occupying Spain to keep the blockaded British from invading. Napoleon, in a near constant state of war since 1793, had created an Empire whose subjected parts didn’t cooperate. In 1812, Napoleon had to choose between losing his blockade in Spain or in Russia.

Since the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 which followed the Battle of Friedland where Napoleon defeated the Russian army, Russia continued to transact business with England. This was a violation of the agreement and the pretext for Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812.

While over 1,500 miles away from Paris, Napoleon wanted to shut down Russia’s economy and take full control. For Russia, Napoleon’s invasion required the defense of their homeland.

NAPOLEON’S NEW WAR NEEDED 700,000 FRESH CONSCRIPTS

Napoleon needed fresh conscripts but a third of Napoleon’s French draftees didn’t report for duty. Many of Napoleon’s generals advised the dictator to stay in Paris and enjoy life’s spoils. Napoleon refused. He explained that he would not rest until he fulfilled the dream to form a United States of Europe.2

Napoleon assembled 700,000 men with the monumental task to pay for it. For years the Emperor had been stockpiling supplies along the route to Russia and even arranged for their delivery on the battlefield.

Napoleon left St. Cloud for Moscow in June 1812. His high stakes gamble would affect not just Napoleon’s fortunes but the Empire’s inhabitants.

The disastrous Russian campaign of 1812 marked a turning point in his fortunes.

Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), Campaign of France, 1814, 1864. Oil on wood, 51.5 x 76.5 cm, Paris, Musée d’Orsay.

This was the artist’s first painting produced in a cycle of Napoleon’s conquests. Though the episode Meissonier depicts was painted for the fiftieth anniversary of Napoleon’s invasion of France from Elba in 1814, it captures the overall desolation that surrounded the former French Emperor by the time of his invasion of Russia in 1812.

The series made by the 49-year-old artist, an admirer of seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch small-format painting, not only captures the desolate landscape the Grande Armée endured, it also shows a solitary, unusually unkempt, and tenuous figure of Napoleon who is leading the General Staff and troops in an over-extended military campaign that spelled defeat.

For the painting, the artist’s imagination was informed by historical documentation and interviews of surviving eyewitnesses, including the detail of the emperor’s grey coat. Its realist style was a prevailing aspect of mid-19th century artistic taste during the Second Empire headed by Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870.

(see –https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/campaign-of-france-1814-8947.html?tx_commentaire_pi1%5BpidLi%5D=509&tx_commentaire_pi1%5Bfrom%5D=841&cHash=41368ad16b#:~:text=Campagne%20de%20France%2C%201814%20%5BCampaign,demonstrates%20his%20nimble%2C%20polished%20style. – retrieved May 5, 2021.

FAILURE OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN AND “THE ENEMY OF LIBERTY”

The army marched 1,200 miles to Lithuania to engage the Russian army. But the Russians had retreated. Napoleon’s men had to march another 550 miles to Moscow. The generous supply lines got snarled. French troops turned sick and exhausted.

In the Battle of Smolensk, the French invaders—viewed by some to be fighting for a united liberal Europe over small state autocrats—set that town on fire. Napoleon’s criminal reputation preceded him – he murdered without mercy and often by treachery. Royalists criticized him but also articulate liberals like Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) and François-René de Chateaubriand (1768-1848). The emperor was the enemy of liberty. Chateaubriand wrote: “Les Français vont indistinctement au pouvoir, ils n’aiment pas la liberté, l’égalité est leur idole. Or l’égalité et le despotisme ont des liaisons secrètes” (“The French go to power indiscriminately, they don’t like liberty, equality is their idol. But equality and despotism have secret links”).

Portrait of Chateaubriand by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, 1809, the Musée d’Histoire de la Ville et du Pays Malouin in Saint-Malo, France. Of Napoleon Chateaubriand wrote: “Les Français vont indistinctement au pouvoir, ils n’aiment pas la liberté, l’égalité est leur idole. Or l’égalité et le despotisme ont des liaisons secrètes” (“The French go to power indiscriminately, they don’t like liberty, equality is their idol. But equality and despotism have secret links”).

The Sly Old Fox of the North

With casualties for the Battle of Smolensk around 15,000 for both sides, the Czar appointed Mikhail Kutuzov (1745-1813) as commander of Russian forces. Napoleon called Kutuzov, “The sly old fox of the north“ (cited in Roger Parkinson, The Fox of the North, 1976). At 67 years old, Kutuzov was lazy and lecherous, but knew how to fight—and, regarding Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, how to retreat strategically. It made Napoleon’s thirst for further battle on his own terms impossible.

Portrait of Mikhail Kutuzov, 1829, George Dawe (1781–1829). Oil on canvas, State Hermitage Museum, Winter Palace War Gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia.

70 MILES WEST OF MOSCOW, THE BATTLE OF BORODINO PITS 242,000 TOTAL COMBATANTS WITH OVER 1,000 BIG GUNS ON SEPTEMBER 7, 1812

In his address to troops before the Battle of Borodino General Kutuzov told his men: “Napoleon is a torrent we are yet unable to stem. Moscow will be the sponge that sucks him dry.”3 Napoleon knew what he was up against. Without supplies, Napoleon ordered his men to keep marching: “Motion alone keeps this army together.”4

The march from Smolensk to Moscow took 3 weeks. Many soldiers of the Grande Armée died on the march. Kutuzov set up a defensive position in Borodino, about 70 miles west of Moscow. On Sept. 7, 1812, French forces engaged the Russians. Both sides were evenly matched – Napoleon had 587 guns and 130,000 troops and the Russians had 640 guns and 112,000 troops.

Hanging over the battlefield was the feeling that the destiny of Europe lay in the balance. The battle’s outcome was a draw. The French were masters of the field as the Russians retreated. It was another day for war’s slaughter— combined French and Russian losses was 80,000 soldiers.

Battle of Moscow (or Borodino), the Capture of the Great Redoubt. Engraving by unknown artist, 1820’s. State Borodino Military Historical Museum, Russia.

Battle of Moscow (or Battle of Borodino) in 1812. Attack of the Lithuanian Life Guards Regiment, oil on canvas, 1912, Nikolay Semyonovich Samokish (1860-1944). State Borodino Military Historical Museum, Russia.

General Uvarov at Borodino, Auguste-Joseph Desarnod (1788-1840), State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

In the War of 1812 Fedor Petrovich Uvarov (1769 -1824) commanded the 1st Cavalry Corps and then the Cavalry of the 1st and 2nd Russian Armies. With the Cossacks of Matvei Platov (1753-1818), Uvarov distinguished himself in the Battle of Borodino when he turned the left flank of the French army and made a raid to its rear. The Russian attack of the main French forces delayed Napoleon’s battle plans for two crucial hours.

WHEN LEJEUNE’S BATTLE-PICTURES WERE SHOWN IN LONDON, EAGER CROWDS CAME TO SEE THEM FOR THEIR REALISTIC, DETAILED DEPICTIONS OF SIGNIFICANT CONTEMPORARY EVENTS.

Battle of Borodino, 7th September 1812, 1822, Louis-François Lejeune (1775-1848).

In the French invasion of Russia in 1812, Lejeune was made général de brigade and chief of staff to Davout (1770-1823). During the retreat, Lejeune was frostbitten on the face and left his post where he was subsequently arrested on Napoleon’s orders.

During his military service, Lejeune produced a series of important battle-pictures based on his experiences. They were generally executed from sketches and studies made on the battlefield. Known for their lofty perspective which, according to Chase Maenius in The Art of War[s], “offer[ed] a panoramic view of the totality of the battle’s events,” the Battle of Borodino… of 1822 is considered his masterwork.

In his Memoirs of Baron Lejeune, aide-de-camp to marshals Berthier, Davout, and Oudinot (translation, 1897), Lejeune related one of the many wretched scenes that the Napoleonic Wars produced. He wrote: “As we were pushing on the next day, we came upon two poor creatures at a turn in the road whose condition tore our hearts. They were a handsome well-built man of about forty and a woman of about thirty, also with a fine figure, both stark naked. They approached us and said to us in very good French, ‘Our home has been sacked by Cossacks, who stripped us of everything and left us as you see us. For pity’s sake help us.’ We could do nothing for them but give them a little food, and we felt very wretched as we turned away. The next day at a bivouac some distance off a fresh irresistible demand was made upon our pity, and our stock of provisions was so much reduced that I don’t know what we should have done but that some German peasants brought us a few sheep, with which we replenished our larder.” p. 158, https://archive.org/details/memoirsbaronlej01maurgoog/page/n170/mode/2up
—retrieved May 5, 2021.)

The bodies of dead soldiers of Napoleon’s Grand Armée left on the bridge over the River Kolocha after the Battle of Borodino, 1812.  Christian Wilhelm von Faber du Faur (1780-1857), published 1830’s.

Gen. Kutuzov at the conference of Fili deciding to surrender Moscow to Napoleon, Aleksey Kivshenko (1851–1895), 1880, oil on canvas, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Following the Battle of Borodino on September 7, 1812, the Russian army retreated towards Moscow and camped near Fili. A military council led by General Kutuzov assembled in a hut in Fili where, despite objections from younger generals, Kutuzov insisted on his plan to abandon Moscow.

The action not only saved the remains of the Russian army but worked to stymie and ultimately defeat Napoleon’s invasion drive. The personalities in the painting include Prince Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly (1761-1818), who was replaced by Kutuzov on order of the Czar and sits in the corner below the Virgin Mary and Child Jesus icon. Fyodor Uvarov sits near Barclay holding a paper. Nikolay Raevsky (1771-1829) sits by the window with his fingers locked together. Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov  (1777-1861) stands on the far right. The much younger Yermolov resented old general Kutuzov’s plan and demanded to fight the enemy.

Napoleon and about 100,000 French troops reached Moscow on September 8, 1812, Napoleon found only Russia’s poor and displaced. Moscow was Russia’s largest city, its capital, and its Holy City—and French troops of the Enlightenment set it ablaze. The fires burned for 4 days as Napoleon’s army looted it.

Napoleon wrote a letter of apology and condolence to the Czar, Alexander I Pavlovich, the Blessed (1777-1825). One result was that Tthe Russians resolved never to surrender to their would-be conqueror. Only some of the wealthy in Russia looked to negotiate with Napoleon mainly out of fear of losing their assets, that is, the serfs. Napoleon surmised, “I beat the Russians every time—but that does not get me anywhere.”5 Old general Kutuzov’s inaction attained his objective to defend Russia whereas 43-year-old Napoleon failed to rally his men for his Empire these many hundreds of miles from home.

In Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, after trudging with his conscripts through most of Europe, the French Emperor (Joaquin Phoenix) reaches Moscow in Russia. Itching for a fight, the Holy City is, instead, deserted. Disappointed and mocked, Moscow is looted and set ablaze by Napoleon’s men before they retreat.

Posthumous Portrait of Czar Alexander I of Russia, 1826, George Dawe, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.

Napoleon’s interest became retreat. There was an intended coup d’état in Paris that Napoleon had to raise more fresh recruits to crush. Other parts of the Empire also raised their head following Napoleon’s inglorious retreat. But it grew worse to become one of world history’s worst defeats.

Weather in Russia turned to snow and ice. The Russians retreated into Mother Russia before they were defeated. The French retreated to the west in defeat. Reports of cannibalism among Napoleon’s army is recorded. Turning back to Paris, the French army lost another half of their men. All of Napoleon’s supply lines had been sacked. Adding further injury, the French were chased out of Russia by Kutuzov’s 80,000 troops.

Famous tell-all graph by French civil engineer Charles Joseph Minard (1781-1870) showing the size of Napoleon’s Grande Armée as it marched towards Moscow (top gray line, left to right) in summer of 1812 and its retreat (bottom black line, from right to left) in the late fall of 1812. Frozen temperatures during the humiliating retreat are plotted on the bottom graph.

On the retreat, surviving warriors fought among themselves over any existing supplies. Napoleon’s retreat included the humiliation of being chased out of Russia by Kutuzov’s redeployed 80,000 troops. The old man’s hot pursuit did not allow Napoleon, the once young Enlightenment military figure, to rest.

Under military surgeon Baron Dominique Jean Larrey (1766-1842), the Grand Army’s medical and sanitary measures were the finest in the world but the retreat route offered no food and no medical care. As a remedy for possible future ills, including his capture, Napoleon convinced his doctor to give him a vial of poison which the dictator could ingest if conditions deteriorated to become inescapably dire.

Portrait of Dominique-Jean Larrey, oil on canvas, 1804, Marie-Guillemine Benoist (1768-1826), Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, France.

Baron Dominique Jean Larrey was a French surgeon and military doctor who distinguished himself during the near endless wars of the French Revolution and under Napoleon. Baron Larrey served as the Grand Army’s medical and sanitation leader and was an important innovator in triage who is considered the first modern military doctor and surgeon.

Napoleon: Retreat, 1812. /Ncrossing The Beresina River In Russia During The Retreat Of The Grand Army Under Napoleon Bonaparte, December 1812; Baggage Carts And Ambulances Have Been Abandoned In The Foreground. Watercolor, c. 1812, attributed to General François Louis Fournier-Sarlovèze (1773-1827). During the Russian Campaign, Fournier commanded a brigade of light cavalry composed of French, German, and Central European horsemen, and led a noted cavalry charge at the Battle of Smolensk.

Generals Kutuzov and Wittgenstein attacked at a bridge crossing in what today is Belarus. Hundreds of Frenchmen drowned. To slow the attack, Napoleon ordered the bridges destroyed. In the process the general stranded hundreds of his troops to enemy gunfire.

Napoleon now told his aide-de-camp, Armand-Augustin-Louis de Caulaincourt, what the Russian campaign taught him: “I can hold my grip on Europe only from the Tuileries.” In Warsaw, Napoleon met Abbé de Pradt, his ambassador, and told him: “From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step.”6

As Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with its famous climax using cannon fire, ringing chimes and brass fanfare, commemorates a Russian defensive victory, French losses were staggering. Of Napoleon’s 700,000 men led into Russia, only 30,000 survived. Only 1,000 soldiers returned to active duty.7

NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA, HIS FORCES LOSE THE PENINSULAR WAR IN SPAIN; THE FOLLOWING YEAR, IN 1813, NAPOLEON LOSES THE BATTLE OF LIEPZIG, THE LARGEST LAND BATTLE UNTIL WORLD WAR I.

Simultaneous with the debacle of Napoleon’s Russian invasion, French forces lost the long fight (since 1808) in Spain and Portugal to keep the British off the Continent.

Significant losses in the east and west of the Empire were followed in 1813 by the Battle of Leipzig, Napoleon’s penultimate defeat by an international coalition that included Austria, Prussia, Russia and Sweden.

DEFEATED, FORCED TO ABDICATE AND EXILED TO ELBA IN 1814, HE BRIEFLY RETURNED TO POWER DURING THE AUDACIOUS HUNDRED DAYS IN 1815. NAPAOLEON MET HIS WATERLOO ON JUNE 18, 1815.

After Napoleon withdrew into France, in March 1814 these allied forces captured Paris. By early April 1814 Napoleon was forced to abdicate as Emperor. Napoleon had to go for his pursuit of glory had become a menace to his country and the world.

With the Treaty of Fontainebleau, Napoleon was exiled to Elba, and, following his brief escape into France in 1814, he was defeated for the final time at the Battle of Waterloo and exiled to St. Helena which held him until his death at 51 years old on May 5, 1821.

Waterloo Battlefield taken from Lion’s Mound, July 1984. Author’s photograph. All Rights Reserved.

Center of Wellington’s Line

This vantage point looks straight down the Allied‑Coalition center under the Duke of Wellington, facing south toward Napoleon’s army. The road cutting through the field is the Chaussée de Charleroi (today’s Route N5), the main axis of Napoleon’s plan to drive north, seize Brussels, and split the Allied and Prussian forces.

La Haye Sainte: The Breakwater

The white, walled farm complex beside the road is La Haye Sainte, held on June 18 by the King’s German Legion (expatriated Hanoverians). This fortified farmhouse became the immovable center of Wellington’s line, blocking the French advance up the main road for most of the day.

D’Erlon’s Assault and the Heavy Cavalry Counter‑Charge

The east field (left) was the killing ground for Count d’Erlon’s I Corps early that afternoon. Across this slope, British heavy cavalry—including the Scots Greys—launched their legendary, chaotic counter‑charge, smashing d’Erlon’s infantry columns before overextending and being cut down in turn.

Ney’s Mass Cavalry Attacks

The rising west field (right) hosted Marshal Ney’s massive cavalry charges. Wellington’s infantry met them in a checkerboard of roughly 20 defensive squares, each holding 500–1,000 men. The French horsemen funneled through narrow gaps, unable to break the squares and instead becoming trapped, jumbled, and exposed to disciplined musket fire. It was like as Agincourt all over again.

Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, c. 1815–1816, Apsley House, Apsley House, London. Public Domain.

The creation of the Lion’s Mound between 1820 and 1826 permanently reshaped the original 1815 battlefield. King William I of the Netherlands ordered the monument to mark the exact spot where his son, the Prince of Orange, was wounded. To build the 141‑foot conical hill, engineers with 2,000 workers moved an enormous volume of earth—roughly 300,000 to 400,000 cubic meters—an amount equal to over 40,000 standard dump truck loads packed back-to-back—by scraping and excavating the battlefield itself rather than importing soil. In doing so, they erased key contours, slopes, and defensive features that had defined Wellington’s position during the Battle of Waterloo. The alteration was so drastic that when Wellington returned in 1827, he reportedly reacted with fury, declaring, “They have altered my field of battle!”

Exiled to the remote South Atlantic island of Saint Helena, he spent his remaining years dictating memoirs and reflecting on his career. Napoleon died on May 5, 1821, at age 51. Two centuries after his death, historians continue to debate whether he was a liberator, dictator, military genius, or all three.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, Jacques-Louis David, 1801, oil on canvas, 102 1⁄3 × 87 in., Château du Malmaison.

NOTES:

  1. “Napoleon Bonaparte,” HISTORY, last modified April 28, 2026, https://www.history.com/topics/france/napoleon.
  2. Will Durant and Ariel Durant, The Age of Napoleon (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1975), 698.
  3. Trevor Royle, ed., A Dictionary of Military Quotations (London: Routledge, 1989), sec. 105, quote 13.
  4. “Napoleon’s Maxims,” Military-Info, accessed May 5, 2021, http://www.military-info.com/freebies/maximsn.htm.
  5. “The Napoleon Legend—A New Look; How can we know the man whose transformation into a myth began long before his death?; Napoleonic Legend,” New York Times, April 5, 1964, https://www.nytimes.com/1964/04/05/archives/the-napoleon-legenda-new-look-how-can-we-know-the-man-whose.html.
  6. John Bartlett, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 13th ed. (Boston: Little, Brown, 1955), 199.
  7. Stephan Talty, “What Blown Tire? How Typhus, Transmitted by Lice, Wiped Out Napoleon’s Grand Armée,” Slate, December 21, 2012, https://slate.com/technology/2012/12/napoleon-march-to-russia-in-1812-typhus-spread-by-lice-was-more-powerful-than-tchaikovskys-cannonfire.html.




The Kennedy Model: Avoiding War in an Age of Nuclear Threats.

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FEATURE image: Hawker-Siddeley Blue Steel was started privately in 1954. A contract was placed in 1956 for a stand-off missile to carry a thermonuclear device with a 1 megaton yield by the British Ministry of Supply. Blue Steel was powered by two Armstrong Siddeley Motors that were ignited on launch and enabled the missile to fly at supersonic speed. The missile was constructed of stainless steel with surfaces manufactured of titanium steel. Blue Steel first entered service in 1962 and remained as Britain’s nuclear deterrent until 1970. see- https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/collections/hawker-siddeley-blue-steel/ PHOTO: “Hawker Siddeley Blue Steel” by hugh llewelyn is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

While the North Korea nuclear confrontation of 2017 differed significantly from the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the successful lesson from John F. Kennedy’s leadership was the necessity of restraint, patience, diplomacy, and moral responsibility in avoiding catastrophic war. President Trump should emulate Kennedy’s ability to combine military strength with a commitment to peaceful resolution rather than provoke or initiate conflict.

By John P. Walsh, August 9, 2017

In addition to Twitter, the media tells us that U.S. President Donald J. Trump loves to watch a lot of TV. Has he seen the film: Virtual JFK (2008)?

“Does it matter,” the film’s narrator states, “who is president on issues of war and peace? Can a president make a decisive difference in matters of war and peace? Can a president decisively lead his country into war or keep his country out of war? Or are the forces that drive nations into conflict far more impersonal (and) out of the control of any human being, even a president?”

Nuclear crises remain among the greatest dangers facing humanity because several nations possess nuclear weapons, including North Korea.

Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy. Similar to JFK in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Trump in 2017 must use the military and moral strength of the U.S. to seek and find a conclusion so that North Korea changes course on their nuclear weapons peacefully. Fair use.

Nine nations stockpile around 16,300 nuclear weapons. The U.S. possesses less than half of them.

In 2014 nine nations around the world—including North Korea—have around 16,300 nuclear weapons. Estimates are that North Korea’s arsenal today may be about 20 warheads or higher. In descending order of warhead amounts, the other nuclear states are Russia (8,000 warheads), the U.S.A. (7,300), France (300), China (250), the UK (225), India and Pakistan (about 100 each) and Israel (80).

According to the National Security Archive, the last tactical nuclear weapons left Cuba in December 1962. For a rogue state such as North Korea to possess nuclear weapons is dangerous and unpredictable to the region and world.

Kennedy prepared for war but consistently avoided taking actions that would trigger either conventional or nuclear conflict.

Like JFK in the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the U.S. must use its military and moral strength to seek and find a conclusion so that North Korea changes course on their nuclear weapons peacefully. Exactly what that change should look like is an important debate not explored here, but the U.S. must not or never start or provoke a nuclear war to achieve it.

Kennedy prepared for nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but always carefully stayed away from pulling the trigger. There can be no close analogy between Cuba, 90 miles off American shores, in 1962 and North Korea, over 6,000 miles away, in 2017.

The Cold War by the early 1960’s had become a well-worn competitive geopolitical game that hadn’t completely played itself out. The Russians built a wall in Berlin in 1961; Kennedy quarantined Cuba in 1962. In the Cuban Missile Crisis, the missiles were clearly Russian nukes. In 2017 what sources can Trump hold accountable for the North Korean weapons deployment in addition to the rogue regime? China? Russia? Iran? If Pyongyang is as remote and obscure today as the Kremlin was in Kennedy’s time, today’s political and military equations appear to be more tangled and complicated.

Kennedy’s example demonstrates that strength can be expressed through successful conflict avoidance, not merely through military action.

JFK: “It will be worse before it gets better.”

Any calculations for war must include those who may or will get killed – and how many. Is American “hyper” power any good if its allies are casualties on a massive scale? No nuclear exchange must result with a hermit kingdom dictator who is not a friend of the U.S. or its allies in the region – especially if war may incalculably spread.

If the U.S. has allies in the true meaning of the word then an attack on them by North Korea (or China or Russia) is equal to an attack on the homeland – otherwise what’s the point of the U.S. having allies at all? The U.S. must protect its allies in the region to the highest degree so to defend and preserve its esteemed alliances. In this ongoing dangerous politico-military standoff there are ramifications with severe strong risk for the U.S. as a global superpower and markedly in East Asia. North Korea must somehow stand down for there to be success from the perspective of the U.S and its allies.

Effective leadership in a nuclear crisis depends on cool-headed judgment, patience, and a careful balance of “carrot and stick” diplomacy.

Similar to the Cuban Missile Crisis that endured for 13 straight days—the Korean crisis has gone on arguably for over 60 years — patience and cool-headed leadership joined to a calibration of carrot and stick (preferring the carrot) should serve as worthwhile qualities so to craft a necessarily peaceful and successful outcome.

“Because of the ingenuity of science and man’s own inability to control his relations one with another,” said JFK in 1961 in Virtual JFK, “we happen to live in the most dangerous time in the history of the human race.” The film states that experienced military advisers believed that whenever Americans committed military force – they won the conflict.

Kennedy avoided war –and was almost impeached for it.

But as frequent and strong pressure by many advisers is put on Kennedy to commit the U.S. to a war, the president time and again chose to avoid both conventional and nuclear war. 

It may not be well remembered today but after the failure of the Bay of Pigs in 1961, there was talk of John Kennedy’s impeachment for incompetence. Many in his own Democratic party wouldn’t support him because they had convinced themselves he wasn’t a serious political leader.

JFK: “The United States as the world knows will never start a war.”

North Korea’s nuclear ambitions presented a challenge requiring both deterrence and diplomacy rather than reckless escalation. The United States has an obligation to protect its allies while preventing a wider regional or global catastrophe.

In 2017 the defeat of 33-year-old Kim Jong-un’s nuclear threat short of war will not be simply a victory for the status quo but a step forward in terms of American leadership in that part of the world.

An actual war –even if nonnuclear and limited which is improbable -– cannot be in any civilized people’s self-interest. Certainly if Kim started a nuclear war, which is very remote but possible, war would come. As Trump stated plainly, on August 8, 2017, the U.S. response would be with “fire and fury.”

In October 1962 Kennedy’s speech to the nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis included his own “fiery” rhetoric:

“Third: It shall be the policy of this nation to regard any nuclear missile launched from Cuba against any nation in the Western Hemisphere as an attack on the United States, requiring a full retaliatory response upon the Soviet Union.”

JFK concluded with the overall purpose of his actions: “Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right – not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.”

Trump should aspire to Kennedy’s commitment to peace and responsible statesmanship in the nuclear age.

President Trump issues a stern warning to North Korea after the latest missile news, saying the nation “best not make any more threats to the United States.”

In 2017 we may look for a resolution to the North Korea crisis where history repeats itself.

All through the Cold War Kennedy looked into the face of strategic MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) without blinking and then chose to evoke the better angels of our nature. At the United Nations in his first year as president (September 25, 1961) Kennedy exhorted the world’s representatives: “Together we shall save our planet – or together we shall perish in its flames. Save it we can.  Save it we must. Then shall we earn the eternal thanks of mankind and, as peacemakers, the eternal blessing of God.”

President Trump would do well to aspire to the same.

NOTES:

Nine nuclear nations – http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/nine-nations-have-nuclear-weapons-here-is-how-many-each-country-has-a6827916.html

about 20 warheads – http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/791436/north-korea-nuclear-weapons-kim-jong-un-how-many

Last Cuba warheads removed – http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB449/

Iran and North Korea – http://thediplomat.com/2016/04/the-iran-north-korea-connection/

fire and fury – https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/world/asia/north-korea-trump-threat-fire-and-fury.html?_r=0

United Nations speech – https://www.jfklibrary.org/Research/Research-Aids/JFK-Speeches/United-Nations_19610925.aspx