r promotion.

Having noticed the ages of the principal generals who commanded in the
armies of Napoleon, let us look for a moment at those who opposed him.
In the campaign of 1796 the enemy's forces were directed by Beaulieu,
then nearly eighty years of age; Wurmser, also an octogenarian, and
Alvinzi, then over seventy: these had all three distinguished themselves
in earlier life, but had now lost that youthful energy and activity so
essential for a military commander.

In the campaign of 1800 the general-in-chief of the Austrian forces was
Melas, an old general, who had served some fifty years in the army; he
had distinguished himself so long ago as the Seven Years' War, but he
had now become timid and inefficient, age having destroyed his energy.

In the campaign of 1805 the French were opposed by Kutusof, then sixty,
and Mack, then fifty-three; the plan of operations was drawn up by still
more aged generals of the Aulic council.

In the campaign of 1806 the French were opposed by the Duke of
Brunswick, then seventy-one, Hohenlohe, then sixty, and Mollendorf,
Kleist, and Massenbach, old generals, who had served under the great
Frederick,--men, says Jomini, "exhumed from the Seven Years'
War,"--"whose faculties were frozen by age,"--"who had been buried for
the last ten years in a lethargic sleep."

In the campaign of 1807 the French were opposed by Kamenski, then eighty
years of age, Benningsen, then sixty, and Buxhowden, then fifty-six. The
Allies now began to profit by their experience, and in 1809 the Austrian
army was led by the young, active, skilful, and energetic Archduke
Charles; and this campaign, although the commander-in-chief was somewhat
fettered by the foolish projects of the old generals of the Aulic
council, and thwarted by the disobedience of his brother, was
nevertheless the most glorious in the Austrian annals of the wars of the
Revolution.

At the opening of the campaign of 1812 the Emperor Alexander, young,
(only thirty-five,) active, intelligent, and ambitious, had remodelled
his army, and infused into it his own energy and enthusiastic love of
glory. He was himself at its head, and directed its operations. Kutusof
was for a short time the nominal commander-in-chief, and exhibited an
activity unusual at his age, but he was surrounded by younger
generals--Barclay-de-Tolley, and Miloradowich, then forty-nine,
Wintzengerode, then forty-three, Schouvalof, then thirty-five, and the
Archduke Con