that evening made a great impression on Napoleon's romantic soul. The
French began to enter Toulon next day.
Toulon was a great triumph for Napoleon's nascent military genius,
but it was marred by wholesale massacre once the French armies got
inside the city. The surrender of Toulon to the British had given the
Committee of Public Safety a terrible fright, and they reacted with the
vengeful reflex common on such occasions. The mass executions began
on 20 December: two hundred officers and men of the naval artillery,
then another two hundred 'collaborators' the next day. A Jacobin official
named Fouche, later to be heard from, put forward a pilot version of
General Franco's infamous twentieth-century credo of redemption
through bloodshed: 'We are shedding much blood, but for humanity and
duty.' Napoleon, anxious that his great moment should not be
besmirched by hecatombs of blood, and anyway unable to do more than
stumble about, largely shut his eyes to what was going on around him.
It was anyway inexpedient to take notice. Dugommier did so, and
was immediately suspected of being an enemy of the people. But
black propaganda linking Napoleon with the Toulon massacres can be
disregarded. Even if Napoleon's later claim that 'only the ringleaders'
were shot is humbug, so too is Sidney Smith's assertion that Bonaparte
personally mowed down the innocent in hundreds.
Toulon was a significant milestone in Napoleon's career and he always
looked back on it with romantic nostalgia. Anyone who was with him at
Toulon could, in later years, be certain of promotions and rewards, even
the useless Carteaux. It is interesting to note that he had already met
many of the people who would loom large in the consular and imperial
periods: Desaix, Duroc, Junot, Marmont, Victor, Suchet. Napoleon had
now made his reputation among elite circles, even if he was still a long
way from being a household name. The political commissars hastened to
promote him to brigadier-general on 22 December, and this was ratified
by the Committee of Public Safety on 16 February 1794. Du Teil
reported to the Ministry of War: 'I lack words to convey Bonaparte's
merit to you; much knowledge, equal intelligence and too much bravery;
that is but a feeble sketch of this rare officer's virtues.' Yet Toulon was
no guarantee of a glittering future for Napoleon. The political situation
was still too uncertain, and too many revolutionary generals had been
sacked , shot or guillotined to make Toulon the inevitable prelude to his
nse.
After recovering from his wounds, Napoleon was in Marseilles until the
end of the year and was then given command of the artillery arm of the