Download or read book Napoleon s Stolen Army written by John Marsden and published by From Reason to Revolution. This book was released on 2021-03-28 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the story of how, in 1808, the Royal Navy used its dominance in the Baltic to rescue the Spanish Army of the Marqués de La Romana.
Download or read book Plunder written by Cynthia Saltzman and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of The Christian Science Monitor's Ten Best Books of May "A highly original work of history . . . [Saltzman] has written a distinctive study that transcends both art and history and forces us to explore the connections between the two.” —Roger Lowenstein, The Wall Street Journal A captivatingstudy of Napoleon’s plundering of Europe’s art for the Louvre, told through the story of a Renaissance masterpiece seized from Venice Cynthia Saltzman’s Plunder recounts the fate of Paolo Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana, a vast, sublime canvas that the French, under the command of the young Napoleon Bonaparte, tore from a wall of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, on an island in Venice, in 1797. Painted in 1563 during the Renaissance, the picture was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. Veronese had filled the scene with some 130 figures, lavishing color on the canvas to build the illusion that the viewers’ space opened onto a biblical banquet taking place on a terrace in sixteenth-century Venice. Once pulled from the wall, the Venetian canvas crossed the Mediterranean rolled on a cylinder; soon after, artworks commandeered from Venice and Rome were triumphantly brought into Paris. In 1801, the Veronese went on exhibition at the Louvre, the new public art museum founded during the Revolution in the former palace of the French kings. As Saltzman tells the larger story of Napoleon’s looting of Italian art and its role in the creation of the Louvre, she reveals the contradictions of his character: his thirst for greatness—to carry forward the finest aspects of civilization—and his ruthlessness in getting whatever he sought. After Napoleon’s 1815 defeat at Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington and the Allies forced the French to return many of the Louvre’s plundered paintings and sculptures. Nevertheless, The Wedding Feast at Cana remains in Paris to this day, hanging directly across from the Mona Lisa. Expertly researched and deftly told, Plunder chronicles one of the most spectacular art appropriation campaigns in history, one that sheds light on a seminal historical figure and the complex origins of one of the great museums of the world.
Download or read book Blundering to Glory written by Owen Connelly and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned for its accuracy, brevity, and readability, this book has long been the gold standard of concise histories of the Napoleonic Wars. Now in an updated and revised edition, it is unique in its portrayal of one of the world's great generals as a scrambler who never had a plan, strategic or tactical, that did not break down or change of necessity in the field. Distinguished historian Owen Connelly argues that Napoleon was the master of the broken play, so confident of his ability to improvise, cover his own mistakes, and capitalize on those of the enemy that he repeatedly plunged his armies into uncertain, seemingly desperate situations, only to emerge victorious as he "blundered" to glory. Beginning with a sketch of Napoleon's early life, the book progresses to his command of artillery at Toulon and the "whiff of grapeshot" in Paris that netted him control of the Army of Italy, where his incredible performance catapulted him to fame. The author vividly traces Napoleon's campaigns as a general of the French Revolution and emperor of the French, knowledgeably analyzing each battle's successes and failures. The author depicts Napoleon's "art of war" as a system of engaging the enemy, waiting for him to make a mistake, improvising a plan on the spot-and winning. Far from detracting from Bonaparte's reputation, his blunders rather made him a great general, a "natural" who depended on his intuition and ability to read battlefields and his enemy to win. Exploring this neglected aspect of Napoleon's battlefield genius, Connelly at the same time offers stirring and complete accounts of all the Napoleonic campaigns.
Download or read book Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars 1 written by René Chartrand and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 1998-11-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Spanish Army was transformed during the 18th century by an influx of progressive officers who modernised and expanded it. It was closely modelled on the French armies of Louis XIV and Louis XV in tactical doctrine, organisation, armament and uniforms. In battle, they were often brave to the point of carelessness, and were thus sometimes difficult to control. The army also had several Swiss and Walloon regiments, less given to all-out attacks, but renowned for their steadiness under fire. In this first of three volumes, Réne Chartrand examines the organisation and uniforms of the Spanish Army of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815).
Download or read book 1812 written by Paul Britten Austen and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2012-12-03 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a third of a million men set out on that midsummer day of 1812: none can have imagined the terrors and hardships to come. They would be lured all the way to Moscow without having achieved the decisive battle Napoleon sought; and by the time they reached the city their numbers would already have dwindled by more than a third. One of the greatest disasters in military history was in the making. The fruit of more than twenty years of research, this superbly crafted work skilfully blends the memoirs and diaries of more than a hundred eyewitnesses, all of whom took part in the Grand Armys doomed march to Moscow, to reveal the inside story of this landmark military campaign. The result is a uniquely authentic account in which the reader sees and experiences the campaign through the eyes of participants at each stage of the advance in enthralling day-by-day, sometimes hour-by-hour detail.
Download or read book Napoleon s Triumph written by James R. Arnold and published by . This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The French Army of the Orient 1798 1801 written by Yves Martin and published by From Reason to Revolution. This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The uniforms, organisation and equipment of Napoleon's French army in Egypt.
Download or read book Napoleon s Waterloo Army written by Paul L. Dawson and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-10-30 with total page 941 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Waterloo: The Truth at Last “sheds new light on the campaign of 1815 and surely will satisfy all with an interest in the Napoleonic Era” (The Napoleonic Historical Society Newsletter). When Napoleon returned to Paris after exile on the Island of Elba, he appealed to the European heads of state to be allowed to rule France in peace. His appeal was rejected and the Emperor of the French knew he would have to fight to keep his throne. In just eight weeks, Napoleon assembled 128,000 soldiers in the French Army of the North and on 15 June moved into Belgium (then a part of the kingdom of the Netherlands). Before the large Russian and Austrian armies could invade France, Napoleon hoped to defeat two coalition armies, an Anglo-Dutch-Belgian-German force under the Duke of Wellington, and a Prussian army led by Prince von Blücher. He nearly succeeded. Paul Dawson’s examination of the troops who fought at Ligny, Quatre-Bras and Waterloo, is based on thousands of pages of French archival documents and translations. With hundreds of photographs of original artifacts, supplemented with scores of lavish color illustrations, and dozens of paintings by the renowned military artist Keith Rocco, Napoleon’s Waterloo Army is the most comprehensive, and extensive, study ever made of the French field army of 1815, and its uniforms, arms and equipment. “Contains many rare and previously unpublished images in the form of full color drawings and photographs of surviving relics. As with the earlier volumes, this book will appeal to and be enjoyed by a wide readership with special interest for historians, military history enthusiasts, Napoleonic War enthusiasts and re-enactors.” —Firetrench
Download or read book Napoleon s Invasion of Russia written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the campaign written by French soldiers *Includes a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents "The thunderstorms of the 24th turned into other downpours, turning the tracks--some diarists claim there were no roads in Lithuania--into bottomless mires. Wagon sank up to their hubs; horses dropped from exhaustion; men lost their boots. Stalled wagons became obstacles that forced men around them and stopped supply wagons and artillery columns. Then came the sun which would bake the deep ruts into canyons of concrete, where horses would break their legs and wagons their wheels." - Richard K. Riehn French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was not a man made for peacetime. By 1812, he had succeeded in subduing most of his enemies - though in Spain, the British continued to be a perpetual thorn in his flank that drained the Empire of money and troops - but his relationship with Russia, never more than one of mutual suspicion at best, had now grown downright hostile. At the heart of it, aside from the obvious mistrust that two huge superpowers intent on dividing up Europe felt for one another, was Napoleon's Continental blockade. Russia had initially agreed to uphold the blockade in the Treaty of Tilsit, but they had since taken to ignoring it altogether. Napoleon wanted an excuse to teach Russia a lesson, and in early 1812 his spies gave him just that: a preliminary plan for the invasion and annexation of Poland, then under French control. Napoleon wasted no time attempting to defuse the situation. He increased his Grande Armee to 450,000 fighting men and prepared it for invasion. On July 23rd, 1812, he launched his army across the border, despite the protestations of many of his Marshals. The Russian Campaign had begun, and it would turn out to be Napoleon's biggest blunder. Russia's great strategic depth already had a habit of swallowing armies, a fact many would-be conquerors learned the hard way. Napoleon, exceptional though he was in so many regards, proved that even military genius can do little in the face of the Russian winter and the resilience of its people. From a purely military standpoint, much of the campaign seemed to be going in Napoleon's favor since he met with little opposition as he pushed forwards into the interior with his customary lightning speed, but gradually this lack of engagements became a hindrance more than a help; Napoleon needed to bring the Russians to battle if he was to defeat them. Moreover, the deeper Napoleon got his army sucked into Russia, the more vulnerable their lines of supply, now stretched almost to breaking point, became. The Grande Armee required a prodigious amount of material in order to keep from breaking down, but the army's pace risked outstripping its baggage train, which was constantly being raided by Cossack marauders. Moreover, Napoleon's customary practice of subsisting partially off the land was proving to be ineffective: the Russians were putting everything along his line of advance, including whole cities, to the torch rather than offer him even a stick of kindling or sack of flour for his army. Napoleon was sure that taking Moscow would prompt the Russians to surrender. Instead, with winter on the way, the Russians appeared more bellicose than ever. Napoleon and his army lingered for several weeks in the burnt shell of Moscow but then, bereft of supplies and facing the very real threat of utter annihilation, Napoleon gave the order to retreat. By the time the Grande Armee had reached the Berezina, it had been decimated: of the over 450,000 fighting men that had invaded Russia that autumn, less than 40,000 remained. Napoleon's Invasion of Russia details the background leading up to the campaign, the fighting, and the aftermath of France's catastrophic defeat. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the French invasion of Russia like never before.
Download or read book Battle for Paris 1815 written by Paul L. Dawson and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-12-19 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “For anyone seeking a full understanding of the end of the Napoleonic era this book is a must read . . . [a] tour de force of research.” —Clash of Steel On the morning of 3 July 1815, the French General Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans, at the head of a brigade of dragoons, fired the last shots in the defense of Paris until the Franco-Prussian War sixty-five years later. Why did he do so? Traditional stories of 1815 end with Waterloo, that fateful day of 18 June, when Napoleon Bonaparte fought and lost his last battle, abdicating his throne on 22 June. But Waterloo was not the end; it was the beginning of a new and untold story. Seldom studied in French histories and virtually ignored by English writers, the French Army fought on after Waterloo. Many commanders sought to reverse that defeat—at Versailles, Sevres, Rocquencourt, and La Souffel, the last great battle and the last French victory of the Napoleonic Wars. Marshal Grouchy, much maligned, fought his army back to Paris by 29 June, with the Prussians hard on his heels. On 1 July, Vandamme, Exelmans and Marshal Davout began the defense of Paris. Davout took to the field in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris along with regiments of the Imperial Guard and battalions of National Guards. For the first time ever, using the wealth of material held in the French Army archives in Paris, along with eyewitness testimonies from those who were there, Paul Dawson brings alive the bitter and desperate fighting in defense of the French capital. The 100 Days Campaign did not end at Waterloo, it ended under the walls of Paris fifteen days later.
Download or read book Napoleon and his Marshals written by A. G. Macdonell and published by Read Books Ltd. This book was released on 2017-09-06 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This vintage book contains a detailed account of the Napoleonic Wars by A. G. Macdonell. A. G. Macdonell (1895-1941) was a Scottish novelist and journalist. His most famous works include: "The Autobiography of a Cad", arguably amongst the funniest books ever written; "Lords and Masters", a blunt and prescient satire, and "England, Their England" (1933) a classic satirical novel that affectionately explores English urban and rural society. "Napoleon and his Marshals" is widely considered to be one of the best accounts of the Napoleonic Wars ever written and is highly recommended for those with an interest in this chapter of history. Contents include: Contents include: The Army of Italy", "The Old Republicans", "Egypt", "Massena and Suvorov", "The Great Coup", "Marengo", "Making the Grande Armee", "Austerlitz", "Jena and Auserwstadt", "Eylau and Friedland", "The First Triumphs in Spain", "Aspern-Essling and Wagram", et cetera. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with its original artwork and text. First published in 1934.
Download or read book Armies of the Napoleonic Wars written by Gregory Fremont-Barnes and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2011-02-07 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The armies of the Napoleonic Wars fought in a series of devastating campaigns that disturbed the peace of Europe for twelve years, yet the composition, organization and fighting efficiency of these forces receive too little attention. Each force tends to be examined in isolation or in the context of an individual battle or campaign or as the instrument of a famous commander. Rarely have these armies been studied together in a single volume as they are in this authoritative and fascinating reassessment edited by Gregory Fremont-Barnes.Leading experts on the Napoleonic Wars have been specially commissioned to produce chapters on each of the armed forces that took part in this momentous era in European history. The result is a vivid comparative portrait of ten of the most significant armies of the period, and of military service and warfare in the early nineteenth century. The book will be essential reading and reference for all students of the Napoleonic era.Covers the armies of Austria, Britain, the Confederation of the Rhine, the Duchy of Warsaw, France, the Kingdom of Italy, Portugal, Prussia, Russia and Spain.
Download or read book Guibert written by Jonathan Abel and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2016-09-13 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If there was one man, other than Napoleon himself, who determined the course of the Napoleonic Wars, it was Jacques-Antoine-Hippolyte, comte de Guibert, the foremost military theorist in France from 1770 to his death in 1790. Taking in the full scope of the times, from the ideas of the Enlightenment to the passions of the French Revolution, Jonathan Abel’s Guibert is the first book in English to tell the remarkable story of the man who, through his pen and political activity, truly earned the title of Father of the Grande Armée. In his Essai général de tactique, published in 1771, Guibert set forth the definitive institutional doctrine for the French army of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. But unlike many other martial theorists, Guibert, who served in the French Ministry of War from 1775 to 1777 and again from 1787 to 1789, was able to put his ideas into practice. Drawing on a wealth of primary source documents—including Guibert’s own papers and the letters and memoirs of his friends and associates—Jonathan Abel re-creates the temper of an era of great turbulence and remarkable creativity. More than a military theorist, Guibert was very much a man of his day; he attended salons, wrote poetry and plays, and was inducted into the Académie française. A fiery figure, he rose and fell from power, lived and loved fiercely, and died swearing that he would “find justice.” In Abel’s account, Guibert does at last receive a measure of justice: a thorough, painstakingly documented picture of this complex man in the thick of extraordinary times, building the foundation for Napoleon's success between 1796 and 1807—and in significant ways, changing the course of European history.
Download or read book Under the Shadow of Napoleon written by Michael Bonura and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2012-05-07 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The way an army thinks about and understands warfare has a tremendous impact on its organization, training, and operations. The central ideas of that understanding form a nation's way of warfare that influences decisions on and off the battlefield. From the disasters of the War of 1812, Winfield Scott ensured that America adopted a series of ideas formed in the crucible of the Wars of the French Revolution and epitomized by Napoleon. Reflecting American cultural changes, these French ideas dominated American warfare on the battlefields of the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I. America remained committed to these ideas until cultural pressures and the successes of German Blitzkrieg from 1939 - 1940 led George C. Marshall to orchestrate the adoption of a different understanding of warfare. Michael A. Bonura examines concrete battlefield tactics, army regulations, and theoretical works on war as they were presented in American army education manuals, professional journals, and the popular press, to demonstrate that as a cultural construction, warfare and ways of warfare can be transnational and influence other nations.
Download or read book A Wealth of Common Sense written by Ben Carlson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A simple guide to a smarter strategy for the individual investor A Wealth of Common Sense sheds a refreshing light on investing, and shows you how a simplicity-based framework can lead to better investment decisions. The financial market is a complex system, but that doesn't mean it requires a complex strategy; in fact, this false premise is the driving force behind many investors' market "mistakes." Information is important, but understanding and perspective are the keys to better decision-making. This book describes the proper way to view the markets and your portfolio, and show you the simple strategies that make investing more profitable, less confusing, and less time-consuming. Without the burden of short-term performance benchmarks, individual investors have the advantage of focusing on the long view, and the freedom to construct the kind of portfolio that will serve their investment goals best. This book proves how complex strategies essentially waste these advantages, and provides an alternative game plan for those ready to simplify. Complexity is often used as a mechanism for talking investors into unnecessary purchases, when all most need is a deeper understanding of conventional options. This book explains which issues you actually should pay attention to, and which ones are simply used for an illusion of intelligence and control. Keep up with—or beat—professional money managers Exploit stock market volatility to your utmost advantage Learn where advisors and consultants fit into smart strategy Build a portfolio that makes sense for your particular situation You don't have to outsmart the market if you can simply outperform it. Cut through the confusion and noise and focus on what actually matters. A Wealth of Common Sense clears the air, and gives you the insight you need to become a smarter, more successful investor.
Download or read book Napoleon Bonaparte written by and published by Pelangi ePublishing Sdn Bhd. This book was released on 2012-11-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is suitable for children age 9 and above. Napoleon Bonaparte was the first emperor of France. He was a very successful military general and he led his army into many victorious battles. This is the story of how a lawyer's son rose to become a powerful emperor.
Download or read book A Boy Soldier in Napoleon s Army written by Thomas Cardoza and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 214 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
