Book
Review:
Napoleon's Last Grande Armee
To
order from Military History Press click here
By
Alfred Umhey
The
1813 Campaign in Germany ruined Napoleon Bonaparte's
last
major fighting army and all but ended any hopes he had of maintaining
an empire far outside of France's borders.
All
up the French had more than 500,000 men under arms but that was
dwarfed in comparison with the mighty combined Allied armies of
about 700,000 soldiers.
As
the battles of Lutzen, Bautzen, Kulm, Dresden, Dennewitz and Katzbach
took their toll, Napoleon Bonaparte had only some 200,000 men
at Leipzig to fight the Allies' 350,000 soldiers.
Leipzig
was the Battle of Nations - the largest clash of arms of the Napoleonic
Wars - and France's defeat resulted in an end to the campaign
of German liberation.
Never
again would an exhausted France field a Grande Armee and so author
and historian Alfred Umhey's magnificent bound volume of uniform
plates from the Dresden and Freiberg manuscripts enshrines the
1813 army in pictorial history.
Umhey
was curator of the German Army Museum and is now a consultant
for museums and historical exhibitions.
Napoleon's
Last Grande Armee is a stunning 1000-copy limited edition
that is the finest book I have seen on the Napoleonic Wars.
It
is leather bound with gilt-edged pages, is larger than A4-sized
paper and is of an unsurpassed quality. And we haven't even got
to the information packed within its 348 pages - or the sensational
full-colour picture plates.
It
should be noted we are very fortunate to see these rare images
as many images in the manuscripts were lost for much of the 20th
century. They disappeared in 1963 and the missing Freiberg Manuscript
became a legend.
The
plates are from artworks done by artists Kurt Winkler (1794-1862)
and Charles Brun (1825-1908) with the latter using as a reference
the works of Christoph Bommer (1790-?) in the Dresden Manuscripts.
Bommer's
works were known, but for 200 years the artist himself was not
identified and it took a chance discovery in an antique store
to find out who had created the body of work. It came about when
a watercolour of a French marshal led to a signature that was
recognised and connected to the uniform plates.
There
are 50 Winkler watercolours and 63 from Brun based on the Freiberg
Manuscripts and a further 34 by Brun from the Dresden collection.
All
up in Napoleon's Last Grande Armee there are almost 150
full-page colour uniform plates, complete with a facing page of
details on the troops and a brief description of where they were
serving during 1813. Many of the works include ink sketches.
Generals,
voltigeurs, dragoons, chasseur a cheval, lancers, Poles, Swiss,
Croats, Italians, Neopolitans - they are all covered.
In
addition you have detail on cavalry cloaks of the various units,
horse furntiture, the artillery and their horses and excellent
views of soldier's packs. I found this really interesting seeing
how various objects - including a leg of ham, loaf of bread, metal
plate - were packed. I loved the chained rabbit on top of one
of them.
Napoleon's
Last Grande Armee is one of those rare books that
even non-Napoleonic fans can look at and go "Wow!".
In fact even I - despite my vast Napoleonic library - was a little
awed by it. I just wanted to touch it and admire it and it took
a wee while to get the courage up to thumb through it.
The
volume is not cheap - around US$250 - but its superb presentation
and magnificent collection of plates makes it shine out as a must-have
book. It
really is hard to think of a better book for a Napoleonic devotee's
library.
Napoleon's
Last Grande Armee is a glorious volume of work that presents
a trove of uniform information at an unparalled level of quality.
This
is a treasure and both the author and publishers Military History
Press should take great pride in their astounding achievement.
-
Richard Moore
9.9/10
To
order from Military History Press click here
