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This is the first English translation of the memoirs of
Jean-Nicolas Cur�ly. Born in 1774, son of a labourer, Cur�ly
rose through the ranks to become a General in Napoleon's Light
Cavalry. Although Cur�ly did not fight in many of the most famous
battles of the First Republic and the Napoleonic Wars, this
reflects the role of the light cavalry; scouting ahead of the army,
conducting reconnaissance to the flanks and launching raids. He
did, however, take part in all Napoleon's great campaigns,
including Austerlitz, Heilsberg, Essling, Raab, Wagram, Beresina,
Wachau, Leipzig, Craonne and Laon, and served as an aide de camp to
many of the French army's most famous light cavalry generals.
Cur�ly's memoirs give a unique and detailed glimpse into the
day-to-day life of the light cavalry from someone who, although of
lowly birth and with no education, became an exceptional General.
He was a hussar at 19 years, second lieutenant at 32, squadron
commander at 35, Colonel at 38 and General at 40\. He became
Cavalier of the L�gion d'Honneur in 1806, and was wounded five
times in his career. His account describes in great detail the many
actions he was involved in and the many exceptional scrapes he
escaped. However, his narrative does not only describe combat but
also the lengths he went to for the welfare of his men and horses,
particularly during the retreat from Moscow which he survived with
a hundred men and nearly all his officers still battleworthy.
Stretching from Cur�ly's enrolment with the Hussars in 1793 to
Waterloo, capitulation of Paris and the disbandment of the army,
this book is a 'must have' for anyone with an interest in the
Napoleonic Wars.
For almost 200 years, the British perception of the Battle of
Waterloo was that it was a great British victory gained over the
French tyrant Napoleon which was achieved in spite of, rather than
because of, the allied contingents in the Duke of Wellington's
army. Eyewitness accounts by British soldiers, encouraged by the
doubts expressed in Wellington's despatches, denigrated and
vilified the courage and prowess of these allies. But in the last
twenty years modern historians, with better access to the accounts
and archives of the allied nations, have tried to put the record
straight, and their efforts have been rewarded by changing
attitudes and a greater understanding of the significant part the
allies played. Andrew Field, in this the latest of his series of
pioneering books on Waterloo, makes a powerful contribution to this
continuing debate by analyzing in forensic detail the records of
these allied forces throughout the campaign. In his balanced,
nonpartisan reassessment he describes the make-up of these forces,
their training and experience, and their military capability.
Included are graphic accounts of their actions and performance on
the battlefield. His work is essential reading for all students of
the Waterloo campaign.
This volume of French eyewitness accounts of Waterloo, published
for the first time in full in English, completes Andrew Field's
pioneering work on the French experience in this decisive battle.
These vivid recollections add a new dimension to our understanding
of what happened on 18 June 1815. Readers will now be in a position
to come to their own conclusions and they can compare the French
accounts with those of soldiers from the allied armies, in
particular the British, which have largely determined our
assumptions about the battle for the last 200 years. They will also
gain a heightened insight into the trauma that the French
eyewitnesses went through on the battlefield and afterwards as they
tried to explain and come to terms their loss. This second volume
features graphic descriptions of the battle as it was remembered by
men of the 2nd and 6th corps, cavalry, artillery and Imperial Guard
and medical services of Napoleon's army. Their words give us not
only a telling inside view their actions during that extraordinary
day, but they also record in graphic detail what they saw and show
us how they reacted to Napoleon's historic defeat.
The story of the Battle of Waterloo - of the ultimate defeat of
Napoleon and the French, the triumph of Wellington, Bl cher and
their allied armies - is most often told from the viewpoint of the
victors, not the vanquished. Even after 200 years of intensive
research and the publication of hundreds of books and articles on
the battle, the French perspective and many of the primary French
sources are under-represented in the written record. So it is high
time this weakness in the literature - and in our understanding of
the battle - was addressed, and that is the purpose of Andrew
Field's thought-provoking new study. He has tracked down over
ninety first-hand French accounts, many of which have never been
previously published in English, and he has combined them with
accounts from the other participants in order to create a graphic
new narrative of one of the world's decisive battles. Virtually all
of the hitherto unpublished testimony provides fascinating new
detail on the battle and many of the accounts are vivid, revealing
and exciting. .
This, the fourth volume in Andrew Field's highly praised study of
the Waterloo campaign from the French perspective, depicts in vivid
detail the often neglected final phase the rout and retreat of
Napoleon's army. The text is based exclusively on French eyewitness
accounts which give an inside view of the immediate aftermath of
the battle and carry the story through to the army's disbandment in
late 1815\. Many French officers and soldiers wrote more about the
retreat than they did about the catastrophe of Waterloo itself.
Their recollections give a fascinating insight to the psyche of the
French soldier. They also provide a first-hand record of their
experiences and the range of their reactions, from those who
deserted the colours and made their way home, to those who
continued to serve faithfully when all was lost. Napoleon s own
flight from Waterloo is an essential part of the narrative, but the
main emphasis is on the fate of the beaten French army as it was
experienced by eyewitnesses who lived through the last days of the
campaign.
Andrew Field, who has published four best-selling books on the
Battle of Waterloo, has established himself as one of the leading
experts on the French perspective of the campaign. Using selected
extracts from French eyewitness accounts that haven't been
published before in English, he has added a new dimension to our
understanding of what happened on the battlefield on 18 June 1815\.
Now he takes his pioneering work a step further by publishing these
accounts, with all their vivid and personal detail, in full. For
the first time readers will be in a position to make their own
interpretations of them and compare them to the recollections of
soldiers from the allied armies, in particular the British, which
have largely determined our assumptions about the battle for the
last 200 years. They will also gain a heightened insight into the
trauma that the French eyewitnesses went through as they tried to
explain how the French lost a battle they claim they had been on
the point of winning. This, the first of two volumes of the French
accounts, features Napoleon's own description of the battle, those
of his immediate household and the Imperial headquarters, and those
of members of 1st Corps. Napoleon's own version of events, one of
the first to be published in France, was used as the basis of many
subsequent histories that ignore or gloss over his many dubious
claims. His account of his actions and his view of what happened on
that decisive day, and those of his close associates, make
fascinating reading.
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