Rifleman

[paswin]

Reading Recommendations for Napoleonic Warfare and Campaigns ?

[HarryInk]

The Histwar manual?

Narrow your question a bit.  What sort of stuff do you want?  Memoirs, campaign histories, overviews, tactical manuals,...

Here's what I was recently reading: http://hwlgchallenge.com/what-are-you-reading-t154.html

And on my lap tonight, fresh from the library, is  Alexander M Martin's chapter 'The Russian empire and the napoleonic wars' in Phillip Dwyer's 'Napoleon and Europe'.  Quite a clear chapter.  I also picked up Duffy's book (I think) called 'Europe against Napoleon' which is a collection of memoirs of the battle of leipzig, methinks.

I'm also startingt to read Leggiere's 'Napoleon and Berlin' which is interesting cos it gives the Prussian perspective on the 1813 campaign.

[Holdit]

Reading Recommendations for Napoleonic Warfare and Campaigns ?

Here's what I consider to be the best from my own collection:

"Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon" - Rory Muir.  
A bit anglo-centric but nevertheless very good.

"The Battle Tactics of Napoleon and his Enemies" - Brent Nosworthy.
An in-depth look at not just Napoleonic tactics but how they evolved from the tactis of the 18th Century. Can be a bit heavy in spots - this is a proper academic treatment of the subject - but excellent all the same.

"1815 - The Waterloo Campaign: The German Victory" - Peter Hofschroer (2 volumes).
In-depth examination of the German contribution to the Waterloo campaign.  Not very flattering to Wellington.

"The Campaigns of Napoleon" - David Chandler.
A real classic. Some of the information is said to be out-of date, but it's nevertheless a good starting point and very comprehensive. The title is indicative of the contents, though, which means there isn't much about Spain.

"A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars"- Vincent Esposito & John Elting
An excellent companion volume to Chandler . Well-written and with exquisite maps. Pricey but worth it.

"Imperial Bayonets" - George Nafziger
An in-depth look at the tactics of the time. More granular than Muir or Nosworthy, I think. That's just an observation, of course - not a value judgement. Includes a very interesting transcript of some of Ney's writings on the subject of grand tactics. Before reading this I had never imagined him to be so tactically sophisticated.

"The Battle" - Alessandro Barbero.
A real gem of a paperback. If "Gettysburg" is the best movie made about a battle (IMO), this must surely be a candidate for the best-written book about one. Without a doubt the most masterfully-crafted history of Waterloo that I've ever read - and I've read a few. How to learn about history without feeling like you're learning at all. A bonus too to have another account of Waterloo that's not written by an Englishman. Mark Adkin's beautiful "Waterloo Companion" complements it superbly.

"The Napoleonic Wars Data Book" - Digby Smith
Like the title says, data: lots of it and in a fairly raw format. Details of every battle you've ever heard of between 1792 and 1815 and hundreds you haven't. Gives commanders, strengths, orders of battle (level of detail here can be variable). An excellent resource for the scenario designer. Not a good source of historical narrative though.

In addition, Osprey has books on the following battles/campaigns:

• Marengo
• Austerlitz
• Jena
• Aspern & Wagram
• Busaco
• Salamanca
• Leipzig
• Waterloo

Holdit

[paswin]

Thank you both Holdit and Harry Ink for your reply.
My question was prompted by a vague memory of a Bibliography in the --------- Thread for Hist war
You have both helped in my search  to a) increase my background reading and b) in finding details of campaigns
Rifleman

[Pariente]

Livres sur le Premier Empire (plus de 175 références)

Books about First French Empire (more than 175 references).

Friendly,
Pariente.

[maj. Franceschi]

Two very simple and interesting book are (same title you have to change the nationality in British and different authors Philipp Haythorthwaite and Steve Noon) France Napoleonic Infantry Tactics 1792-1815 edited by ELITE written by Paddy Griffin and Peter Dennis. You can find them on Amazon.

For interestings maps you can find original picture in these book also with very detailed terrain "Historical Maps of the Napoleonic wars" by Simon Forty and Michael Swift edited by PRC

I found it on Amazon not very exspensive bye!!! 

[HarryInk]

Also this book:  Civil War Generalship: The Art of Command by W.J. Wood.   I got it off JMM's recommendation on the ---------- biblio thread and really enjoyed it.  It's an excellent book and what I learned from it particularly was the things that are usually missing from military histories, which concentrate on movements and commands in response to intelligence.  I learned that a general's relations with underlings is crucial - this causes an absolute disaster in one of the battles studied when an underling who had been excoriated by his CinC after using his initiative an earlier battle decides to do exactly as ordered at exactly the wrong moment in a later one!  Anyway, relationship, the health of the CO under the stress of command (convinced me I'd never succeed as a CinC), and how important were the clarity of the political directions within which a CinC makes their plans.  Napoleon had it easy: he was his own ruler.  On the other hand, if you were lesser generals then you had to have clear directions about what the overall strategy was and how you fit into it.

Anyway, it's a great read.  It's affected the way that I've read everything since.  Ta again, JMM.