Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany

Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany
Author: Michael V. Leggiere
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 903
Release: 2015-04-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1107080541

The first comprehensive history of the Fall Campaign that determined control of Central Europe following Napoleon's catastrophic defeat in Russia.

Napoleon and Berlin

Napoleon and Berlin
Author: Michael V. Leggiere
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2015-06-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0806147261

At a time when Napoleon needed all his forces to reassert French dominance in Central Europe, why did he fixate on the Prussian capital of Berlin? Instead of concentrating his forces for a decisive showdown with the enemy, he repeatedly detached large numbers of troops, under ineffective commanders, toward the capture of Berlin. In Napoleon and Berlin, Michael V. Leggiere explores Napoleon’s almost obsessive desire to capture Berlin and how this strategy ultimately lost him all of Germany. Napoleon’s motives have remained a subject of controversy from his own day until ours. He may have hoped to deliver a tremendous blow to Prussia’s war-making capacity and morale. Ironically, the heavy losses and strategic reverses sustained by the French left Napoleon’s Grande Armee vulnerable to an Allied coalition that eventually drove Napoleon from Central Europe forever.

Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany: Volume 2, The Defeat of Napoleon

Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany: Volume 2, The Defeat of Napoleon
Author: Michael V. Leggiere
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 903
Release: 2015-04-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316393097

The first comprehensive history of the decisive Fall Campaign of 1813, which determined control of Central Europe following Napoleon's catastrophic defeat in Russia the previous year. Using German, French, British, Russian, Austrian and Swedish sources, Michael V. Leggiere provides a panoramic history which covers the full sweep of the struggle in Germany. He shows how Prussia, the weakest of the Great Powers, led the struggle against Napoleon and his empire. By reconstructing the principal campaigns and operations in Germany, the book reveals how the defeat of Napoleon in Germany was made possible by Prussian victories. In particular, it features detailed analysis of the strategy, military operations, and battles in Germany that culminated with the epic four-day Battle of Nations at Leipzig and Napoleon's retreat to France. This study not only highlights the breakdown of Napoleon's strategy in 1813, but constitutes a fascinating study in coalition warfare, international relations, and civil-military relations.

Blücher

Blücher
Author: Michael V. Leggiere
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2014-01-29
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0806145668

One of the most colorful characters in the Napoleonic pantheon, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (1742–1819) is best known as the Prussian general who, along with the Duke of Wellington, defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Throughout his long career, Blücher distinguished himself as a bold commander, but his actions at times appeared erratic and reckless. This magnificent biography by Michael V. Leggiere, an award-winning historian of the Napoleonic Wars, is the first scholarly book in English to explore Blücher’s life and military career—and his impact on Napoleon. Drawing on exhaustive research in European archives, Leggiere eschews the melodrama of earlier biographies and offers instead a richly nuanced portrait of a talented leader who, contrary to popular perception, had a strong grasp of military strategy. Nicknamed “Marshal Forward” by his soldiers, he in fact retreated more often than he attacked. Focusing on the campaigns of 1813, 1814, and 1815, Leggiere evaluates the full effects of Blücher’s operations on his archenemy. In addition to providing military analysis, Leggiere draws extensively from Blücher’s own writings to reveal the man behind the legend. Though tough as nails on the outside, Blücher was a loving family man who deplored the casualties of war. This meticulously written biography, enhanced by detailed maps and other illustrations, fills a large gap in our understanding of a complex man who, for all his flaws and eccentricities, is justly credited with releasing Europe from the yoke of Napoleon’s tyranny.

With Eagles to Glory

With Eagles to Glory
Author: John H Gill
Publisher: Frontline Books
Total Pages: 538
Release: 2011-03-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 1848325827

When Napoleon’s Grand Armee went to war against the might of the Habsburg empire in 1809, its forces included more than 100,000 allied German troops. From his earliest imperial campaigns, these troops provided played a key role as Napoleon swept from victory to victory and in 1809 their fighting abilities were crucial to the campaign. With Napoleon’s French troops depleted and debilitated after the long struggle in the Spanish War, the German troops for the first time played a major combat role in the centre of the battle line. Aiming at a union of German states under French protection to replace the decrepit Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon sought to expand French influence in central Germany at the expense of the Austrian and Prussian monarchies, ensuring France’s own security. The campaign Napoleon waged in 1809 was his career watershed. He suffered his first reverse at Aspern. Victory was achieved at Wagram was not the knock-out blow he had envisaged. In this epic work, John Gill presents an unprecedented and comprehensive study of this year of glory for the German soldiers fighting for Napoleon, When combat opened they were in the thick of the action, fighting within French divisions and often without any French support atall. They demonstrated tremendous skill, courage and loyalty.

Lutzen and Bautzen

Lutzen and Bautzen
Author: George Nafziger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2021-08-15
Genre:
ISBN: 9781914059537

One army lost in the Russian winter, Napoleon raised another to keep his grip on Europe. A tired Russian Army and a raw Prussian force marched to meet him. Lutzen and Bautzen is a detailed and masterful study of a misunderstood and little covered campaign. Yet it was a war between titans as Napoleon led his conscripts to crush a foe worthy to face him. From the great battles of Lutzen and Bautzen to the skirmishes with marauding Cossacks, George Nafziger follows the complete campaign in Germany from top to bottom, with a wealth of detail. A great researcher, George Nafziger uncovers the secrets of one of the greatest of Napoleonic campaigns. This new edition incorporates a new set of images, and newly commissioned maps.

Revisiting Prussia's Wars against Napoleon

Revisiting Prussia's Wars against Napoleon
Author: Karen Hagemann
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 503
Release: 2015-03-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521190134

In 2013, Germany celebrated the bicentennial of the so-called Wars of Liberation (1813-15). These wars were the culmination of the Prussian struggle against Napoleon between 1806 and 1815, which occupied a key position in German national historiography and memory. Although these conflicts have been analyzed in thousands of books and articles, much of the focus has been on the military campaigns and alliances. Karen Hagemann argues that we cannot achieve a comprehensive understanding of these wars and their importance in collective memory without recognizing how the interaction of politics, culture, and gender influenced these historical events and continue to shape later recollections of them. She thus explores the highly contested discourses and symbolic practices by which individuals and groups interpreted these wars and made political claims, beginning with the period itself and ending with the centenary in 1913.

Napoleon at Leipzig

Napoleon at Leipzig
Author: George Nafziger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781912390113

The greatest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, and the campaign that led up to it, is thoroughly studied for the first time in English.

Napoleon at Dresden

Napoleon at Dresden
Author: George Nafziger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2021-08-15
Genre: Dresden, Battle of, Dresden, Germany, 1813
ISBN: 9781914059605

This work is the second in a three-volume series on the 1813 campaign; it is the first significant study on the 1813 campaign since Petre. Unlike the other English works on the campaign, it was prepared using French archival and published sources, as well as German, Danish, and Russian published sources. It discusses every battle and significant action in all parts of Germany - including various sieges. Detailed color maps support the major battles and a large collection of orders of battle drawn from the French Archives, as well as period-published documents, support the discussion of the campaign, complemented by a large selection of images. Both images and maps are new to this edition of the work.

Thunder on the Danube

Thunder on the Danube
Author: John H Gill
Publisher: Frontline Books
Total Pages: 529
Release: 2014-05-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1848327579

The Franco-Austrian War of 1809 was NapoleonÍs last victorious war. He would win many battles in his future campaigns, but never again would one of EuropeÍs great powers lie broken at his feet. In this respect 1809 represents a high point of the First Empire yet at the same time NapoleonÍs armies were declining in quality and he was beginning to display the corrosive flaws that contributed to his downfall five years later. In this volume Gill tackles the political background to the war and the opening battles of Abensberg, EggmÙhl and Regensberg. He explores the motivations that prompted Austria to launch an offensive against France while Napoleon and many of his veterans were distracted in Spain. Though surprised by the timing of the Austrian attack on the 10th April, the French Emperor completely reversed a dire strategic situation with stunning blows that he called his ïmost brilliant and most skillful maneuversÍ. Following a breathless pursuit down the Danube valley, Napoleon occupied the palaces of the Habsburgs for the second time in four years. Basing his work on years of primary research and battlefield visits, Gill provides a thorough analysis replete with spectacular combat, diplomatic intrigue and the illustrious cast of characters that populated this extraordinary age. The concluding volumes will take the war to its conclusion, including NapoleonÍs first unequivocal repulse at the Battle of Espern-Essling, the titanic Battle of Wagram and the neglected struggle at Znaim that led to armistice.