Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle

  

 General Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle led the Infernal Brigade (the 5th and 7th Hussars) in the 1806 campaign against Prussia. The brigade moved rapidly through enemy territory in search of information and supplies. Lasalle and his 500 hussars arrived at the fortified city of Stettin following the Battle of Jena. A garrison of 5,000 and over 150 cannon guarded the fortress. Lasalle pretended the entire French army was with him and demanded the surrender of the city or 50,000 troops would assault the town. His bluff succeeded, and the city surrendered without resistance. Napoleon wrote that if the light cavalry continued to capture fortified towns, he would have to melt down his artillery and discharge his engineers.

Tactical creativity and audacity marked the hussars, and the daring Lasalle was the perfect commander for this flamboyant cavalry. The general was known for his wit, charm, and personal exploits, including affairs and duels; he remarked that any hussar who wasn't dead by the age of thirty was contemptible. Serving in the army of Italy, he was captured and eventually released. Bonaparte elevated him to the rank of major, rather than court martialing him, after he gathered important intelligence by leading a contingent of hussars inside enemy territory to his lover's house. On the way back, his men were surrounded by 100 Austrian hussars. He escaped by leaping his horse over the bridge wall. He led his men through the enemy, became isolated but escaped, wounding four of the Austrians, losing his horse, and swimming the river to rejoin the rest of his men. At Rivoli, his squadron captured an entire Austrian battalion. 

He went to Egypt with Bonaparte and distinguished himself at the Battle of the Pyramids, thereafter advancing to the rank of colonel. At the Battle of Remedieh, he rescued General Davout as he was about to be cut down by Mamluks, cutting off the hands of one attacker and breaking his sword over the head of the Mamluk leader. He restored order and drove the enemy back. 

At Marengo, he served as on of Napoleon's aides-de-camp. 

On an occasion when Lasalle had gambled away a huge sum of money the emperor had awarded him, instead of punishing the general, Napoleon ordered he be given the amount again to pay for his wedding. Napoleon indicated that a prefect could be created with the stroke of a pen, but that twenty years were required to create a Lasalle.

 During the Battle of Heilsburg in 1807, in command of a cavalry division, Lasalle saw Murat in trouble, surrounded by Russian dragoons. He led a charge to rescue Murat, who returned the favor later during the same battle.

After serving in Spain under Bessieres, now 33 years old, he returned for the 1809 campaign on the Danube. At the Battle of Wagram, he sensed that his death was imminent. He sent a petition to Napoleon asking him to take care of his children after Lasalle's death. He wrote a letter to his wife, telling her that his heart was hers, but his blood belonged to the emperor, and his life to honor. On the night of the second day, he received permission to pursue the enemy. Lasalle became separated from his own division, but led a charge of cuirassiers against Austrian infantry. Although he was shot in the chest, the general continued to charge and the enemy broke and fled. However, as the charge carried on, a second shot hit Lasalle between the eyes, killing him instantly.

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On the writing front, I remain unwounded in spite of my numerous charges against the blank pages of the battlefield. I have completed 25 chapters of the sequel to Accidental Pirates - just 5 more chapters to completion. Adventure, battle, and a final twist await.

 

 

Carthage Conspiracy

 

Check it out. Accidental Pirates is number 1 in Teen and Young Adult Pirate Action & Adventure

 Now that I've got that out of my system, I could ramble about the sequel, which is nearing completion with Chis struggling as a mage-in-training without a trainer, and Kenny, as a youthful knight with the help of some additional enchantment, on a quest that will determine the fate of two kingdoms - and they still have to get back home. These boys know how to press the adventure pedal to the metal.

This is going in the newsletter, but I can't resist adding it here because it goes so well with Accidental Pirates. It's the pirate hymn. You'll have to see the newsletter for the complete story. Here's the pirate version of a hymn that's popular in some congregations with which I've attended:

 I'll never be able to hear the hymn without thinking of pirates now.

 

 

I recently finished reading Carthage Conspiracy by Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill. A few years ago, my son, my dad, and I went to Carthage to view the scene and hear the tale of the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith at the hands of an armed mob bent on murder. The murders only took a few minutes - it makes it easier when the foxes guarding the chicken coop stand aside to let their comrades in to do the deeds.

The title tells it, and the sources support it. The murders were premeditated and had been no brief time in the arranging. The book goes into the trial, including excerpts from opening statements, trial testimony, and closing arguments. It's a solid read from the perspective of a lawyer and judge. The prosecution suffered many handicaps, and even if the case had been flawlessly presented, a hung jury was the most likely outcome - or would've been had the jury been a true cross-section of the community. There was an incredible amount of animosity by many against the Smiths. A newspaper editor amassed the fuel and pointed the way to create the conflagration. Militia leaders and members became the willing torches for the funeral pyre. If I remember correctly, one of the attorneys for the five defendants even argued that the perpetrators hadn't done anything much of the community hadn't wanted done, so that it would be unjust to find them guilty of a crime.

It's good read. I recommend it, giving it 5 out of 5 smashed pocket watches. If you know, you know.

 

 

 

 

Empire of the East

 Empire of the East, by Fred Saberhagen, contains the first three books in the four-book series - which explains why the book is so long. It really did feel like reading three books. In fact, I read two other books, or at least one and a half books, before I finally finished this one. A post-apocalyptic feudal society is the setting where the West struggles against the demon forces of the East. In Book One, The Broken Lands, Rolf loses his family and, while looking for his sister, finds a tank, among other things. Other players include Chup who sets up Rolf to slay another rebel in the arena--who happens to be the boyfriend of the rebel girl he wants to be sweet on; and Charmian, who is a a beauty with a frightening ability to manipulate men. She's Chup's wife, and the daughter of the local headman for the East. Rolf and his allies, with the help of the tank, liberate the fortress. The battle costs Chup the use of his legs and Charmian flees. Against the sorcerers and demons of the East, the forces of the West also have wizards who control demons. More importantly, they have Ardneh. 

I can't quite remember where Books Two and Three, The Black Mountains and Ardneh's World, begin and end. These tell the further adventures of Rolf, Chup, and Charmian. Chup recovers from his injuries through demoniacal magic and is re-recruited to the East, where he finds Charmian and is about to feed her to a demon, but further complications arise, and Chup escapes to the West, while Charmian escapes to manipulate another Eastern leader to serve her own purposes. The story pours out more information about the demons and many are destroyed along the way. There's a massive healing pool in the mountains and a monstrously huge figure, Draffut who was once a dog. Draffut runs the healing pool and fixes up the warriors of the East to continue in battle against the West until Rolf converts him to the cause of the West and he helps defeat the big bad demon du jour for the East. That must be the end of The Black Mountains.

 In Ardneh's World, the story continues on as East and West strive for supremacy. Catherine enters the story in this book. She was one of Charmian's attendants, and the vile beauty has placed a curse on her. She and Rolf race against the armies and flying lizards of the East to get to Ardneh's stronghold. Chup manages to get captured by the East again and his torture and death is the mechanism by which the most powerful of Eastern sorcerers means to release Orcus, the most baddest, dire, and vengeful of all the demons to work the final defeat of the West. All does not go according to plan. The demon escapes; Chup and Charmian survive; the sorcerer does not. Ultimately, the army of the East surrounds Ardneh's stronghold. Rolf and Catherine are commanded to flee with the remains of the army of the West, and Ardneh succumbs to the forces of the East, taking them out with him.

I can't judge the entire series, because I haven't yet read the final book, Ardneh's Sword. Others have praised Saberhagen's seamless meshing of science-fiction and fantasy in this series. I guess I'm not a fan of that particular blend. I think I would've preferred one or the other. I enjoyed the first book more than the other two. It seems that although Ardneh's demise changed the world, magic will remain and technology will also become available. I don't know. I'm speculating, or maybe I read that in a blurb or it was at the end of the third book. Charmian, Rolf, and Chup were the only characters that were at all memorable. The flying reptiles and the intelligent birds provided good allies for the opposing sides. Frankly, I was put off by the entire demon thing; not an itch I ever need scratched. The showdown at the end of book three might be seen as the ultimate confrontation of magic and technology in which they both lose - but also both win? I don't know. We'll see what happens in the final book.

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 Here's a review of Accidental Pirates - the first I've seen.

Writing on the sequel to Accidental Pirates continues. I've started chapter 22 and mapped out in my head the events of the remaining chapters. Naturally, there are some details that won't become clear until the ink meets the page - but that's usually where the awesome tends to happen.