HISTORY OF THE CAMPAIGN IN FRANCE IN THE YEAR 1814

The Campaign of France – Napoleon’s fighting retreat across his own country in 1814 after his disastrous defeat at Leipzig – was one of the most amazing episodes in the great soldier’s stellar career. With his back to the wall, and facing a formidible coalition of his Russian, Prussian and Austrian enemies, the wily Corsican flought tenaciously every step of the way. Sometimes his exhausted, outnumbered and severely depleted army was called on to fight a battle every two days. But despite French ciourage and rthe Emperor’s resourcefulness there could be only one outcome: Napoleon was forced back to Paris where he was compelled to abdicate. The long, slogging campaign is here narrated from the viewpoint of a Russian officer who was an aide-de-camp to Tsar Alexander I and had a grandstand view of the action. Occasionally critical of Russia’s allies, the book offers a detailed contemporary account of a campaign perhaps less familiar than other Napoleonic setpieces.