Fighting for Napoleon: French Soldiers' Letters, 1799-1815

by Bernard Wilkin, René Wilkin

Overview

The French side of the Napoleonic Wars is often seen from a strategic point of view, or in terms of military organization and battlefield tactics, or through officers memoirs. It is rarely seen from the perspective of the lowest ranks of the army, and the experience of the ordinary soldiers is less well known and is often misunderstood. That is why this account, based on more than 1,600 letters written by French soldiers of the Napoleonic armies, is of such value. It adds to the existing literature by exploring every aspect of the life of a French soldier during the period 1799-1815. The book will be fascinating and informative reading for military and cultural historians, but it will also appeal to anyone who is interested in the war experience of common soldiers. It offers the English-speaking audience a French view of a conflict which is too often limited to the traditional memoirs of Captain Coignet, Colonel Marbot or Sergeant Bourgogne.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781399019668
Publisher:	Pen and Sword
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Pages:	192
Sales rank:	261,608
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dr Bernard Wilkin is a Belgian historian who works at the State Archives of Belgium, where he specializes in the history of the French army and the French people at war, from Napoleon to the end of the Third Republic. He was previously lecturer at the University of Exeter and has published on various subjects such as propaganda in France during the world wars and morale in the French army and on the home front during the Great War.

René Wilkin, the father of Bernard, studied and taught history in the city of Liège where he was born. He is now retired but continues to work on Napoleonic history from a French perspective.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgements viii

Introduction 1

Military Correspondence 1

The Survival of a Collection 3

Chapter 1 Serving France 7

Conscription, Desertion and Denunciation 7

Chapter 2 Life in the Army 25

Citizen to Soldier 25

Duties and Events 45

Chapter 3 War Against the Austrians, the Russian and the Prussians 50

Marengo and the Occupation of Italy 50

The War of the Third Coalition 52

The War of the Fourth Coalition 58

The War of the Fifth Coalition 65

Chapter 4 The Peninsular War 72

The Conquest of Portugal and the Spanish Uprising 72

Guerrilla Warfare 81

The British Outnumbered 87

1811 102

The Struggle of the French Army in Spain 113

The Collapse of the French Army 122

Chapter 5 The Decline and Fall of the French Empire 127

The Russian Disaster of 1812 127

The German Campaign 140

Fighting against Napoleon 151

Chapter 6 Wounds, Illness and Captivity 154

Fearing the Hospital 154

Captivity and Suffering 161

Conclusions 169

Appendix: Chronology 172

Bibliography 178

Primary Sources 178

Secondary Sources 178

Index 180