There is a reason we recall Napoleon more than two centuries after his death:
Here I am sitting at a comfortable table loaded heavily with books, with one eye on my typewriter and the other on Licorice the cat, who has a great fondness for carbon paper, and I am telling you that the Emperor Napoleon was a most contemptible person. But should I happen to look out of the window, down upon Seventh Avenue, and should the endless procession of trucks and carts come to a sudden halt, and should I hear the sound of the heavy drums and see the little man on his white horse in his old and much-worn green uniform, then I don’t know, but I am afraid that I would leave my books and the kitten and my home and everything else to follow him wherever he cared to lead. My own grandfather did this and Heaven knows he was not born to be a hero. Millions of other people’s grandfathers did it. They received no reward, but they expected none. They cheerfully gave legs and arms and lives to serve this foreigner, who took them a thousand miles away from their homes and marched them into a barrage of Russian or English or Spanish or Italian or Austrian cannon and stared quietly into space while they were rolling in the agony of death.
Hendrik Van Loon, The Story of Man
“I am remembering Europe at the beginning of the (19th) century. Napoleon was a world power. They trembled at the sound of his name from the Danube to the Rhine. In 1809, he was so powerful. We forget the majesty of Napoleon. He dared to kidnap the Pope. Yes, he made the Holy Father prisoner and compelled him to crown himself as Emperor.
In 1809, people were surely thinking that what was important in the world was what was happening in the Emperor’s Palace. No. In 1809, what was happening that was important was the birth of babies. That year, Abraham Lincoln was born. And William Gladstone. And Tennyson. And Mendelssohn. And a host of other people. We have long since forgotten the triumphs of Napoleon, but the world for a long, long time will be remembering the babies who were born in the year 1809.”
Fr. Leo Clifford O.F.M. – “God’s Ways” from Reflections Vol. III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9LF-9wfAyU&t=258s
Also Charles Darwin, born the same day (Feb. 12, 1809) as Abe Lincoln.
Napoleon was, in today’s descriptive, consequential. Much of Europe today reflects his actions. The main valid criticism is that what followed, courtesy of Metternich, Talleyrand, et al, gave us much of the Europe we have today. Not satisfactory, of course, but certainly notable.
De Rothchild bankrolled Wellington after Britain could not.
Napoleon ran out of food. The infantry moves on its stomach. He fed his soldiers sawdust mixed with margarine, beef fat. It is hard to be brave when one is starving.