User:UberCryxic/Favorite Pictures

This monumental piece by Jacques-Louis David has gone on to become one of the greatest war paintings in history. Napoleon crossed the Alps into Italy in 1800 and fell on the exposed Austrian lines of communication, bringing about the hard-fought victory at the Battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800. Naturally, then First Consul Bonaparte asked David to make the moment as epic as possible. At the bottom of the picture, the names of Hannibal and Charlemagne are inscribed on the rocks alongside Napoleon's. The latter is shown riding a majestic Grey Arab stallion, cloaked in blood-red cloth, wearing a revolutionary tricolour cockade, and pointing up to the sky as if in search of Divine Providence. The reality? Napoleon crossed the Alps with a sure-footed mule while wearing a typical greatcoat to protect against the cold.

Polish Lancers of the Imperial Guard on parade. These elite cavalrymen dominated European battlefields from their creation in 1807 until the eventual fall of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. On November 30, 1808, the Lancers went down into immortality at the Battle of Somosierra in Spain. Their heroic charges up the gorge destabilized the Spanish long enough to allow French infantry to complete the victory and advance on Madrid. By July 1813, they had grown to seven squadrons. After Napoleon's first abdication in 1814, some of the troopers accompanied Napoleon to Elba while the rest were disbanded to Poland. Upon Napoleon's return in 1815, the remaining Poles formed within the 2nd Dutch Lancers and fought spectacularly at Waterloo. The British were so impressed that they formed their own lancer units after the Napoleonic Wars.