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RR 2003/97 Napoleonic Army Handbook: The French Army and her Allies Michael Oliver and Richard Partridge Constable London 2002 xii + 354 pp. ISBN 1 84119 223 6
L35
Keywords France, Army, History
Review DOI 10.1108/09504120310461914
Under the influence of novels and television, from Tolstoy to Bernard Cornwell, the general reader is inclined to think of the troops of Napoleon as being, predominantly, French. But a glance at this very thorough book will demonstrate the opposite, for more than half of it is devoted to France's (mostly German and Italian) allies. Some of these 'armies were long established, like that of Bavaria, others had been cobbled together to serve the Emperor's newly created and ephemeral states like the Kingdom of Westphalia. The inclusion of the USA appears anomalous, for the authors rightly declare that its Government would have indignantly denied being an ally of...