Vandamme had a long history of confrontation and contentiousness. His scuffles with peers and superiors were legendary, causing Napoleon's humorous remark that "if there were two Vandamme's, one would end up hanging the other."

Perhaps Vandamme's other most famous controversy came during the Autumn 1813 campaign, right after Napoleon's victory at Dresden. Aggressively pursuing to cut off the Allies' retreat, Vandamme became involved in a stiff engagement at Kulm. Here he faced Osterman-Tolstoy's Russian Corps as well as the Russian Guard under the Tsar's brother Constantine. Just as it appeared that Vandamme's holding action would enable the French pursuit to inflict a decisive and potentially war-ending blow, Kleist's Prussian Corps, retreating out of desperation overland across the mountains, blindly stumbled upon Vandamme's rear. It was perhaps the unluckiest turn of the war for France.

Trying to cut his way out of the trap, Vandamme was taken prisoner in the disaster. True to form, he proceeded immediately to insult his captors. Brought before Grand Duke Constantine and the Tsar, he refused to tender his sword. The Tsar said he didn't want the sword of a "murderer, thief, and brigand" anyway. Vandamme parried with the equivalent of "it takes one to know one" when he referred to the widely-held belief that Alexander was complicit in his own father's murder in 1801. Needless to say, Vandamme was promptly escorted out.

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Copyright 1995 by Emperor's Press.