Vive la Corse

Napoleon took his first commission, as a 2nd lieutenant of artillery. He read voraciously – on military strategy and tactics – determined to succeed.

But his native land still had his heart. In his book Lettres sur la Corse he set out his vision for an independent Corsica, free of French control. In September he returned to the island of his birth, not rejoining his regiment until June 1788. Above all else, Napoleon felt, he was a Corsican.