Overview

Traditional accounts of the campaigns of 1813 concentrate on the major powers: Napoleon's France versus Russia, joined successively by Prussia, Sweden and Austria, and how, as in the French catastrophe of 1812, early successes were transformed into ruinous defeat. However, the smaller German states in Napoleon's alliance system, the Confederation of the Rhine, or Rheinbund, also played an important part. Despite its significance, there are few books, especially in English, that explore the Rheinbund's creation, evolution and demise. This groundbreaking new work seeks to redress this. Based on years of research in archives across Germany and France, as well as battlefield visits, this unprecedented study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the confederation's military campaigns of 1813 – culminating in Napoleon's defeat and the collapse of his German alliance. Presented in two parts, this first volume opens with an overview of the Rheinbund as an institution, a summary of its brief history and an overview of the campaigns, battles and sieges of 1813. It then proceeds to a detailed examination of the activities of the armies of Saxony and Bavaria in this critical year. The second volume continues with an analysis of the forces of Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, Westphalia and the multitude of smaller states that comprised the Rheinbund. Supplemented by more than 100 maps, charts and orders of battle, this is an essential reference work for any Napoleonic scholar and all those with an interest in the historical development of Germany.

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9781805001737

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JOHN H. GILL is the author of the acclaimed trilogy 1809: Thunder on the Danube and most recently The Battle of Znaim. His other works include With Eagles to Glory (a partner study to this volume) and A Soldier for Napoleon. He has received the John R. Elting award from the Napoleonic History Society for his contributions to scholarship of the period. A retired U.S. Army colonel, he is an adjunct professor at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington DC and an associate fellow with the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

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