Napoleon, Part 2Guide for Viewing, Reading & Surfing

GeneralDVDs

Napoleon PBS 4 hrs (2000) (N) When I started watching this I almost gave up preparing the class. Who could compete with this? Golden-throated David McCullough, a stable of French and Anglo expert talking heads, all having spent their careers studying the Emperor. Including Col John Elting, who wrote the West Point Atlas I’ve used for your maps. And the visuals! The production values. Enjoy!

Napoleon: The Myth, The Battles, The Legend: 2 Disks 2 hrs 25 min each (2001) (N) Another overview. Minimal reenactments. Many British “talking heads” with varying viewpoints from critical to adulatory. Gets “down in the weeds.” But worthwhile for the provocative thoughts expressed.

Napoleon’s Final Battle 1 hr 28 min 2006 (N) Despite the title, this National Geographic presentation is a succinct view of his entire career. It focuses on the Hundred Days of 1815 but used flashbacks to tell his entire career. If an hour and a half is all you want to invest, you can’t do better. Well shot costumed re-enactments of the key events. Minimal “talking heads,” but well done. A few carping points, but, really, not bad. Melodramatic and “over the top,” but so was its subject!

Napoleon 3 Disks (2002) (N)An A&E production staring Christian Clavier as a very convincing Bonaparte, Isabella Rosselini as an even more convincing Joséphine, John Malkovich as a slimy Talleyrand and Gerard Depardieu as Fouché. Directed by a French Canadian, Yves SImoneau. Really nice 3 DVD box set for $12 online. The first two discs contain the 4 episodes, with disc 3 the bonus material.

Napoleon : disc 3. (Bonus materials) 2 hrs 40 min (2002) (N)The Napoleon and Wellington episode (1 hr 36 min) is an excellent biography of these two opponents, both born in 1769! A really fine intro to Napoleon’s career. It culminates in an excellent analysis of Waterloo.

Books

This bibliography makes no claim of being based on a full survey of the available resources. There are as many published works on the man and his era as there are on Lincoln and the Civil War! If a number in parentheses follows a book information entry, it refers to the number of copies at the public library.

Asprey, Robert. The Reign of Napoleon Bonaparte. Basic Books, 2001 (2) A more popular work by a retired U S Marine veteran of two wars who has published accounts of other military eras as well. He takes the story from the peak of Napoleon’s power following the victory at Austerlitz. He also has authored a “prequel” The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Bruce, Robert, Iain Dickie, Kevin Kiley et al., eds. Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age; 1792-1815. 2008 at abe for about $8-9, new In this thematically-organized, thoroughly-illustrated reference text, five expert authors describe the fighting techniques used at the height of Napoleon Bonaparte`s empire. The book explores the tactics and strategy required to win battles and describes how the drastic changes in weapons technology and military systems altered the face of the battlefield permanently. Using specially-commissioned color and black and white artworks to illustrate the battles, equipment and tactics of the era, Fighting Techniques of the Napoleonic Age shows in detail how the battles that would define Europe for years to come were fought and won. In this thematically-organized, thoroughly-illustrated reference text, five expert authors describe the fighting tactics, equipment and techniques used at the height of Napoleon Bonaparte`s empire as well as the developments in weapons technology and changes in military systems. The book shows in detail how the battles that would define Europe for years to come were fought and won. Table of Contents:The Role of Infantry; Mounted Warfare; Command and Control; Artillery and Siege Warfare; Naval Warfare;Select Bibliography;Index

Chandler, David G. The Campaigns of Napoleon. 1966 (3) also at abe for $40 and up

The Campaigns of Napoleon is an exhaustive analysis and critique of Napoleon’s art of war as he himself developed and perfected it in the major military campaigns of his career.

Austerlitz, Jena, Fried-land – we see Napoleon’s star reaching its zenith. Then, in the Wagram Campaign of 1809 against the Austrians – his last real success – the great man commits more errors of judgment than in all his previous wars and battles put together. As the campaigns rage on, his declining powers seem to justify his own statement: “One has but a short time for war.” Then the horrors of the Russian campaign forever shatter

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the image of Napoleonic invincibility. It is thereafter a short, though heroic and sanguinary, road to Waterloo and St. Helena.

“The flight of the eagle was over; the ‘ogre’ was safely caged at last, and an exhausted Europe settled down once more to attempt a return to former ways of life and government. But the shade of Napoleon lingered on irresistibly for many years after his death in 1821. It lingers yet.”—review in The Boston Globe

Elting, John. Swords around the Throne. 1988 (2)

This authoritative, comprehensive, and enthralling book describes and analyzes Napoleon's most powerful weapon -- the Grande Armée, which at its peak numbered over a million soldiers. Elting examines every facet of this incredibly complex human machine: its organization, command system, logistics, weapons, tactics, discipline, recreation, mobile hospitals, camp followers, and more. From the army’s formation out of the turmoil of Revolutionary France through its swift conquests of vast territories across Europe to its legendary death at Waterloo, this book uses excerpts from soldiers’ letters, eyewitness accounts, and numerous firsthand details to place the reader in the boots of Napoleon’s conscripts and generals. In Elting’s masterful hands the experience is truly unforgettable.

Esposito, B Gen. Vincent J. and Col. John Elting. A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. NY: Praeger, 1964 at abe $52-hundreds of dollars for near new condition (2-main library has 2 copies of an abridged version (70) plates vs 169 in the original, but they do not circulate)You will recognize this as the source of so many of the maps and commentary in our presentations. I list this only as a source for the “hard core” students of Napoleon’s campaigns. I’m glad I got my copy in 1964 from the History Book Club for $19.95. One in mint condition now sells for > $200.

The Osprey series: Freemont-Barnes. Napoleon Bonaparte; Leadership • Strategy • Conflict. 2010 at abe $10 &c. This would be my choice for a “textbook” if you’re interested in getting a single volume (64 pp.). There are probably more related titles on Napoleonic warfare in this excellent publishing house than any other military period. You could go broke (and I probably will) trying to get them all. My strategy is to buy them second hand through the abebooks.com/ website. Saves about 20-30% off new. Osprey’s website lists the specialized titles such as French Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792-1815.

Websiteswww.napoleonicsociety.com A very enthusiastic (biased) biography is available at this site along with many other resources.

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www. Napoleon.org The website of the Fondation Napoléon. It can be viewed in either French or English. A great many resources. Many different types of media. One example: a 4 minute video of N’s coronation as emperor employing period art and computer graphics @ http://napoleon.org/en/fun_stuff/video/index.asp

www.napoleonic-literature.com/index.html This site contains a plethora of transcribed classics from the 19th and 20th century literature of the Napoleonic Wars. I particularly recommend the memoirs of Rev. William Leeke, The History of Lord Seaton’s Regiment; The 52nd Light Infantry at Waterloo. 1866

Session i-Apogee

Napoleon : vol 2. 3 hrs 1 min 2002 (N)This 3rd episode of the A&E series begins with the aftermath of the battle of Eylau and takes events up to the fire in Moscow, 1807-1812. It develops his affair with Polish Countess Marie Walewska. A nice recreation of the meeting with Alexander at Tilsit. Back in Paris, family troubles. Spain, 1808, spot on portrayal of the useless Spanish monarchs, the grim guerilla warfare. The battle of Essling, also grim. Joséphine put aside for Marie Louise of Austria, the birth of l’Aiglon (Napoleon II), a very cursory invasion of Russia. Beautiful interiors and good military re-enactments.

Session ii-Spain

http://www.peninsularwar.org/penwar_e.htmThis excellent website by Andrew C. Jackson not only gives excellent historical details but also contains photos of remaining structures and terrain plus directions for the would-be battlefield and museum tourist. Most informative about the Spanish Ulcer which began Bonaparte’s downfall.

Napoleon : vol 2. 3 hrs 1 min 2002 (N)This 3rd episode contains a segment Spain, 1808, spot on portrayal of the useless Spanish monarchs, the grim guerilla warfare.

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Session iii-Wellington

www.peninsularwar.org/penwar_e.htm This site by Andrew C. Jackson contains many fine maps and descriptions of battles. I have used both his text and maps with permission. I know of no better or more up-to-date website on this topic.

Reid, Stuart. Wellington’s Army in the Peninsula. Osprey, 2004 (2)

Napoleon: The Myth, The Battles, The Legend: Disk 2 2 hrs 25 min (2001) (N) This disk includes an episode “The Spanish Ulcer” “Russia,” and “Waterloo” Summary narratives plus useful commentary from different viewpoints.

Cornwell, Bernard. Sharpe’s Eagle. &c (I haven’t checked the library since I bought these as paperbacks. I’m guessing that there are many copies) A great series of historical fiction novels set in the Napoleonic era. Dickie Sharpe, a “James Bond” type hero from the lowest class, rises to the top of the British Army by sheer courage and ability. He is accompanied by a faithful side-kick, Sergeant Patrick Harper, an Irish Catholic. The novels provide remarkable historical information in the “sugar coated’ form of page-turning adventure stories. His description of battles, here Talavera, is positively Homeric. Each book ends with a Historical Note that points out fact from fiction. Also BBC has made a nice, if somewhat cheesy, series, staring Sean Bean as a very believable Sharpe. Cornwell has written fine historical fiction in many other periods. I eagerly await his latest releases, currently in Anglo-Saxon times ca. 780s.Sharpe’s Escape describes the battle of Bussaco and the Lines of Torres Vedras.

Longford, Elizabeth. Wellington; The Years of the Sword. Harper & Row, 1969. (6)This biography by Lady Longford is considered the standard work on this larger-than-life figure. She covers his life from birth into the Anglo-Irish aristocracy in 1769 (3 months before Napoleon) to its pinnacle, at age 46, at Waterloo. His post-1815 career is traced in a companion volume, Wellington; Pillar of State.

Paget, Julian. Wellington’s Peninsular War; Battles and Battlefields. Leo Cooper London, 1990. (1)A highly readable account that stresses the similarity between the Napoleonic Wars and World War II. His first chapter gives a brief overview of the whole Peninsular War and its place in the Napoleonic Wars. Next, he describes the war, year by year. Only then does he devote 27 chapters to each major campaign or battle which he chooses to examine in detail. This unusual plan of organization makes the whole war quite clear. I wish I had read it first rather than last! Probably the best diagrams of any of the books

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reviewed here. Also excellent photographs. Like Robertson’s, below, he describes how to tour the battlefield today. The author’s ancestors fought with Wellington, he fought in the Coldstream Guards in WW II. I can’t recommend this book too highly. If you read only one, this is it.

Robertson, Ian C. Wellington at War in the Peninsula; 1808-1814 An Overview and Guide. Pen and Sword :Barnsley, South Yorkshire, 2000. (1)Excellent glossary & timeline, detailed examination for the period of Wellington’s command. The author has long residence in Spain and familiarity with the geography and the battle sites to illuminate his study of the sources. The book is illustrated with many photographs and maps, both contemporary and from the period. The pictures of the rugged terrain and ancient stone bridges really make clear the difficulty faced by armies trying to move men and supplies across these mountains and rivers. Extensive quotes from primary sources make the accounts vivid. I especially appreciated those from Lord Wellington. They really help you appreciate his humanity. If you want more depth on any of the campaigns and battles we review in class, it’s all here!

Simmons, Maj. George. A British Rifle Man; The Journal of …, During the Peninsular War and the Campaign of Waterloo. London; A & C Black, 1899. (1)This most literate and interesting account gives a rich picture of the officer’s experience of this era. An example of his prose from his journal will suffice: “We jumped through a gap in the hedge at the same moment that a Portuguese Grenadier, who was following , received a cannon shot through his body and came tumbling after us. Very likely during the day a person might have a thousand much narrow escapes of being made acquainted with the grand secret, but seeing the mangled body of a brave fellow so shockingly mutilated in an instant, stamps such impressions upon one’s mind in a manner that time can never efface.”

Session iv-Russia

Napoleon : vol 2. 3 hrs 1 min 2002 (N)This 3rd episode ends with a very cursory invasion of Russia. The 4th carries the Russian story forward to its dreadful conclusion. The snowy retreat is convincingly filmed in Canada.

http://www.allworldwars.com/The%20Batlle%20of%20Borodino%20September%207%201812.html#VIIncredible panorama painting of the battle at its height by Franz Roubaud. There is a detailed commentary on each of nine panels. Your instructor saw this cyclorama at the Borodino museum on the outskirts of Moscow in 1972. This 19th century technique of painting “in-the-round,” intended to be viewed from a central point, was the forerunner of

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our Cinerama and Imax techniques. Sadly, few remain. Another is the famous Gettysburg cyclorama, discovered in a barn and lovingly restored.

1812: The Battle of Borodino 55 min 1999 (N)Another in the series. The film footage is from Sergei Bondarchuk’s 1965-67, War and Peace, described above. Another military historian, John Tincey, joins Chandler. The map work is not as good as in others in the series.

Napoleon’s Road to Moscow 55 min 1999 (N)A grim narration of this climactic campaign. More film footage from Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace. The reenactor narrator portrays Sergeant Bourgogne of the French Imperial Guard. His memoirs are a vivid personalization of the hardship and suffering of Napoleon’s coalition army.

Riehn, Richard K. 1812: Napoleon’s Russian Campaign. NYC : McGraw-Hill, 1990. (2)A terrific modern secondary account of this decisive disaster. Riehn is a founding member of the Military Historical Society. He employs primary sources never before translated from the German and Russian. If you want to dive deeply into this campaign this is your guide.

de Segur, Comte Philippe-Paul, Napoleon’s Russian Campaign. Houghton-Mifflin, 1958 (3)A fine contemporary primary source account by one of Napoleon’s staff officers, his Quartermaster General (QMG). I read this in my Russian History class at Annapolis and his images have stuck with me till this day. A classic warning. Why didn’t Hitler take it? He never read it.On Segur’s qualifications to write this gripping account: “I was less an actor than a witness [of this campaign], never leaving the Emperor’s side for more than a few feet, and then only to deliver several of his orders and see that they were carried out.”Here is his disillusioned description of the battlefield of Valoutina: “Ney’s soldiers and the remnants of Gutin’s divisions, now without a general, were drawn up for review, on top of Russian and French corpses, in the midst of mutilated trees. The earth was beaten hard by the feet of the combatants, plowed by cannon balls, and littered with broken weapons, torn clothing, military equipment, overturned wagons, and human limbs. These were the trophies of war! Such is the beauty of a field of victory!

Sessions v-Sixth Coalition & vi- Völkerschlacht

Brett-James, Anthony, Europe against Napoleon; the Leipzig Campaign, 1813, from eyewitness accounts. Macmillan, 1970 (2)

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Schulze, Hagen, The course of German nationalism : from Frederick the Great to Bismarck, 1763-1867. Cambridge University Press, 1991 (2)The arduous path from the colorful diversity of the Holy Roman Empire to the Prussian-dominated German nation-state, Bismarck's German Empire of 1871, led through revolutions, wars and economic upheavals, but also through the cultural splendor of German Classicism and Romanticism. Hagen Schulze takes a fresh look at late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century German history, explaining it as the interaction of revolutionary forces from below and from above, of economics, politics, and culture. None of the results were predetermined, and yet their outcome was of momentous significance for all of Europe, if not the world.

http://www.napoleonichistoricalsociety.com/articles/Marshalates_Betrayal.htmAn interesting prize-winning article by a recent West Point grad on N’s campaign of 1814. This is typical of the sort of material available at this site.

Napoleon : vol 2. 3 hrs 1 min 2002 (N)The 4th A&E episode describes the defeat of Napoleon, his abdication in 1814 and his time on Elba. He hears of Joséphine’s death and plans his return.

Session vii-Le Cent Jours

King, David, Vienna, 1814. Harmony Books, 2008. (2)An interesting, well researched (93 pp. of bibliography), but yet, an easy read. Gives the picture of this extravagant celebrity-studded event. The high living, back room dealing attempt to create the modern world. He really brings the personalities to life. The diplomacy and the espionage are thoroughly analyzed.

Session viii-Waterloo and St. Helena

1815: The Battle of Waterloo 55 min 1992 (N)Another in the series with reenactors, film excerpts and David Chandler commentaries. Nice battle diagrams and period paintings.

Black, Jeremy, The Battle of Waterloo. Random House, 2010. (1)A professor of history at the University of Exeter, Black received the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize of the Society for Military History in 2008. “More than a masterly guide to an armed conflict, [it] is a brilliant portrait of the men who fought it: Napoleon, the bold

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emperor who had bullied other rulers and worn down his own army with too many wars, and the steadfast Duke of Wellington, who used superior firepower and a flexible generalship in his march to victory. “With bold analysis of the battle’s impact on history and its lessons for building lasting alliances in today’s world, The Battle of Waterloo is a small volume [236 pp.] bound to have a big impact on global scholarship. I found Black especially useful for his comparisons of elements in this battle to others which we have studied, both earlier Napoleonic and French Revolutionary and later battles. He also critiques earlier histories of the battle.

Cotton Sergeant Major Edward (late 7th Hussars). A Voice from Waterloo, 7th rev. ed., an e-Book by Google, 1895.A wonderful first person account by a man who returned to Belgium and became a guide to the battlefield and an amateur historian of the campaign. He tells of his own experiences on the campaign, quotes from the extensive literature of the period, and relates anecdotes from the numerous returning fellow veterans, high and low, whom he guided around the battlefield. Let this serve as your introduction to Google books if you haven’t discovered this resource already. The URL for this and other such books is: http://books.google.com/

Leeke, William, The History of Lord Seaton’s Regiment; The 52nd Light Infantry at Waterloo. 1866 @ www.napoleonic-literature.com/index.html This is the memoir of a young volunteer, gazetted to ensign on the eve of this famous battle. It is a fascinating look at the most celebrated light infantry regiment which was instrumental in the crisis, when Napoleon’s Guard was routed.

Mercer, Gen. Cavalie, Journal of the Waterloo Campaign. (1)The account of an artillery officer of his journey from England to the battle and its aftermath. A very well-written account of the daily trials and tribulations of a then-troop commander Captain of horse artillery. His comments on the condition of the Anglo-Dutch (Belgian) coalition army and his on-the-ground narrative of the battle from a junior participant on the right of Wellington’s line are a nice contrast with the usual bird’s eye narratives, such as Weller’s, Chandler’s, Esposito’s, and Black’s. Especially dramatic are his descriptions of the rear guard on 17 June when he sees Napoleon at the head of the French pursuit, just as the thunderstorm breaks (pp. 147-148) He touches on the deplorable as well as the dramatic. Written in mid-nineteenth century but based upon his daily journals, it combines the virtue of maturity with the freshness of primary source observations. Napoleon : vol 2. 3 hrs 1 min 2002 (N)The 4th A&E episode concludes this biopic with the famous confrontation with 5th Infantry Regiment, a disappointing filming of Waterloo (out of budget?), his futile effort to find freedom, and a somber time on St. Helena.

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Waterloo 115 min 1970 (N)Terrific Hollywood job starring Rod Steiger as Napoleon and Christopher Plummer as Wellington, Orson Welles as Louis XVIII. Couldn’t be better casting. Beautiful slow motion of the futile, overextended charge of the Royal Scots Greys. Spot on shots of Ney’s charge breaking up on the British infantry squares. I can’t imagine a better film portrayal of this famous battle. Directed by Soviet Sergei Bondarchuk [who did the 10 hour monster filming of War and Peace and produced by Dino de Laurentis], “the film includes some 15,000 Soviet foot soldiers and 2,000 cavalrymen as extras ("it was said that, during its making, director Sergei Bondarchuk was in command of the seventh largest army in the world"). Fifty circus stunt riders were used to perform the dangerous horse falls. These numbers brought an epic quality to the battle scenes.” --(Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_(1970_film)

Weller, Jac, Wellington at Waterloo. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1967. (1)A brief [160 pp], but rewarding, narrative of the campaign, followed by another hundred pages of most interesting evaluations: Wellington’s Mistakes, French Mistakes, Prussian Mistakes, maps, photographs, diagrams (the best analysis of cavalry vs squares I’ve ever seen) and tables. I was alerted to this source by Cornwell’s bibliography to the Sharpe volume, Waterloo. He lists it as one of his two most valuable sources (the other being Lady Longford’s Wellington; The Years of the Sword, supra). Her account of the battle contains wonderful anecdotes from the primary sources. Once you’ve mastered the general shape of the battle, try reading her last chapter, “Waterloo—The Finger of Providence.”

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