Product Description

The Napoleonic Wars saw almost two decades of brutal fighting, from the frozen wastelands of Russia to the wildness of the Peninsula, and from Egypt to the bloody battlefield of Waterloo. Fighting took place on an unprecedented scale across Europe, and over the entire period of the wars Napoleon led his Grand Armee and his allies against almost every European nation, and against varying coalitions. This book provides a comprehensive guide to all the major armies of the Napoleonic Wars, of France, Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, Spain and Portugal. Covering the changes experienced by the armies over the period, the author details the organization, infantry, cavalry, and artillery of each. With stunning original artwork of the often glorious uniforms worn into battle, period illustrations or the equipment used, and photographs, this is a beautiful and in-depth study of the armies that fought in the Napoleonic campaigns.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18100 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 432 pages

Customer Reviews

Armies of the Napoleonic Wars: An Illustrated History (General Military)
A great source for a gemeral overview of the Armies of the period, looking not just at Britain and France, but also covering the other nations involved in wmat was in many ways a World War.

Must try harder
This book is meant to be a general overview of Napoleonic armies and it does succeed in achieving that - however from a publisher of such quality as Osprey I was expecting more from this title. An undeniably attractive book, unfortunately it is a triumph of style over substance.

The book seems to have been created by excerpting text, pictures and battle maps from various existing titles published by Osprey. On the whole the use of different styles of illustration through the book creates interest and helps re-create the flavour of the era. However, unfortunately the editing has not been always successful and this has resulted in a rather disjoint volume. For example, the battle maps are simply placed within the text with no caption (other than a title - incorrect in the case of the battle titled "Talavera" which actually depicts Albuera) or explanation, nor is it clear why those particular battles were chosen. The approach taken to descrbing the armies is different enough from chapter to chapter to further the impression of disjointedness.

Some of the uniform pictures used seem to have no great relationship with the text - for example the illustration of some uniforms of the Grand Duchy of Berg is (I believe) the only mention of the Duchy in the book. Additionally some of the titles of these uniform selections are a bit odd, for example "Spanish Infantry, 1810-15" shows one infantry, one cavalry and one artillery uniform.

There also seems to be confusion within the volume over exactly what historical period is covered - the book's Chronology for example runs from 1789 to 1815, but the chapter on the Prussian army in it's "Overview" and "Infantry" sections only discusses the Prussian Army after 1806!

There is some repetition in the text and some surprising omissions - for example the Rocket Troops are not mentioned in the section on British artillery, the section on the King's German Legion (KGL) discusses only the KGL cavalry. On the other hand, there is a great deal of detail on the late-period Belgian forces which doesn't seem justified when compared to the amount of information on other forces.

Finally there are some simple typos that should have been spotted - my favourite is the one that says "the four teams" instead of "the fourteenth"!

I didn't set out to write a completely critical review of this book, but I found the disappointments in it have tended to overshadow the book's good points. Come on Osprey, this should have been THE book on Napoleonic armies - you are capable of so much more!

3 stars only as I can't give 3.5 and it doesn't deserve 4.

Superb Book!
This book is THE definitive guide to the armies of the Napoleonic conflict, anyone interested in this period should give it a read!