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Michel Ney (January 10 1769 – December 7
1815) called Le Rougeaud ("the ruddy") and le
Brave des Braves ("the bravest of the brave") was
a Marshal of France|marshal of the France|French
army who fought in the French Revolutionary War
and the Napoleonic Wars.

He was born at Saarlouis in Alsace, a naturalised
German and the son of a master barrel cooper
(profession) |cooper. He worked as an apprentice
clerk for an iron works before he joined the 5th
Hussars in 1787, against his father's wishes.

An impulsive and courageous soldier, Ney is known
for epitomizing the soldierly virtue of "leading
from the front". For instance, he led the charge
of the French heavy cavalry against British
infantry at the Battle of Waterloo. However, Ney
was not merely a hotheaded sabreur, he was also a
skilled commander, peforming excellently at
Elchingen (from which battle he later derived his
ducal title) and arguably winning the Battle of
Friedland for Napoleon.

Ney was elevated to the status of a demi-god
following his conduct on the Retreat from Moscow.
Commanding the rearguard, he protected the
remnants of Napoleon's Grande ArmÊe as it
staggered back to France. Attacked daily by
Russian Cossacks, Ney was at one point the only
man in the whole rearguard, facing several
thousand Russians on his own until his soldiers,
who had previously deserted him, were shamed by
Ney's second-in-command into returning. Ney was
the last French soldier on Russian soil. On
hearing of his safety, Napoleon, having previously
thought Ney to be lost for ever, declared that
'France is full of brave men but, truly, Ney is
the bravest of the brave'.

Despite Ney's humble roots, he was one of the
first marshals created by Napoleon, who valued
talent above all. In addition to his military
rank, Ney was created Duke of Elchingen on June 6,
1808 and Prince de La Moskowa on March 25, 1813. 
Ney personified a new French elite that Napoleon
was creating as a loyal support base for a planned
Bonaparte dynasty.

When Paris fell and the Bourbon Dynasty,
Restored|Bourbons reclaimed the throne, Ney (who
was one of those who had pressured Napoleon to
accept his first abdication and exile) was
promoted, lauded, and made a peerage|peer by the
newly enthroned Louis XVIII. Although Ney had
pledge his allegiance to the restored monarchy,
the Bourbon court reactedly coolly to his common
origins.  When he was sent to arrest the returning
Napoleon, he was convinced to switch sides and
fight for his old leader again. During the Hundred
Days campaign, he led the French forces at the
Battle of Quatre Bras and commanded the left wing
of Napoleon's army at the Battle of Waterloo. 

Ney has been criticized for his conduct in this
battle, perhaps unfairly so. Napoleon had not
explained his strategy for the whole campaign, nor
had he listened to his generals' pleas for an
outflanking manoeuvre instead of his own, unsubtle
frontal assault on the British positions at
Waterloo. Napoleon compounded these errors by
remaining away from the front line for the
majority of the battle, not giving Ney
reinforcements that could have won him the battle
and, to round it all off, he was also sick. Ney
fought like a tiger, but he could not shift
Wellington's men. He was seen during one of the
charges beating his sword against the side of a
British cannon in furious frustration.

When all was clearly lost, Ney gathered a group of
French soldiers together and cried 'come, and see
how a Marshal of France can die!' As Victor Hugo
said of him 'O, unhappy man - you were reserved
for French bullets!'

When Napoleon was defeated, dethroned and exiled
for the second time in the summer of 1815, Ney was
condemned for treason by the Chamber of Peers and
executed by firing squad in Paris near the
Luxembourg Garden. He refused to wear a blindfold
and was allowed the right to give the order to
fire, reportedly saying, "Soldiers, straight for
the heart!" Ney's execution was an example
intended for Napoleon's other marshals and
generals, many of whom were eventually exonerated
by the Bourbon monarchy.

One of the more colorful legends of Ney that have
grown up after the Marshal's untimely demise by
firing squad was that Ney had managed to escape to
the United States.  Proponents of this "theory"
argue that Ney had Freemasonry|masonic ties,
including to the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of
Wellington|Duke of Wellington, who helped him fake
his execution and flee abroad.  The basis for
these rumors was the presence in the United States
of a Peter Stuart Ney, who, when drunk, wowed his
friends and students with tales of military glory,
and claimed to be – or at least did not deny
being – the executed Napoleonic Marshal . 
While this is almost certainly untrue, Peter
Stuart Ney certainly did live for a number of
years teaching school in North and South Carolina,
including at Davidson College, where he designed
the school seal still used today.  P. S. Ney died
in 1846, after uttering the bizarre last words,
"Bessieres is dead; the Old Guard is dead; now,
please, let me die."

As for other Neys in the United States, U. S.
Representative Bob Ney of the 18th District in
Ohio really is related to the Marshal.