Author: Philip Haythornthwaite
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780969791
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 131
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Book Description
Though less celebrated than the infantry and cavalry, Napoleon's 'specialist' troops – artillery, engineers and supporting services – were indispensable elements without which no army could have operated, and frequently assumed greater significance than the line regiments. Indeed, having suffered least from the emigration of Royalist officers, the artillery was the best element of the early Republican armies, the nucleus of the old Royal artillery serving with distinction in the early campaigns such as Valmy. The organisation and uniform of Napoleon's specialist troops are here examined by Philip Haythornwaite in a engaging volume complemented by a wealth of illustrations including eight full page colour plates by Bryan Fosten.
Author: Philip Haythornthwaite
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1782007016
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 91
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Book Description
Napoleon's line infantry was founded upon that of the Ancien Régime. A total re-organisation began on 1 January 1791 with the abolition of the old regimental titles, and over the next two years an increasing number of conscript and volunteer battalions were formed. Their quality varied from the proficiency of the early National Guard regiments to the untrained and ill-equipped rabble of the levée. To combine the discipline and steadiness of the regular army with the revolutionary fervour of the new army, the Amalgame was decreed on 21 February; by this measure each regular battalion became the nucleus of a new Demi-Brigade.
Author: Ronald Pawly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780964048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 121
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Book Description
Dressed in distinctive green uniforms and classically inspired copper helmets, the Dragoons of the Imperial Guard were raised in 1806 by the same criteria as other Guard units – by selection of picked, literate veterans from Line regiments who had six to ten years of service, and citations for bravery in at least two campaigns. The following year they were named Dragons de l'Impératrice in a unique compliment to the Empress Josephine. As a ceremonial regiment it enjoyed many privileges, but it also saw combat on a number of occasions, including the battles of Essling and Wagram (1809), the Russian campaign (1812, when it suffered severe losses), at Bautzen, Wachau and Leipzig (1813), in the 1814 Campaign of France, and at Ligny and Waterloo (1815).
Author: Robert Wilkinson-Latham
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9780850452471
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 48
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Book Description
At the end of the Royalist regime, the artillery arm of the French Army was, as Napoleon was later to declare, "the finest and best composed corps in Europe." Designed by the great master of artillery, Jean Baptiste de Gribeauval, the equipment consisted of some of the best pieces in Europe. This book examines the equipment and performance of Napoleon's artillery in the Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815) and Waterloo campaign (1815). The organization of the Imperial Army is also covered, including the key French failure to develop "Shrapnel" or "spherical case shot" - a weapon used against them to great effect by the British.
Author: Ronald Pawly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780964110
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 123
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Book Description
This book draws on original regimental records to give by far the most detailed account ever published in English of the organization and personalities of the most renowned of the foreign units that served in the Emperor's armies. Unlike most of his foreign troops, these Polish horsemen were true volunteers, who owed their honoured place in his Imperial Guard to their proven courage and dash on battlefields from Spain to Russia. The text is illustrated with rare portraits and photographs, and with detailed colour plates of the Lancers' magnificent uniforms.
Author: Ronald Pawly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780965559
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 119
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Book Description
The two privileged regiments of Carabiniers survived the French Revolution with their elite status intact. They covered themselves with glory at Austerlitz, Friedland, Ratisbonne and Wagram where their bloody losses shocked Napoleon into ordering them new helmets and cuirasses. Re-formed after near annihilation in Russia in 1812, they fought at Leipzig and in many actions of the 1814 French campaign, and made one of the final charges at Waterloo. lllustrated with rare early prints and meticulous colour reconstructions, this book details their story, and their unique uniforms, from surviving period documents.
Author: René Chartrand
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9780850459005
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
When the French Revolution broke out in 1789, France possessed numerous colonies spread over three continents. To defend and keep the peace in these territories, a small army of colonial troops, distinct from the metropolitan line regiments or marines, had existed since the days of Louis XIV. This book examines the history and uniforms of the often-overlooked French armies in Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St Lucia, Tobago, Ile-de-France, La Réunion, Pondichéry, Guiana, Senegal and Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon. The text is backed by numerous illustrations offering a rare glimpse into dress and equipment of Napoleon's overseas army.
Author: Laure Murat
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022602587X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon is built around a bizarre historical event and an off-hand challenge. The event? In December 1840, nearly twenty years after his death, the remains of Napoleon were returned to Paris for burial—and the next day, the director of a Paris hospital for the insane admitted fourteen men who claimed to be Napoleon. The challenge, meanwhile, is the claim by great French psychiatrist Jean-Étienne-Dominique Esquirol (1772–1840) that he could recount the history of France through asylum registries. From those two components, Laure Murat embarks on an exploration of the surprising relationship between history and madness. She uncovers countless stories of patients whose delusions seem to be rooted in the historical or political traumas of their time, like the watchmaker who believed he lived with a new head, his original having been removed at the guillotine. In the troubled wake of the Revolution, meanwhile, French physicians diagnosed a number of mental illnesses tied to current events, from “revolutionary neuroses” and “democratic disease” to the “ambitious monomania” of the Restoration. How, Murat asks, do history and psychiatry, the nation and the individual psyche, interface? A fascinating history of psychiatry—but of a wholly new sort—The Man Who Thought He Was Napoleon offers the first sustained analysis of the intertwined discourses of madness, psychiatry, history, and political theory.
Author: Ronald Pawly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1780965575
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 118
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Book Description
The legendary Dutch 'Red' Lancers – the 2nd Light Horse Lancers of Napoleon's Imperial Guard – were formed in 1810 after the emperor annexed Holland and its army to France. The former hussars of the Dutch Royal Guard got a handsome new uniform, a new weapon, and a hard-driving new colonel in Baron Edouard Colbert. His lancers distinguished themselves in Russia in 1812, at huge cost; in Germany in 1813, and in the Low Countries in 1814. When Napoleon returned from exile in 1815 the Red Lancers were with him until night fell over Waterloo. Ronald Pawly is the world's leading expert on the archival and pictorial record left by this regiment; his detailed text is illustrated with rare portraits and photographs, and eight glowing colour plates of a surprisingly wide variety of uniforms.
Author: Alan Forrest
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 082643861X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277
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Book Description
Napoleon's soldiers marched across Europe from Lisbon to Moscow, and from Germany to Dalmatia. Many of the men, mostly conscripted by ballot, had never before been beyond their native village. What did they make of their extraordinary experiences, fighting battles thousands of miles from home, foraging for provisions or garrisoning town in hostile countries? What was it like to be a soldier in the revolutionary and imperial armies? We know more about these men and their reactions to war than about the soldiers of any previous army in history, not just from official sources but from the large number of personal letters they wrote. Napoleon's Men provides a direct insight into the experiences and emotions of soldiers who risked their lives at Austerlitz, Wagram and Borodino. Not surprisingly, their minds often dwelt as much on what was happening at home, and on mundane questions of food and drink, as on Napoleon himself or the glory of France.
