Napoleon’s Army

Many books have been written about Napoleon and his campaigns, but very little about the soldiers of his armies and of the organization and conditions under which they lived and served. In this classic study, now reissued in paperback, H.C.B. Rogers examines Napoleon’s army in terms of its staff systems, its arms and its supporting services as it existed and changed during the long period that separated the battles of Valmy and Waterloo. This is not another history of Napoleon’s campaigns. Apart from the brief narrative of the opening chapter designed to serve as an aide-memoire, military operations are only cited to illustrate organization, tactics, equipment and administration. The author seeks to show how, as Lord Wavell put it, Napoleon inspired ‘a ragged, mutinous, half-starved army and made it fight as it did’.