Austerlitz CZ. Pre-World Wars. Lessons from literature, and the garden. War and grass.

Austerlitz, Slavkov, Czech Republic. The Battle of the Three Emperors.

Austerlitz. A hundred years before the World Wars, and who cares. Quiz. Who can name what three major empires converged here, and why, and who won what and for how long. Are wars ever long remembered. Here, Napoleon against Russia and Austria.

At Austerlitz, just try to find the battlefield.

Getting there, pass a sign by a tree near the motorway that says Napoleon stood beneath it once at dawn, surveying, so the sun sign represents Austerlitz; but no definable battlefield is in sight. Find a town: Slavkov u Brna. Ask a walker, and finally open the door to let him in so he can point, and you can drop him off on the way, and that is how to find this memorial. The battlefields are many, and all gone. Gone. Just farms again. Huge area. Bodies where they fell. Get a visual: See Napoleon himself, in a series of paintings during his career at //www.napoleon.org/en/essential_napoleon/key_painting/premier_empire.asp.

Now read Carl Sandburg, American poet:*

"Grass"

"Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work --
I am the grass; I cover all.

And pile them high at Gettysburg.

And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?

I am the grass. Let me work."

.............................................................................................................................................................
* American poet Carl Sandburg, poem "Grass," this time found in Modern American Poetry 1919, Louis Untermeyer, ed. Fair use of a single poem, as a small part of a total work.
............................................................................................................................................................
Austerlitz: See //www.fortunecity.com/victorian/riley/787/Napoleon/1805/Auster.html; //www.napoleon-series.org/reviews/military/c_goetz.html; //www.bond.cz/www/austerlitz/after.htm; and post 8/13/2007 at Czech Republic Road Ways;

Waterloo: See //www.britishbattles.com/waterloo/waterloo-june-1815.htm; and post 12/19/2006 at Belgium Road Ways

Gettysburg: see www.civilwarhome.com/gettysbu.htm.

Ypres: See www.firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres1.htm (first battle); www.greatwar.co.uk/westfront/ypsalient/secondypres/index.htm (second battle); //www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_ypres.html (third battle); and posts here

Verdun: see //www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_verdun.htm; and posts here.