Book Review: With Napoleon in Russia, 1812, Lt. Vossler

I bought this book at Partizan, on Sunday, and began reading it the very next day. It's Wednesday lunchtime, and I've just finished it. Hopefully that conveys how much I've enjoyed it? Whilst it's not quite as exciting or colourful as the very best Napoleonic/1812 memoirs, it is nevertheless a solidly readable account.

Vossler was an officer in the Duke Louis Chasseurs, a Würtemberg cavalry unit. Separated from his compatriots, under the command of Montbrun he served alongside French and other 'allied' troops. Although he got as far as Borodino, taking part in the southern portion of the battle, he didn't get to Moscow itself.

I believe this image depicts Vossler's regt.

His account is very down to earth, and mixes observations of the lands he moved through, their towns and peoples, with his own wartime experiences, a great deal of which are concerned with movement and billeting. Wounded at Borodino, his part in the retreat cannot have been much fun, as he also had typhus/dysentery and the accompanying diarrhoea, conditions which would contribute directly to the deaths of many on the advance as well as the retreat.

I like this memoir because it doesn't end once he gets home, one of the few lucky survivors of the Russia 1812 debacle, but continues as he returns to service in the 1813 campaign. However, not yet fully recovered, he's captured when a reconnaissance mission goes wrong, and spends the rest of the hostilities being shepherded around Poland and Russia along with other prisoners of war.

This isn't amazing if you want great detail on any of the battles, even those he took part in. He was at Smolensk, for example, as well as a Borodino. But he doesn't even attempt the grand overview - and I'm thankful, frankly, as plenty of others do (and not always very well) - instead sticking to the localised stuff he was involved in. But it's great for conveying day to day life as a Napoleonic soldier.

Of the officer class, he seems as concerned with food and lodgings, and the usually deploarable state (or indeed absence) of both, as he is with war and soldiering. I love these sorts of books, as they really bring the era and the conflicts to life very vividly. His writing style has been very well rendered in Walter Wallich's translation, avoiding the stodgy style that mires some similar accounts of the same vintage.

Terrain & Buildings: Russian Buildings, 6mm or 10mm?

Undercoated in Halfords grey primer, base coats going on.

I bought all these buildings quite a long time ago now. They were gathering dust, very literally, in a plastic tub. I decided, when I recently made a scratch-built Russian church-tower, to get these out, dust them off, and start painting them.

All the better buildings base-coated.

The buildings from the Big Battalions range by Total Battle Miniatures are fab, and very nicely varied, even including burnt-out/ruined hovels. I've base-coated them in a range of grey/browns, some veering towards beige, some brown, some green-ish. Only a result of these building have much stonework. As was the case in Russia at the time, most buildings were largely constructed from wood. And most old external wood turns a silvery grey, unless it's somehow preserved or painted.

Some other 6mm buildings I bought, at Salute, years ago.

Pictured above are some 6mm scale buildings, by Timecast. These are a lot lower quality, the resin being fairly brittle, and therefore more prone to chipping. They're also less well sculpted, being rather too regular and 'foursquare'. I will probably wind up using them. But perhaps hidden in amongst my Smolensk project scratch-builds. One good thing about them is that they're smaller than the Total Battle buildings, so actually work with my 6mm figures and my own scratch-built buildings.

The better buildings, from the Big Battalions range, are intended for use with 6mm scale figures. But they are too large in my view: if buildings are made in 'true' scale to an individual model figure - and remember each figure usually represents about 20-30 actual soldiers - they actually wind up seeming oversized. So I think I'll use the 6mm scale buildings from Total Battle with my 10mm figures, and build my own 6mm buildings.

Gradually getting into layering the paint on...

Painting is proceeding slowly... but it is proceeding. The Total Battle Miniatures buildings are superb. I'm painting them with a mixture of artists acrylics (Windsor & Newton, Rowney, etc.) and Vallejo. Using washes occasionally, to build up uneven patchy finishes, for a more natural look. When I've done the basic blocking in I'll give the lot a gloss varnish, and do some oil paint washes, to bring out the detail, and then seal it all off with some matt varnish.

Lighter colours and oxidising copper roofs blocked in.

Book Review: Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, Eugene Tarle

Whilst it's massively frustrating not to be finding time or energy for working on my miniatures, I am at least still reading, and watching films/documentaries, etc. My latest read has been Eugene Tarle's fascinating Russian account of the 1812 campaign.

The younger Yevgeny, c. 1900.

Before reviewing the book I think it's worth taking a moment to consider the author and the context he wrote in. Born Grigori Tarle, into a middle class Jewish family, he changed his name to Yevgeny and converted to the Orthodox Christian faith. As a young man, as well as pursuing his academic-historical interests, he got involved in radical left politics, in essence becoming a Marxist.

By the time of WWI and the Russian revolution his politics had seen him in trouble with the Tsarist authorities several times, but he'd nonetheless attained several positions at Russian universities, including that of St. Petersburg. This latter was to be the hub of his activities as an academic and writer for most of the rest of his life. But the turbulent political waters of Russia would see him exiled for four years, and criticised both abroad and at home as a historian.

Older and looking more careworn.

At home he was usually deemed to liberal and cosmopolitan, by the State and its flunkeys, and abroad he was considered too much under the thumb of the latter, and therefore seen as overdoing the whole Marxist and/or Soviet (i.e. later on Stalinist) class struggle bit. Poor guy! Talk about caught between a rock and a hard place! At the time of posting this article and review, the only Amazon UK reviews of Tarle's book I could find describe it either as 'a propagandistic view of Stalin's era', or interesting in relation to WWII.

I think this is sad and very unfair. Tarle's account of the 1812 campaign is in fact excellent. It is true that he has modified his own position somewhat to come into line with the orthodoxy of his time and location, which is a shame, and is why I've docked half a bicorne. But considering the potential lethality of the political era in which he lived and worked, it's actually a remarkably independent piece of scholarly work, and far, far, far better than, for example, Hilaire Belloc's account of the campaign, the latter being published in England in 1922.

Barclay de Tolly.

The small hardback edition of Tarle's book that I bought and read - as pictured at the top of this post - was published in 1942, during WWII, in America and England. The first Russian edition had been published before the outbreak of war, in 1938. In 1936 Tarle had published a book on Napoleon and the entire Napoleonic period, in which he took a markedly different line on a number of aspects of the 1812 campaign. But with Germany clearly gearing up for war, and Stalin's dictatorship growing ever more paranoid and volatile, these changes, whilst lamentable, are at least understandable.

Nowadays it's gradually becoming easier to find Russian accounts translated into English, as indeed it is to find accounts from all, or at least more, of the participants in any given campaign, such as Andrew Field's excellent work on French sources for the Waterloo campaign, or, returning to Russia, Alexander Mikaribdze's excellent Russian Eyewitness Accounts series. It's interesting for Western European readers like myself to hear, amongst the more normal official military and academic Russian sources, Marx and Engels quoted on the topic of 1812! [1]

Kutuzov.

The translation of Tarle's book into English is good, the author's writing style coming across as easy readable prose, neither pompously verbose and academic, nor too simplistic. Structurally Tarle favours few and huge chapters, whereas I prefer to read many and shorter chapters, due to my habit of preferring to take my reading breaks at the end of rather than in the middle of a chapter.

Thanks to the predominantly Russian sources, and the resolutely Russian perspective, and also even in part the times and conditions under which this book was written, this is Ann interesting and unusual entry in the Russia 1812 canon. Certainly worth having in your 1812 library, and a fascinating and enjoyable read. Yes, it bears the politico-historical imprint of it's times and conditions, but so does all historical writing, albeit with varying degrees of independence and transparency.

Tsar Alexander I.

Coverage of the action, or inaction, on the northern (Prussian) and Southern (Austrian) flanks is adequate if minimal, as with most traditional Western European histories of the campaign. The bulk of the account traces the central thrust by Napoleon's main forces, or rather how this was responded to by the central Russian forces, with plenty on the leadership issues that plagued the Russian campaign. And the Russian course was very much one of response, rather than initiative.

The Tsar, whilst lauded for his resolute stance, is criticised for interfering and destabilising at the outset. Everyone under him, including his sister and closest advisors wished him to preside from St. Petersburg; his presence with the army being viewed as almost entirely detrimental. Hard for an absolute ruler like a Tsar to swallow, especially in the face of Napoleon, who combined head of state with head of the army so well.

Then there are the issues of rivalry between Barclay de Tolly and Bagration, and later the latter and Kutuzov. In essence it appears that whoever it devolved upon to actually lead the Russians would ultimately concede that the best path was to do as Barclay and Kutuzov did, and conserve the Russian Army by evading Napoleon as far as possible, and instead shadowing him first into and then out of Russia, letting the logistical difficulties and a certain amount of harrying wear the French and their allies down.

Those around and under whoever had ultimate command would forever bang on about taking the offensive, Bagration in particular, but when their bluff was called, as when Kutuzov temporarily gave Bennigsen command, the latter quickly fell into line and adopted the evade and survive strategy. And in the end even this cautious conservative approach saw the Russians, like the French and their allies, suffering terrible losses, mainly due to cold, inadequate (and in the Russian case endemically corrupt)  logistical arrangements, and disease.

Still, all things considered (by which I primarily refer to the politicised context of this account), an excellent and highly enjoyable Russian history of the momentous 1812 campaign.

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NOTES:

[1] And, rather unexpectedly, the source for most of these quotes are entries Engels wrote for the New American Cyclopedia, of 1856!

Book Review: The Iron Marshal, Gallagher

Having just finished this excellent account of the life of Louis Davout, I feel I have to remark on how surprisingly good so much Napoleonic history is. I'm constantly reading in this vast subject, and frequently encountering an author who's new to me. And, by and large, most of what I read is very good.

John G. Gallagher is such an author, i.e. new to me, and his biography of Louis-Nicolas Davout, The Iron Marshal, is better than merely very good, it is superb. We get the whole story, from his birth into a thoroughly military family of the lesser nobility, through the upheavals of the Revolution, and on into the glory years of the Napoleonic era, finally passing to the restoration of the Bourbons and, not long after that, Davout's decline and death.

Louis-Nicolas Davout, Prince Eckmuhl, Duc d'Auerstedt.

Gallagher perfectly balances all the elements, writing in an easy going yet authoratative manner, with a turn of pace brisk enough to keep the read exciting, and thorough enough to keep it fascinating. Of course the major interest for readers like myself are Davout's great successes, chief of which is Auerstedt. But all his campaigns and battles are adroitly covered. 

After the Russian debacle Napoleon perhaps fails to employ Davout, arguably his most capable lieutenant, to best advantage. Firstly leaving him stranded in Hamburg as the Allies sweep westward, prior to his first abdication. And then choosing to employ him in Paris as Minister of War, during the 100 Days Campaign, when he might've been better employed in the field, and thus perhaps hastening his second and final abdication?.

Vanquished Prussians retreat after Jena-Auerstedt (R. Knotel).

If not universally loved, then certainly greatly and widely respected, Davout emerges as a capable and judicious leader. Not as colourful or ambitious as your Murats or Bernadottes, perhaps, but instead a more devoted and more principled man, less self-interested and more duty-bound, whose belief in discipline and organisation meant troops under his care were second only to the Guard. 

Gallagher's book has proven to be the perfect way for me to learn more about one of Napoleon's most capable commanders. Highly recommended.

Davout in the Kremlin, Moscow, 1812 (V. Vereshchagin).

Book Review: The Great Retreat - Alexander Korolev

The book... a rather handsome cover, n'est pas?

A treasure trove of poignant relics and information.

Whenever I attend a wargaming show I always make a bee-line for the book stalls. Whether or not I'm going to buy any figures, terrain, paints, or whatever, I will pretty much always be buying books.

One of my chief areas of interest since my return to these areas, is Russia, 1812. And I'm beginning to amass a sizeable collection of books on this ever-fascinating subject. A surefire sign that I have tipped over into the obsessional is my latest acquisition, The Great Retreat, by Alexander Korolev, a book filled mostly with pictures of ... buttons.

As I mentioned in my recent post about the current British Museum show, Bonaparte and the British, the utterly superb series A History of the World in 100 Objects effected something of a sea-change in me, as regards what I'd hitherto ignored as rather mundane objects. Buttons would almost certainly have fallen into this category in years prior to AHOTW100. Yet when I found this book on the Ken Trotman stand at Salute, 2015, I picked it up and was immediately transfixed.

Page after page after page of well-photographed detritus from the Russian 1812 campaign is beautifully catalogued herein, all in full and glorious colour, along with information on all the pertinent units, the two threads of images and text running more or less in tandem. These parallel lines, of apparently mute artefacts and unit information that helps contextualise them, are supported by plentiful ancillary images, and even occasional extracts from contemporary accounts.

Numerous uniform plates enhance this books appeal,

including a cleaned up reproduction of this plate by

Bellange (source: wikipedia commons) [1]

Approximately 250 pages long, The Great Retreat is full to bursting with excellently reproduced colour images. I haven't counted them! The foreward and author's preface suggest that there are 2,400 images, whilst the promo blurb at the Uniform Press website mentions '1600 previously unpublished illustrations'. Unsurprisingly pretty much all of the artefacts that form the core of this incredible collection are metal, as that's what survives best buried under soil.

The commonest artefacts are buttons - lots and lots and lots of buttons - but there's plenty more besides: 'firearms and bullets, cannon and cannonballs, swords and sabres, reins and stirrups, as well as the personal items - buckles, coins, pipes, razors, and souvenirs' is how they describe the archaeological artefacts at the Uniform Press website. This is supported with '289 biographies of all the regiments and units, backed up [by] eyewitness accounts of those there.' There are also many portraits and uniform plates, plus the sundry other elements, both visual and textual, such as the detailed images of a French musket on p. 65. [2]

A replica 1777 Napoleonic French musket. [2]

Another fascinating bit of information we glean in the author's preface relates to how this material was collected, during a brief window of opportunity between the fall and dissolution of the Soviet Union and some very recent Russian legislation which makes the kind of amateur treasure-hunting this collection is built upon illegal! Take a look here for an article about the finding of a mass grave in Vilnius whiuch has yielded much of interest in this line.

It was both touching and amusing to read 'This book will undoubtedly find its readership'. One almost senses the unspoken side of this statement, i.e. that this might just be too specialised to have an audience, let alone reach it! Well, I'm one of those 'amateur military history enthusiasts', who's delighted to be able to view this poignant collection of illicitly gathered contraband, which speaks so modestly and quietly about an episode of such enormous suffering.

There are lots of people selling stuff like this on eBay.

I'd like to get some, but I'm very wary of such things,

having heard that there are lots of fakes being sold.

There's almost something spooky about how this incredible collection of ostensibly mute objects can speak so eloquently not just about the retreat itself, but a whole era: not only are the units officially designated for the invasion represented, many others are to. As well as items giving concrete evidence of the presence of units one would expect to see represented archaeologically, there are many that one might not anticipate seeing.

Some of the buttons and other detritus found along the route of the Grand Armée's advance and retreat represent units that were disbanded long before the Russian campaign. Some were simply disbanded, others renumbered or re-amalgamated, whilst others belonged to previous epochs, such as Republican units, and even the odd Royalist outfit. There are even occasionally bits and bobs most likely acquired by troops campaigning elsewhere, such as ephemera from the Peninsular.

Some of these anomalous items may perhaps have been kept as souvenirs. Others, one suspects, from the tortured complexity of Napoleonic uniformology, may appear as a result of the many instances of irregular and/or outdated equipment still being in service. There were also instances of men sent from unrelated units on various grounds, such as naval artificers who joined the pontoon trains, or just odd groups of troops sent seemingly at random to make up the numbers in another unit. It all adds to the richness and complexity of an already fascinatingly Byzantine subject.

Louis-Victor Baillot, photographed in 1890, 

approx. 97 years old. (Wikimedia commons)

The picture above appears on page 62, and is, I think, both fabulous and quite amazing. The info given in the caption beneath the picture in The Great Retreat says when he was born and died (to the day: 9th April, 1793 - 3rd February, 1898!), but doesn't say when the pic was taken. I found the above picture on French and Italian versions of Wikipedia. The French entry tells us the picture was taken in Baillot's home town, Carisey, in 1890, making Baillot about 97 years old at that point, and around 105 when he died (assuming his birth and death dates are correct); what a long and intriguing life!

Baillot was a fresh faced conscript, about 19 years old, in 1812. If he went to Russia and survived his life story is that much more amazing: the 105th, despite being kept in the rear - advancing only as far as Vilna due to being raw young conscripts - 'starved and died ... whole detachments at a time' during the chaotic retreat. I can find no direct mention that he was in Russia in 1812, but he is alleged to have served at Waterloo, and therefore have been the last and longest living survivor of that fateful day in June, 1815.

Faber du Faur's On the Main Road Between Mojaisk and Krymskoi,

18 September; an image that perhaps depicts the kind of scenario in

which the artefacts in this book wound up on Russian soil?

Almost buried (how apt!) within the exhaustive and potentially exhausting minutiae, the lists of units, troop movements and numbers, are a very few but nonetheless very interesting quotes from firsthand accounts. Some come from names readers of this episode will already know - Heinrich von Roos was a name I recognised - but one or two, such as the anonymous writer from the wagon train who laments the lack of opportunities for rest, and the impossibility of properly caring for the horses, may be new. The sad fate of the many horses lost in this campaign is quite upsetting. And whilst many (perhaps most?) descended into a state of callous self-preservation, the painting below by Albrecht Adam speaks to the fact that many saw the suffering of the horses and were, as I am when I read about it, appalled and upset.

A beautiful painting of one of the countless horses abandoned

to a sad and lonely fate, by artist and veteran of the campaign

Albrecht Adam. Entitled Riderless Horse at Mojaisk.

Every arm of the massive invasion force is covered here: all the units are described, giving their origins and their particular fates during the 1812 campaign, with pertinent surviving artefacts illustrated alongside. What is an already informative resource is further enriched by portraits, uniform plates and suchlike. This obsessive rigour is extended to the numerous French allies, all of which makes this, quite literally, a treasure trove of information and visual reference material.

So, all in all, a brilliant book. Perhaps really only for those really obsessed with subject? I can only say that I love it, and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone interested in the 1812 campaign.

----------

NB - I bought my copy for £30 from the Ken Trotman stall at Salute. I've subsequently discovered that you can get it from the publishers themselves at the significantly cheaper price of £22.50. I don't know if that includes postage.

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NOTES:

[1] The book uses a multitude of sources, listing some interesting websites, and even deigning to use Wikipedia sourced images on occasion.

[2] In the book itself there are several items reconstructed from surviving fragment of original artefacts, including one of these firearms - not the one pictured, incidentally - several of which are 'Made by Alexei Smoliakov, Smolensk.'

Book Review: Uniformes Napoléoniens, Carle Vernet

1er Regt. Carabiniers.

Whilst doing some picture research for my post on Paul Britten Austin's superb 1812 writings, I was looking for images of Swiss Voltigeur Jean-Marc Bussy, and failing to find any. So I settled for a couple of uniform plates, one by Knötel, and another by Carle Vernet, showing Swiss troop types that might've looked similar in appearance.

1er Regt. de Hussards.

Chevau-légers lancers Polonais.

Infantrrie lègére.

Having browsed numerous Vernet plates from this particular series online, I became aware that a complete Folio of around 245 plates had been produced. Covering the entire Grand Armée, it illustrates the new 1812 Bardin regulation uniform update, ordered by Napoleon as he campaigned in Russia. I looked longingly at originals for sale online, knowing that unless my fiscal fortunes change massively at some point, I'll not be owning such treasures any time soon.

But I did discover that there'd been a book published by the Musée de l'Armèe/Bibliothèque de l'Image, reproducing 77 of these fabulous images. I promptly found and bought a copy, via the Abe Book website, from a bookseller who turned out to be just a few miles away, in Ely. The book arrived promptly, very well packaged and in pristine condition. So I'm really chuffed.

1er Regt. de chasseurs à cheval.

1er Regt. de Dragons.

Artillerie, Col. et chef de Bataillon.

The uniforms are splendid, and the images illustrating them are gorgeous. The figures and their faces and anatomies are rendered in a style bearing the hallmarks of the Academic training of the day, with Neo-Classical profiles, and poses/gestures. Not enormously realistic, but very stylised and graceful, and totally in keeping with the peacock finery of the apparel.

Carle Vernet collaborated with Bardin in the massive project, with Bardin taking care of the technical details and Vernet supplying the artistic eye/hand. The text of this book is entirely French, and quite brief. There are no plate by plate entries elucidating the content of the individual images.*

Infanterie légère, chasseurs. Preparing a meal.

21eme Regt. de chasseurs a cheval, ice-skating!

One of the many things I like about this book and the art it depicts, are the numerous little scenarios, such as the skaters, or the guys preparing a meal, above, or the Dragoons practising with wooden/whicker swords, or the line grenadiers en veste, at their bivouac, with firewood and loaves of bread, below.

26eme Regt. Dragoons.

Infanterie de Ligne, grenadiers en veste.

I've read in numerous places that the introduction of changes such as are commissioned and illustrated in a project like this take years to come into effect, and they often don't reach all the areas they're intended to at all. Sometimes being ignored, or sometimes being superseded by other changes. So to what degree these images reflect how Napoleon's troops actually looked over the next few years is something I'd be hesitant to pronounce on.

But as a resource for the Napoleonic buff, and even just as an object to be admired in itself, this is unquestionably a wonderful little publication.

The original Folio volumes.

How the original plates were presented,

with info below, in a kind of 'inscription'.

* I've half a mind to try my hand at translating the text, as there's not that much of it. But whilst preparing this post I found out that Greenhill books have published an English edition of this book. Hmm? Should I get that?

Carle Vernet.

Book Review: 1812, Napoleon's Invasion of Russia, Paul Britten Austen

This single volume publication, on Bible-thin paper, is actually a three volume work. The product of 25 years of study, it collects and weaves together myriad short extracts from around 160 firsthand accounts, written by participants in these momentous events. The result is something really quite unique and very special.

Even in this single volume format it’s a weighty tome, and no mistaking! The one-thousand or so pages adding up to, as the author himself points out, something 'fairly vast.' He describes his book as a ‘word film’, and it really does have something of that quality. Certainly the drama of the events is heightened, coming as it were from the horses' mouths. 

And what horses! His sources range from the highest echelons (Caulaincourt, at Napoleon’s side), to the rank and file (the author’s own choice of lowlier men being ‘obscure little Swiss voltigeur Jean-Marc Bussy’). My only quibble on this score is that it's not always completely clear who's being quoted.

Caulaincourt and Bonaparte leaving Russia. [2]

Despite being ‘fairly vast’, the narrative sticks pretty resolutely to the central column of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Amazingly, there's not sufficient space for much, if anything, about the flanking Corps. [1] I happened to have superb visual accounts of the 1812 campaign to hand, by Faber du Faur and Albrecht Adam, when I read this, which helped me visualise things. I just wish I had also had a really good book of maps; so much of the narrative info concerns movements, and particular locations, all of which would have been more easily followed if only one could glance back and forth between the text and some decent maps!

Pretty much all the books that I've been reading on this subject, at least amongst the more contemporary ones, make some use of firsthand accounts. But this particular telling of the story takes that modus operandi to new heights. In describing how he wrote the book Britten Austen said, I ‘invent nothing, hardly even a phrase, and certainly neither events nor persons. But resurrect them - in their own words.’ The book is remarkably vivid as a result, which is fantastic.

Swiss Infantry of the 4th Regt, Carle Vernet. [3]

For example, the adventures and sufferings of a certain Heinemann, survivor of a virtual massacre, as he escorts a wounded sergeant to the rear, before becoming a prisoner himself, are just one among many of the episodes that vividly convey the exciting, moving and gripping dramas this book is packed with. In this instance there's actually a happy end to the story - in fact two happy endings (but I'll let you read the book and find out what they are!) - a rare and pleasant thing, given the huge loss of life in this campaign.

Allowing his sources to speak for themselves is certainly not the author simply being lazy. Again in his own words*: ‘Naturally … [I] had to take my thousands of vivid fragments, longer or shorter, snip them and put them together in what I came to think of as a 'marching order', and generally help the reader not to go astray.’ But, rather endearingly, where his own voice is audible, I love it: I Iike a writer who says 'i'sooth'! Indeed, his writing style is quite different in tone to all the other authors I've read so far on this subject, which is refreshing. He's also the only author, besides Burns, that I've encountered using the term 'agley', as in 'aft gang agley', as in when things go 'wrong'!

Paul Britten Austen

In conclusion, this is a pretty unique account of the Russia 1812 campaign. Vivid, gripping, and, for my money, totally essential reading. Can't recommend it highly enough!

* In deference to the author's own style!

————

NOTES:

[1] In a more academic book that sought to cover the whole campaign this might be a problem. But in this instance, the author is pursuing a different set of goals, chiefly to transport the reader to the time and place he’s writing about. And in this respect this book is a signal triumph.

[2] Given how much time Caulaincourt spent in close proximity to Napoleon, it's amazing how hard it is to find any contemporary images of them together!

[3] If pictures of Caulaincourt with the Emperor made me think of him as the invisible man, then what should I call poor old Jean-Marc Bussy? I could find no images of him at all. So instead I found some pictures by Carle Vernet, illustrating uniforms of the 1812 regulations (which Vernet also had a hand in designing). These guys playing footsie with each other look to be having an easier time of it than Bussy had! I did, however, find out that Bussy later became a police-man, and lived to the ripe old age of 88!

... then, a bit later, I found the picture below, by Knötel. This one has a Swiss Voltigeur, on the right. I guess Bussy must've looked something like this fellow?

Book Review: Armies of 1812, Digby Smith

NB: The pictures I've illustrated this piece with are not from the book under review.

If you're really interested in Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and I mean really interested, then this book certainly has a lot of detail about the armies involved in that monumental conflict. Well, some of the armies; the vast bulk of the weight of information is very heavily biased towards Napoleon's Grande Armée. Compared with the French army, even their main adversaries in this conflict, the Russians, aren't dealt with in such a thorough way. 

This is a shame, but there are two factors relevant to this, most people (at least in Western Europe and the U.S.) are probably - or traditionally have been - more interested in the French contingent, and the French records have survived in better condition, and were probably always better maintained in the first place (it appears the cannon fodder of post-revolutionary France at least merited better record keeping than the expendable hordes of Russian serfdom!). And the Turkish section really is wafer thin, dealing with the subject in just two pages of text, and a mere two plates!

Wafer thin Turkey...

Despite the almost scarily obsessive level of interest in minutiae, there are areas where the book falls down, at least in terms of what I wanted from it: sometimes Smith gives the composition of units in preface to uniform detail, and sometimes he doesn't (consistency on this front would've been desirable), and the 'Orders of Battle' are too generalised. Given the level of detail in some areas, it seems odd and a shame that each individual battle doesn't list the exact breakdown of forces involved, where known. One could perhaps reconstruct the composition of forces at particular battles from the info contained in the book, but I think it'd be a lot of hard work. 

Cruikshank's depiction of Boney, watching Moscow burn.

The book is full of maps, including interesting ones that show the progress (and degeneration) of each of the French Corps, and there's a copiously richly illustrated middle section, with loads of wonderful uniform plates, reproduced in very decent quality, albeit much smaller than the originals. This latter point leads to another oddity re the proofing of the book: Smith frequently asks that you 'note such-and-such', regarding unifrom details in a given illustration, although evidently these authorial admonitions weren't proofed against the actual book, in which most of the details he's referring to are invisible due to the prints being much reduced from the originals. Still, they're beautiful and useful to those who need to know this sort of thing. But, if it's Napoleonic uniforms you're into, there are other better primarily visual sources, like, for the French (albeit not specifically in reference to the 1812 campaign alone), the jaw-droppingly rich and comprehensive book of Rousselot plates Napoleon's Army 1790-1815.

A more sober view of events.

This one's even good for uniform ref.

I'd imagine this book is way too narrow in it's focus for the general reader tho', and an example of this is the way the index is organised: lists of units and military personnel are the only things listed! I have to say I thought this was a serious shortcoming - What about being able to look up particular battles for example? If you want to do this, you'll have to spend ages scanning the pages - but then it does fit into the scheme suggested by the book title. So, the focus really is on the armies, not the battles, campaigns, locations, politics, tactics or anything else. 

There is a synopsis of the campaign, which is useful to have within the book, but it doesn't add much to the scholarship on this exhaustively treated subject (even within Smith/von Pivka's own writings*). There are also more than the normal share of editorial gaffes, such as illustrations wrongly labelled, grammar and other literary mistakes, some of which are just technical typos, others seemingly words wrongly typeset, or misunderstood: the book would have benefited from better editorial handling.

Cruikshank's view of the retreat.

Gillray's even more scathing depiction.

So, unless you're either a turbo-charged military buff, or a wargamer (which can often be the same thing), this isn't likely to be for you. Despite all the critical comments I've made, all of which are a fair cop if you ask me, this is a very handy book if you're someone who feels they need to know, for argument's sake, the exact composition of Ney's III Corps, and how it fared throughout the disastrous 1812 campaign.

It is in fact actually quite difficult to rate this book, because, if this is the kind of detail you're after, then this is certainly a handy resource. But it is quite uneven, and there are even some annoying shortcomings and oversights, to my mind, not to mention plain simple editorial (i.e. proof-reading, rather than authorial) mistakes. But despite all these issues, if you're borderline obsessed with things Napoleonic, as I am, you'll probably still enjoy this.

* Digby Smith used to write under the nom de guerre Otto von Pivka!

Digby Smith, as pictured at the Pen & Sword website.