Talk:Louis-Nicolas Davout

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Contents 1 Davout at Krasnoe 2 A rapacious marshal? 3 Added a personal life section 4 Undefeated in Battle 5 In fiction?

[edit] Davout at Krasnoe

An unregistered contributor wrote the following: "At Krasnoe on 17 November Davout was held to have deserted Ney and smudged his reputation as a leader in battle.". I did not find any serious reference of this on the Internet and in fact found many elements which contradict this assertion. For instance:

"The Russian army had outflanked the French and barred passage at Krasnoi. Napoleon called upon Davout and the Young Guard to hold a line that drove off Kutuzov's 50,000 troops. Marshall Ney's corps, reduced to 9,000 men, formed the rear-guard. In the desperate attempt to fend off the Russians, his troops were decimated to only 800 men. In one month of fighting, the Russians had captured 90,000 men and 500 cannons." (http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~jrubarth/gslis/lis385t.16/Napoleon/Krasnoi.html)

Rdavout 12:11, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A rapacious marshal?

I removed a reference to Davout's "rapacity", given that this aspect of Davout's reputation comes from his brutal attack on Moscow, and is only held up by Tolstoy. It is widely known that Davout enforced the death penalty against individual acts of pillaging and that his army was therefore the less rapacious of all the Grande Armée.

Rdavout 12:11, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Added a personal life section

I've added a section on Davout's personal life and relationships with other people, based on Gallaher's biography. 153.19.101.200 20:30, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Undefeated in Battle

Is the stement that Davout finished his military career undefeated in battle really correct? His 1st Corps were bitten by Russians under Miloradovich in Vyazma, one of most important battles of the Russian Campaign. 201.82.79.8 (talk) 13:52, 27 December 2007 (UTC)

--Davout was also defeated at Issy, during the defence of Paris, by Blucher, as is stated on the Issy and Battle of Waterloo pages. I think the 'undefeated' reference really should be removed. (Summitscribbler, 14:52, 29th February 2008

[edit] In fiction?

Appears in the 2nd volume of War and Peace... said to be cruel mabye something could be put in? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.147.91.168 (talk) 14:13, 13 April 2008 (UTC)