attracts high praise, despite massive casualties. At Ber-
ezina, also known as the battle of Berezina River (26–29
November 1812), his army saved Napoleon from defeat
by the Russians, prompting Napoleon to say of Ney, “He
is the bravest of the brave.” On 12 March 1813, Ney
received a dispatch from Napoleon: “I am sure that as
soon as you have heard of my arrival in Lyon you will
have ordered your troops to hoist again the tricolor flag.
Follow the orders you receive from Bertrand and come
and join me at Chalon. I shall receive you as I did on the
day after the battle of Moskva [Moscow].”
Ney’s fortunes changed after the Russian debacle:
He defeated his former commander, Jean Moreau, who
had switched sides and was serving as the commander of
the Russian czar Alexander I’s army when he was killed
at the battle of Dresden (27 August 1813). But Ney lost
an important fight against the Swedes commanded by
Prince Charles John, the crown prince, at Dennewitz
(6 September 1813). At Liebertwolkwitz, also known
as Leipzig (14 October 1813), Ney was wounded and
sent back to France to recuperate. In 1814, he was once
again in command; however, the tide had turned against
the French, and he could see that Napoleon was fight-
ing a losing war. When he refused to march into battle,
Napoleon raged, “The army will obey me!” Ney coun-
tered, “Sire, the army will obey its generals.” Realizing
that without Ney he was finished, Napoleon abdicated
the throne of France. Ney was rewarded for his change
of heart: When the Bourbon king Louis XVII retook the
throne, he allowed Ney to keep his titles and his free-
dom.
On 1 March 1815, Napoleon escaped from his im-
prisonment on the island of Elba and returned to France
to lead another crusade against Europe. Ney was sent
to arrest him but then decided to rejoin his old com-
mander. Louis XVII fled Paris, and with Ney at his side,
Napoleon reentered the city. Ney was then shunted aside
for other officers, and he spend much of the next three
months at his county estate. However, on 15 June Napo-
leon summoned Ney and gave him the command of the
French army’s left wing. The French forces met the Brit-
ish and their commander, Arthur Wellesley, the duke of
Wellington, at Waterloo (18 June 1815), where Ney
led several charges on the British squares. Realizing that
the battle was a defeat for the French, he told one of his
men, “If they catch us now, they’ll hang us.”
Returning to his estate, Ney gathered up his be-
longings and tried to escape, but he was recognized in
southwestern France, arrested, and put on trial. Arguing
his innocence, he refused to acknowledge the tribunal
and demanded that he be tried by his peers. Nonethe-
less, he was found guilty and sentenced to death, and
on 7 December 1815 he was taken to the Luxembourg
Gardens and shot by a firing squad.
For years rumors have existed that Ney was
spirited away by persons unknown before his ex-
ecution and allowed to escape to America in 1816.
There he presumably spent the remainder of his
life in North Carolina as a teacher under the name
Peter Stewart Ney. One historian compared papers
signed by Peter Ney to those of Michel Ney and
found the handwriting to be identical. In addition,
Michel Ney was known to have been struck in the
forehead by a sword, leaving a scar, while Peter Ney
combed his hair down low to cover up a scar on his
forehead. Peter Ney died in 1846 and was buried
in the Third Creek Churchyard in Bowan County,
North Carolina. Whether he was Michel Ney is
highly suspect.
Michel Ney’s legacy is ambiguous. He is remem-
bered by historians as a brilliant tactician whose victories
gave France some of its most important triumphs in the
Napoleonic wars. Nonetheless, his downfall came from
his arrogance, which made relations with his fellow mar-
shals and commanders difficult at best.References: Atteridge, A. Hilliard, The Bravest of the Brave
(London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1912); Blythe, Legette,
Marshal Ney: A Dual Life (London: Jarrolds Publishers,
1937); De Ségur, Count Philippe-Paul, Napoleon’s Rus-
sian Campaign (Alexandria, Va.: Time/Life Books, 1980);
Keegan, John, The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt,
Waterloo and the Somme (London, England: Jonathan
Cape Ltd., 1976), 127; Kurtz, Harold, The Trial of Mar-
shal Ney, His Last Years and Death (London: H. Hamilton,
1957); “Marshal Ney in America: Did He Escape Death
and Teach School in North Carolina?,” The World (New
York), 11 May 1884, 10; Smoot, J. Edward, Marshal Ney
Before and After Execution (Charlotte, N.C.: Queen City
Printing Company, 1929). ney, michel, Duc D’elchingen, pRince oF the moSkowA