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Part of the acclaimed "Special Campaign" series of works intended for serious professional students of military history each volume is interspersed with strategical and tactical comments and illustrated by numerous sketches. The 1814 campaign in France was Napoleon's final campaign. Following their victory at Leipzig, Russian, Austrian and other German armies invaded France. Despite the disproportionate forces in favour of the Coalition, Napoleon managed to inflict many defeats. However, the Coalition kept advancing towards Paris, which capitulated in late March 1814. Napoleon was deposed and exiled to Elba and the victorious powers started to redraw the map of Europe. Napoleon escaped from Elba the following year leading to the last conflict in the Napoleonic Wars, the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
In 1814, after two successive years of defeat in Russia and central Europe, Napoleon was faced with the ultimate disaster - an Allied invasion of France itself. The conduct of the intense, fast-moving campaign that followed has been widely hailed as one of his greatest feats as a commander, yet it has rarely been described fully and objectively. Andrew Uffindell, in this gripping and original study, reconstructs the campaign, reassesses Napoleon's military leadership and provides a masterly account of a campaign that helped shape modern Europe.Using numerous eyewitness accounts, Napoleon 1814 records the swift succession of clashes in graphic detail, leading up to the final battle outside Paris, the biggest and bloodiest of the entire campaign, and then the extraordinary drama of Napoleon's abdication. It shows for the first time how the course of the campaign was repeatedly determined by the weather and the terrain. The author also covers events off the battlefield, and examines a strangely neglected aspect of the campaign: the devastating impact on the civilian population. He provides a vivid and moving portrayal of a society traumatized by the brutal experience of war, as ordinary people struggled to survive and confront the moral dilemmas posed by enemy occupation.
Montmirail, Champaubert, Reims, Laon, Craonne, Montereau, Paris... Each of these names is synonymous of tumultuous victories and heroic fighting. Each is them is also a sign of the genius of Napoleon as a military leader, and a testimony of the sacrifice accepted by the men which followed him on the battlefields. In this new book, the Authors survey the whole campaign of France, stating facts and explaining the opponents' views. And, in the now famous third part of the book, they introduce us to the main actors of the drama: marshalls and generals, but also the obscure, ordinary NCOs and privates of Napoleon's army. And, as usual in this series, the intricately detailed color plates by André Jouineau render the richness and diversity of the uniforms of all armies involved in the Emperor's most dashing campaign.
This revisionist history offers a fresh analysis of Napoleon and the French army as they defended their empire against the massive Coalition invasion of 1814. French defeat in 1814 is too often shrugged off as the result of obvious and understandable factors. Napoleon Against Great Odds: The Emperor and the Defenders of France, 1814 challenges the widely accepted notion that war-weariness and internal political opposition to Napoleon were the decisive and direct causes of French defeat. At least as important, it argues, were material shortages, diplomatic missteps, and even faulty strategic planning on Napoleon's part. The book not only traces the narrative of Napoleon's 1814 Campaign in France, but explores the formation of the French army tasked with defending France against the Coalition invasion. Diplomatic, political, and social factors are taken into account and the issue of war-weariness is analyzed carefully and critically. Each branch and arm of the French forces is examined, as are military mobilization under difficult circumstances and partisan and guerilla warfare. Designed to encourage fresh debate about the 1814 campaign, the book offers thought-provoking reading for scholars and general readers alike.
Having suffered a massive reversal of fortunes in Russia Napoleon found himself confronted, in Germany, by the combined forces of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. After the disaster of Leipzig Napoleon’s German allies fell away and he was forced to fall back, beyond the borders of France. Offered a negotiated peace on the basis of a return to the pre-1792 borders, Napoleon chose to continue to fight, trusting in his star. He was, however, desperate for troops and short of horses and cash. Cornered and threatened by three armies invading from the north, northeast, and east, every chance to stop the Allies had to be taken and there was desperate battle after desperate battle. Of all his campaigns, Napoleon’s 1814 campaign was one of his most brilliant. Eventually, after several terrible defeats, the Allies refused to engage him in battle when he confronted them. Instead they pushed their other two armies forward, slowly driving him back as he rushed to block the advance of the other armies on Paris. This strategy proved successful and eventually Napoleon was obliged to abdicate when his marshals refused to fight further.
Napoleon's most brilliant campaign as Emperor, culminating in smashing the Third Coalition against France. Lt.-Col. Burton dispenses with the extraneous elements and focuses primarily on the actions of Napoleon as he guides his troops from Boulogne to face his Austrian and Russian foes across the Rhine.
Part of the acclaimed "Special Campaign" series of works intended for serious professional students of military history each volume is interspersed with strategical and tactical comments and illustrated by numerous sketches. The military lessons of the Russian campaign are numerous. In its general features, in the grandeur of its conception, and in some respects in its execution, as well as in its abysmal end, this gigantic invasion was splendid and awe-inspiring. Who can contemplate unmoved the sublime spectacle of that mighty human stream pouring across Europe into Russia, fighting its way to Moscow, and its shattered remnants struggling back across the Berezina, in worst icy flood so many thousand lives were quenched in circumstances of tragic horror. The dramatic figure of the Great Emperor, standing in the snow during the retreat, domination the situation by the mere terror of his personality, will stand out for ever on the page of history. The fortitude in the retreat of Ney, what warrior of transcendent courage, who, asked were the rearguard, replied in all truth "I am the rearguard"; and in response to a summons to surrender "A Marshal of France never surrenders " furnishes one of the finest episodes of this dramatic epoch. The Causes of War - Preparations for War - The Opposing Forces - The Theatre of War - The Invasion of Lithuania - The Advance to the Dwina - From the Dwina to the Dnieper - The Battle of Smolensk - The Advance to Borodino - The Battle of Borodino - The Occupation of Moscow - From Moscow to Maloyaroslavetz - The Retreat to Smolensk - From Smolensk to Borisov - The Passage of the Berezina - From the Berezina to the Niemen - The Causes of Failure. Maps and Plans: 1. Map of the Theatre of Operations. 2. Map to Illustrate the Operations round Smolensk. 3. Plan of Smolensk and its Environs. 4. The Battle of Borodino. 5. From Moscow to Smolensk. 6. The Passage of the Berezina.