r/todayilearned • u/1salt1pepper • 3h ago

TIL Napoleon accidentally shot Marshal André Masséna in the eye during a hunting trip. Masséna lost the eye, but instead of blaming Napoleon, he blamed Marshal Berthier, who hadn’t even fired.

https://www.napoleon.org/en/history-of-the-two-empires/images/napoleons-shotgun-signed-jean-le-page-detail/
873 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

29 comments sorted by

236

u/AvgPunkFan 3h ago

Ah… ye olde Dick Cheney

“So you all set to go hunting?”

blam blam blam blam blam blam blam

“Sorry I thought you were a deer”

62

u/PrescriptionDenim 2h ago

“Now apologize.”

41

u/02meepmeep 2h ago

LOL. That was the most bizarre part of the Cheney shooting to me, that the guy Cheney shot apologized to Cheney.

28

u/AmbivelentApoplectic 2h ago

Think of the facts.

Cheney was known for having ran Haliburton as an amoral psychopath.

He was the current Vice President and likely the most powerful one the office has produced.

Plus he had just shot the guy.

In his shoes apologising for getting in the way of his bullet was probably the smart move.

10

u/SisterRosaria2021 1h ago

Isn't there a rumor that when Christian Bale did his research to portray Dick Cheney in a movie, he studied Tom Cruise the Scientologist extraordinaire to capture the soulless eye look accurately?

12

u/AmbivelentApoplectic 1h ago edited 1h ago

I've heard that before but it wasn't when playing Cheney it was preparation to play Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. But there are plenty of stories of other actors also studying cruise to portray unhinged better.

22

u/AdmiralAckbarVT 2h ago

When you hunt with a group as they were you walk in a line together. Victim strayed from the line and was in Cheney’s field of fire, where he shouldn’t have been.

Dick Cheneys a dick, but guy that was shot was literally out of line.

9

u/Belegrim91932 1h ago

This is one that drives me a bit nuts. There are so many valid things to criticize Cheney for, but everyone goes to one of the only things where he wasn't actually a monster

•

u/Pingo-Pongo 20m ago

Had him gutted and skinned before I realised he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury

0

u/CFCYYZ 1h ago

(sings) Cheney's got a gun, Cheney's got a gun, the whole world's come undone...

73

u/luckyzacky 2h ago

Oh come on dude, do better with having accurate titles. Napoleon is the one who blame Berthier.

13

u/Grzechoooo 2h ago

Massena went along with it.

7

u/luckyzacky 2h ago

We have no way of knowing of Massena knew it was Napoléon. But we KNOW Napoléon lied!

1

u/cockOfGibraltar 1h ago

I'd imagine you don't call out Napoleon for lying.

-3

u/bevelledo 2h ago

I thought Messi played soccer?!

1

u/Chrysocyon 1h ago

Nah, this is the guy from the band with Kenny Loggins

127

u/InactiveMedusa 3h ago

I thought Cheney was the first to employ this method

25

u/toq-titan 2h ago

He just perfected it by making the guy he shot apologize to him

62

u/Harrythehobbit 2h ago

I remember when the guy Dick Cheney shot died, all the headlines just called him "the guy Dick Cheney shot".

Imagine being a lawyer, real estate investor, and a staple of Texan politics for half a century, and when you die you're just "the guy Dick Cheney shot".

9

u/BigBirdLaw69420 2h ago

lol. What’s his name?

29

u/Harrythehobbit 2h ago edited 1h ago

First name The guy Dick last name Cheney shot. Didn't even legally change it. That was the name he was born with in 1927. It was a whole thing in Texas at the time.

Personally if that was my name I would stay away from guys named Dick Cheney, but maybe he just wanted to get it over with.

•

u/san-antonio-women 57m ago

Lmao here we go again

•

u/ThatOneCanadian69 22m ago

Harry Whittington

6

u/StoryAndAHalf 1h ago

To be fair, he pointed at Napoleon, but with only one eye, he was actually pointing at Marshal.

2

u/film_composer 2h ago

Sounds like someone called a fire Marshal.

2

u/Secure-Tradition793 1h ago

That's why he could climb the ladder to be a Marshal.

2

u/Fritzkreig 3h ago

Masséna was a badass Marshal!

0

u/Agitated_Web4034 2h ago

Of course he would blame the other guy he was half blind 😀