Russian Eyewitness Accounts Of The Campaign Of 1814

Russia played a decisive role in the Napoleonic wars and the success in the struggle against France allowed Russian leaders to profoundly influence the course of European history. Over the last 200 years, the Napoleonic era has been discussed and analysed in numerous studies, but many fail to fully portray the Russian side of events due to the relative scarcity of Russian sources in English. Only a handful of Russian memoirs have been translated, while dozens remain unknown outside Russia. This book seeks to fill this gap by providing, in English, previously unavailable memoirs of Russian participants.??Defeat at Leipzig in 1813 had driven Napoleon back across the borders of France, and in January 1814 the Russians, Austrians, Prussians and their other German allies stood poised to cross the Rhine. But the French Emperor was far from beaten, and the ensuing campaign saw desperate fighting, with the outcome very much in the balance. This book is the first to bring together dozens of letter, diaries and memoirs of Russian participants of the 1814 Campaign. Reading these documents we see both what Russian officers and soldiers experienced during the final months of the three-year-long campaign as well as their joy at defeating Russia’s most dangerous enemy. We follow them not only through the heat of battle but also on delightful tours of Paris which they describe as the pleasure and entertainment capital of the world.

The Napoleonic era has been analyzed in numerous studies, but many fail to portray the Russian side of the events due to the scarcity of Russian sources in English. Only a handful of Russian memoirs have been translated in English while dozens remain unknown. This book seeks to fill this gap by providing previously unavailable memoirs of Russian participants using documents show the other side, providing insight on the Russian leadership and what a soldier experienced as he progressed towards victory.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

After his crushing defeat of Prussia in 1806, Napoleon marched into Poland to forestall any Russian attempts to come to the aid of their ally. There then followed the bloody battle in a blizzard at Eylau on 8 February 1807, which decimated both armies. Operations resumed in the spring and on 14 June Napoleon wrecked the Russian field army at Friedland. Napoleon and Emperor Alexander met at Tiltsit, and French mastery of north-west Europe was confirmed.This is the first book to bring together dozens of Russian letters, memoirs and diaries, with authors ranging from the commander-in-chief (Benningsen) to NCOs. We see the brutal conditions of the winter campaign at first hand, and gain fresh insight into the infamous Treaty of Tiltsit and the diplomatic manoeuvring that followed it.

An essential first hand account of a French officer of the First Empire Napoleon, at the height of his unstoppable hubris, attacked Russia and marched his Grande Armee thousands of miles towards its capital, fighting the costly Battle of Borodino before achieving his ambition, only to find it nothing but a hollow and barren victory. Moscow was deliberately set ablaze and the Russians, well aware of the huge strategic advantage the massive size of their homeland was, adopted a scorched earth policy, retreated and waited for their greatest ally-winter-to join the fray. Napoleon's position was untenable, and so began the slow, agonising nightmare of the retreat which would only be completed by a small number of those who had marched eastwards. In the account of Sergeant Bourgogne (also available as a Leonaur edition) we have a brilliant and graphic account of that terrible time recounted by one who experienced it. In fact, it would be fair to say that Bourgogne's has became 'the' account of the retreat, but it is not the only one. This first hand account by Raymond Fezensac also takes the reader through those events in the most memorable way. Fezensac began the campaign as an aide de camp, but as able officers fell, he was required to take up the command of the 4th Regiment of Infantry of the Line as its Colonel. It was clearly a post he relished and his descriptions of his men and the manner in which he led them through action after action speak of his pride, affection and courage. The march of the 4th soon became one of survival and Fezensac worked tirelessly to meet every challenge-the pursuing Russians, the weather, starvation and fatigue-to bring as many of them home as possible. In the end it was to be, of course, pitifully few of them, but this book nonetheless remains an incredible inspirational account of endeavour under adversity. This book has previously appeared under this title in English appended to a substantial work of history of the campaign written by W. Knollys-clearly a work of distinct parts, but one where the history overshadowed the first hand account. By publishing Fezensac's words in their own right we trust will bring them the focus they properly warrant. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.

The Campaign of France - Napoleon's fighting retreat across his own country in 1814 after his disastrous defeat at Leipzig - was one of the most amazing episodes in the great soldier's stellar career. With his back to the wall, and facing a formidible coalition of his Russian, Prussian and Austrian enemies, the wily Corsican flought tenaciously every step of the way. Sometimes his exhausted, outnumbered and severely depleted army was called on to fight a battle every two days. But despite French ciourage and rthe Emperor's resourcefulness there could be only one outcome: Napoleon was forced back to Paris where he was compelled to abdicate. The long, slogging campaign is here narrated from the viewpoint of a Russian officer who was an aide-de-camp to Tsar Alexander I and had a grandstand view of the action. Occasionally critical of Russia's allies, the book offers a detailed contemporary account of a campaign perhaps less familiar than other Napoleonic setpieces.

So great is the weight of reading on the subject of the Waterloo campaign that it might be thought there is nothing left to say about it, and from the military viewpoint, this is very much the case. But one critical aspect of the story has gone all but untold the French home front. Little has been written about the topic in English, and few works on Napoleon or Revolutionary and Napoleonic France pay it much attention. It is this conspicuous gap in the literature that Charles Esdaile explores in this erudite and absorbing study. Drawing on the vivid, revealing material that is available in the French archives, in the writings of soldiers who fought in France in 1814 and 1815 and in the memoirs of civilians who witnessed the fall of Napoleon or the Hundred Days, he gives us a fascinating new insight into the military and domestic context of the Waterloo campaign, the Napoleonic legend and the wider situation across Europe.