Life in Napoleon's Army

Life in Napoleon's Army

Author: Philip Haythornthwaite

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 1995-02-01

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 1784380245

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Napoleonic Library is an outstanding collection of seminal works on the Napoleonic Wars. It features evocative contemporary memoirs and makes available once again the classic works on the subject by military historians.


Captain Blaze

Captain Blaze

Author: Elzear Blaze

Publisher:

Published: 2007-04

Total Pages: 196

ISBN-13: 9781846772252

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Captain Blaze: Life in Napoleon's Army Elzear Blaze recounts his life and experiences in Napoleon's army in a well-written, articulate and companionable style, that draws the reader in as though listening to a master storyteller in the flesh. Whereas most writers of military memoirs deliver linear accounts of their recollections, Blaze concentrates on the different aspects of the military experience-the soldiers, the food, the uniforms, the camp, the march, etc.-and spins fact and anecdote, both personal and borrowed, into a seamless monologue that evokes the very spirit of the Napoleonic period. Comrades and acquaintances are drawn in convincing detail, with all their idiosyncrasies and humour. Blaze is a different kind of French Napoleonic soldier, and this is a different kind of military memoir. For those who are fascinated by the subject it is absolutely essential, taking the reader into the heart of the times, in an intimate portrait of life in the infantry on campaign throughout Europe."


DIARY OF A NAPOLEONIC FOOT SOLDIER

DIARY OF A NAPOLEONIC FOOT SOLDIER

Author: Jakob Walter

Publisher: Doubleday

Published: 2012-05-09

Total Pages: 195

ISBN-13: 0307817563

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A grunt’s-eye report from the battlefield in the spirit of The Red Badge of Courage and All Quiet on the Western Front—the only known account by a common soldier of the campaigns of Napoleon’s Grand Army between 1806 and 1813. When eighteen-year-old German stonemason Jakob Walter was conscripted into the Grand Army of Napoleon, he had no idea of the trials that lay ahead. The long, grueling marches in Prussia and Poland sacrificed countless men to Bonaparte’s grand designs. And the disastrous Russian campaign tested human endurance on an epic scale. Demoralized by defeat in a war few supported or understood, deprived of ammunition and leadership, driven past reason by starvation and bitter cold, men often turned on one another, killing fellow soldiers for bread or an able horse. Though there are numerous surviving accounts of the Napoleonic Wars written by officers, Walter’s is the only known memoir by a draftee, and as such is a unique and fascinating document—a compelling chronicle of a young soldier’s loss of innocence as well as an eloquent and moving portrait of the profound effects of war on the men who fight it. Professor Marc Raeff has added an Introduction to the memoirs as well as six letters home from the Russian front, previously unpublished in English, from German conscripts who served concurrently with Walter. The volume is illustrated with engravings and maps, contemporary with the manuscript, from the Russian/Soviet and East European collections of the New York Public Library. Honest, heartfelt, deeply personal yet objective, The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier is more than an informative and absorbing historical document—it is a timeless and unforgettable account of the horrors of war.


Life In Napoleon's Army

Life In Napoleon's Army

Author: BLAZE ELZEAR

Publisher: Napoleonic Library

Published: 2022-07-30

Total Pages: 216

ISBN-13: 9781399019705

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Blaze's memoirs are one of the most fascinating recollections of the Napoleonic Wars ever to be published. Written by an officer of wide experience and colorful style, this memoir presents an outstanding picture of the First Empire, providing an officer's perspective of the character, customs and mode of operation of the French army. Its value is enriched and enlivened by anecdotes from the authors own experiences.Blaze entered the army as a youth, via the Imperial Guard elite organization, a path only open to those of some wealth. After gaining his commission as an officer, he served in the campaigns from Poland in 1807 to the fall of France in 1814. The wide range and extent of his service made Blaze perfectly suited to produce a record of Napoleon's army during this climactic period.


Napoleon

Napoleon

Author: Adam Zamoyski

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2018-10-16

Total Pages: 638

ISBN-13: 1541644557

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The definitive biography of Napoleon -- hailed as "magnificent" by The Economist. "What a novel my life has been!" Napoleon once said of himself. Born into a poor family, the callow young man was, by twenty-six, an army general. Seduced by an older woman, his marriage transformed him into a galvanizing military commander. The Pope crowned him as Emperor of the French when he was only thirty-five. Within a few years, he became the effective master of Europe, his power unparalleled in modern history. His downfall was no less dramatic. The story of Napoleon has been written many times. In some versions, he is a military genius, in others a war-obsessed tyrant. Here, historian Adam Zamoyski cuts through the mythology and explains Napoleon against the background of the European Enlightenment, and what he was himself seeking to achieve. This most famous of men is also the most hidden of men, and Zamoyski dives deeper than any previous biographer to find him. Beautifully written, Napoleon brilliantly sets the man in his European context.


Life in Napoleon's Army

Life in Napoleon's Army

Author: Elzear Blaze

Publisher: Frontline Books

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781848328228

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Blaze entered the army as a youth, via the Imperial Guard elite organization, a path only open to those of some wealth. After gaining his commission as an officer, he served in the campaigns from Poland in 1807 to the fall of France in 1814. Blaze's memoirs are one of the most fascinating recollections of the Napoleonic Wars ever to be published. W


A Boy Soldier in Napoleon's Army

A Boy Soldier in Napoleon's Army

Author: Thomas Cardoza

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-11-30

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781979883627

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In 1800, Jacques Chevillet enlisted in Napoleon's French Army. He was 14 years old. Assigned to a light cavalry regiment, Chevillet learned to ride, to fight, and to mix it up with his comrades in duels and barracks pranks. He fought his first duel at age 15 over a girl. In the next decade, Chevillet travelled through France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, and Hungary. He fought in three major battles as well as many skirmishes and patrol actions and received wounds from bullets, sabers, and artillery. He stole food from his colonel, looted farm houses, fell in love, spent more than his share of time in military prisons, and eventually he even grew up, receiving a battlefield promotion to sergeant in 1809. Despite serving in the army of one of history's great authoritarians, Chevillet kept a fierce independent streak, and he refused to obey orders that he felt violated his personal liberty. In this, he was representative of a generation that served Napoleon, but came of age in the heady times of the French Revolution, and who still believed in "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" even as they rode to victory in the Emperor's conquest of Europe. Chevillet's military career came to end at the Battle of Wagram on July 5, 1809, when he lost his right arm to an Austrian howitzer shell. Wagram was the largest battle in the world up to that time, and one of the bloodiest. Afterwards, Chevillet met Napoleon in person (the only time he ever spoke to the Emperor), received a pension, and returned to France, where he wrote these memoirs in 1810-1811. They are as far as we can tell the very first memoirs of the Napoleonic Wars to be written down, and one of only a few by private soldiers. They represent a rare, detailed, and vivid glimpse into the daily life of the common soldier.