Fighting the British : French eyewitness accounts from the Napoleonic Wars / Bernard Wilkin & Reň Wilkin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilkin, Bernard, author.

Wilkin, René, 1944- author.

Contributor:

Dorothy Mann Yeakel & Paul Herbert Yeakel Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815--Personal narratives, French.

Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815.

Soldiers--France--Correspondence.

Soldiers.

France.

Soldiers--France--Diaries.

Genre:

Personal narratives -- French.

Correspondence.

Diaries.

Personal narratives.

Personal correspondence.

Physical Description:

189 pages, 6 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Barnsley, South Yorkshire : Pen & Sword Military, 2018.

Summary:

The British army during the Napoleonic Wars is often studied using English sources and the British view of their French opponents has been covered in exhaustive detail. However the French view of the British has been less often studied and is frequently misunderstood. This book, based on hundreds of letters, memoirs and reports of French officers and soldiers of the Napoleonic armies, adds to the existing literature by exploring the British army from the French side of the battle line. Each chapter looks at a specific campaign involving the French and the British. Extensive quotes from the French soldiers who were there are complemented by detailed notes describing the context of the war and the career of the eyewitness. Throughout the emphasis is on the voices of the lower ranks, the conscripts and the non commissioned and junior officers. They describe in their own words the full range of warfare during the period not only land battles but battles at sea, including the Nile and Trafalgar and accounts of captivity in England are included too.

Contents:

1 The Revolutionary Wars and the First Napoleonic Campaigns 7

The Siege of Toulon 7

The French Campaign in Egypt 15

2 War at Sea 33

The Battle of the Nile 33

From Egypt to Trafalgar 39

3 The Struggle for Europe 53

The French Expeditions to Ireland in 1796 and 1798 53

Planning the Invasion of Britain 56

The War in Italy 66

4 Portugal and Spain 77

The First Invasion of Portugal 77

The War Spreads to Spain 81

Invading Portugal Again 88

Wellington in Spain 91

The Third Invasion of Portugal 96

War on the Border 101

5 The Invasion of France, the Hundred Days and Occupation 111

The First Invasion of France 111

The Hundred Days 117

Defeat and Occupation 142

6 Captivity in Britain 147

Capture and Transportation to Britain 147

Life in Britain 153.

Notes:

Includes bibiographical references (pages 177-181) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Dorothy Mann Yeakel & Paul Herbert Yeakel Memorial Fund.

YBP corrected record

ISBN:

9781473880818

1473880815

OCLC:

990847086

Publisher Number:

99975773194