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See also: British soldier and military historian, third son of Colonel See also: George See also: Napier (1751-1804), and See also: brother of See also: Sir See also: Charles
See also: James Napier (see above), was
See also: born at Celbridge, near See also: Dublin, on the 17th of See also: December 1785
.
He became an ensign in the Royal Irish Artillery in 'Soo, but at once exchanged into the 62nd, and was put on See also: half-pay in 1802
.
He was afterwards made a See also: cornet in the Blues by the influence of his See also: uncle the duke of See also: Richmond, and for the first See also: time did actual military duty in this regiment, but he soon See also: fell in with Sir See also: John
See also: Moore's See also: suggestion that he should See also: exchange into the 52nd, which was about to be trained in the famous See also: camp of Snorncliffe
.
Through Sir John Moore he soon obtained a See also: company in the 43rd, joined that regiment at See also: Shorncliffe and became a See also: great favourite with Moore
.
He served in See also: Denmark, and was See also: present at the engagement of Kioge, and, his regiment being shortly afterwards sent to See also: Spain, he See also: bore himself nobly through the retreat to Corunna, the hardships of which permanently impaired his See also: health
.
In 1809 he became
FE8El
aide-de-camp to the duke of Richmond, See also: lord See also: lieutenant of See also: Ireland, but joined the 43rd when that regiment was ordered again to Spain
.
With the See also: light brigade (the 43rd, 52nd, and 95th), under the command of General Craufurd, he marched to Talavera in the famous forced See also: march which he has described in his
See also: History, and had a violent attack of pleurisy on the way
.
He, however, refused to leave Spain, was wounded on the Coa, and shot near the spine at Cazal Nova
.
His conduct was so conspicuous during the pursuit of See also: Massena after he See also: left the lines of Torres Vedras that he as well as his brother George was recommended for a brevet majority
.
He became brigade major, was present at Fuentes d'Onor, but had so See also: bad an attack of ague that he was obliged to return to See also: England
.
In England he married See also: Caroline Amelia See also: Fox, daughter of General See also: Henry Fox and niece of the statesman Fox
.
Three
See also: weeks after his See also: marriage he again started for Spain, and was present at the storming of Badajoz, where his great friend Colonel M`Leod was killed
.
In the See also: absence of the new lieutenant-colonel he took command of the 43rd regiment (he was now a substantive major) and commanded it at the See also: battle of Salamanca
.
After a See also: short stay at home he again joined his regiment at the Pyrenees, and did his greatest military service at the battle of the Nivelle, where, with instinctive military insight, he secured the most strongly fortified See also: part of Soup's position, practically without orders
.
He served with his regiment at the battles of the Nive, where he received two wounds, Orthes, and Toulouse
.
For his services he was made brevet lieutenant-colonel, and one of the first C.B.'s
.
' Like his brother Charles he then entered the military See also: college at See also: Farnham
.
He commanded his regiment in the invasion of See also: France after See also: Waterloo, and remained in France with the army of occupation until 1819, when he retired on half-pay
.
As it was impossible for him to live on a major's half-pay with a wife and See also: family, he determined to become an artist, and took a See also: house in See also: Sloane Street, where he studied with George See also: Jones, the academician
.
. The years he had spent in France he had occupied in improving his general
See also: education, for, incredible as it seems, the author of the History of the War in the Peninsula could not spell or write respectable See also: English till that time
.
But his career was to be great in literature, not in See also: art
.
The tendency appeared in an able review of Jomini's See also: works (See also: Edinburgh Rev.) in 1821, and in 1823 Mr See also: Bickersteth (afterwards Lord Langdale) suggested to him the expediency of writing a history of the See also: Peninsular War
.
For some time he did not take kindly to the suggestion, but at last determined to become an author in See also: order to defend the memory of Sir John Moore, and to prevent the See also: glory of his old chief being overshadowed by that of Wellington
.
The duke of Wellington himself gave him much assistance, and handed over to him the whole of See also: Joseph See also: Bonaparte's See also: correspondence which had been taken at the battle of See also: Vittoria; this was all in cipher, but Mrs Napier, with great See also: patience, discovered the keys
.
Marshal See also: Soult also took an active See also: interest in the See also: work and arranged for the French See also: translation of Mathieu See also: Dumas
.
In 1828 the first See also: volume of the History appeared
.
The publisher, John See also: Murray, indeed, was disappointed in the sale of the first volume and Napier published the
See also: remainder himself
.
But it was at once seen that the great deeds of the Peninsular War were about to be fitly commemorated
.
The excitement which followed the appearance of each volume is proved by the innumerable See also: pamphlets issued by those who believed themselves to be attacked, and by See also: personal altercations with many distinguished See also: officers
.
But the success of the See also: book was proved still more by the absence of competition than by these bitter controversies
.
The histories of See also: Southey and Lord See also: Londonderry fell still-born, and Sir George Murray, Wellington's quartermaster-general, who had determined to See also: pro-duce the history, gave up the attempt in despair
.
This success was due to a combination of qualities which have justly secured for Napier the title of being the greatest military historian England has produced
.
When in 1840 the last volume of the History was published, his fame not only in England but in France and See also: Germany was safely established
.
His See also: life during these years had been chiefly absorbed in his
History, but he had warmly sympathized with the See also: movement i duty), in 1885
.
for See also: political reform which was agitating England
.
The Radicals of See also: Bath and many other cities and towns pressed him to enter parliament, and Napier was actually invited to become the military chief of a See also: national guard to obtain reforms by force of arms
.
He refused the dangerous honour on the ground that he was in bad health and had a family of eightSee also: children
.
In 1830 he had been promoted colonel, and in 1842 he was made a major-general and given the lieutenant-governorship of See also: Guernsey
.
Here he found plenty of occupation in controlling the relations between the soldiers and the inhabitants, and also in working out proposals for a See also: complete scheme of reform in the See also: government of the See also: island
.
While he was at Guernsey his brother Charles had conquered See also: Sind, and the attacks made on the policy of that See also: conquest brought See also: William Napier again into the
See also: field of literature
.
In 1845 he published his History of the Conquest of Scinde, and in 1851 the corresponding History of the Administration of Scindebooks which in
See also: style and vigour rivalled the great History, but which, being written for controversial purposes, were not likely to maintain enduring popularity
.
In 1847 he resigned his governorship, and in 1848 was made a K.C.B., and settled at Scinde House, Clapham See also: Park
.
In 1851 he was promoted lieutenant-general
.
His time was fully occupied in defending his brother, in revising the numerous See also: editions of his History which were being called for, and in writing letters to The Times on every conceivable subject, whether military or See also: literary
.
His energy is the more astonishing when it is remembered that he never recovered from the effects of the wound he had received at Cazal Nova, and that he often had to lie on his back for months together
.
His domestic life was shadowed by the incurable affliction of his only son, and when his brother Charles died in 1853 the See also: world seemed to be darkening round him
.
He devoted himself to writing the life of that brother, which appeared in 1857, and which is in many respects his most characteristic book
.
In the end of 1853 his younger brother, Captain Henry Napier, R.N., died, and in 1855 his brother Sir George (see below)
.
Inspired by his work, he lived on till the See also: year 186o, when, broken by trouble, fatigue and See also: ill-health, he died (See also: February 12) at Clapham
.
Four months earlier he had been promoted to the full See also: rank of general
.
' As a military historian Sir William Napier is incomparably See also: superior to any other English writer, and his true compeers are See also: Thucydides, Caesar and See also: Davila
.
All four had been soldiers in the See also: wars they describe; all four possessed a See also: peculiar insight into the mainsprings of See also: action both in war and See also: peace; and each possessed a peculiar and inimitable style
.
Napier always wrote as if he was burning with an inextinguishable See also: desire to express what he was feeling, which gives his style a peculiar spontaneity, and yet he rewrote the first volume of his History no less than six times
.
His descriptions of sieges and of battles are admirable by themselves, and his analyses of the peculiarly intricate See also: Spanish intrigues are even more remarkable, while the descriptions and analyses are both lit up with flashes of political wisdom and military insight
.
It is to be noted that he displays the spirit of the See also: partisan, even when most impartial, and defends his opinions, even when most undoubtedly true, as if he were arguing some controverted question
.
If his style was modelled on anything, it was on Caesar's commentaries, and a thorough knowledge of the writings of the See also: Roman general will often explain allusions in Napier
.
The portraits of Sir John Moore and Colonel M'Leod, and the last paragraphs descriptive of the storming of Badajoz, may be taken as examples of his great natural eloquence
.
His brother, SIR GEORGE TIIOMAS NAPIER (1784–1855); entered the army in 1800, and served with distinction under Moore and Wellington in the Peninsula—and lost his right arm at the storming of Badajoz
.
He became major-general in 1837, K.C.B. in 1838 and lieutenant-general in 1846
.
He was governor and See also: commander-in-chief at the Cape from 1839 to 1843, during which time the abolition of See also: slavery and the expulsion of the Boers from See also: Natal were the chief events
.
He was offered, but declined, the chief command in See also: India after See also: Chillianwalla, and also that of the Sardinian army in 1849
.
He became full general in 1854
.
He died at See also: Geneva on the 16th of See also: September 1855
.
His auto-biography, Passages in the Early Military Life of General Sir G
.
T
.
Napier, was published by his surviving son, General W
.
C
.
E
.
Napier (the author of an important work on outpost
The youngest brother, HENRY See also: EDWARD NAPIER (1789-1853), served in the See also: navy during the See also: Napoleonic wars, retired as a captain, and wrote a learned Florentine History from the earliest authentic Records to the Accession of See also: Ferdinand III. of
See also: Tuscany
(1846-1847)
.
For Sir William Napier's life, see his Life and Letters, edited by the Right Honourable H
.
A
.
See also: Bruce (Lord See also: Aberdare) (2 vols., 1862)
.
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