Book Review:
Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars:

By Kevin Kiley

 

 

When the package containing Kevin Kiley's Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars arrived in the mail I thought several books had arrived at once it was that heavy.

And that is hardly surprising considering the astounding amount of information Kiley has thoughtfully included in this 612-page "concise" dictionary.

It is an A to Z of definitions, descriptions and personalities of pretty much everything and everyone concerned with the major killers of the Napoleonic Wars - the big guns.

Want to know about "grazing fire" - it's there; want to know about the leading artillery experts of the various combatting nations - they are there; want to know about the Gribeauval system and its designer - they're in there too, all 10 pages worth.

As someone deep into researching my second Napoleonic novel, which will include dealings with Austrian artillery, Kiley's efforts will be invaluable. Already I have picked up that Austria's caissons were "karren" and canister "kartatschen".

Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars is the type of resource that will sit on your library shelf or desktop and be opened when you are hunting specific information, or when you just feel like browsing or, with whiskey in hand, you just want to immerse yourself in the world of the big guns.

I cannot begin to think how long it took Kiley - a retired US Marine artillery officer - to research and create this astounding trove of information, but on behalf of Napoleonic enthusiasts (and authors) I want to thank him.

A truly magnificent addition to Napoleonic libraries everywhere.

 

 

- Richard Moore

10/10

Artillery of the Napoleonic Wars, by Kevin Kiley.
Frontline Books, ISBN: 978 1 84832 953 9.
Pages: 612.
Illustrations: 82 images.