Published by Greenhill Books £25

It was my pleasure to review Imperial Bayonets in FE25 when it appeared in its original privately published form as A Guide to Napoleonic Warfare. At that time, as I indicated, there were already rumours that Greenhill Books were considering publishing it and this has now happened. The text is essentially unchanged and although there have been some minor additions and modifications, particularly in the section dealing with Austria in Chapter 3, the improvement is essentially one of presentation and this is particularly evident in the context of the illustrations and tables.

There is really very little I can add to my earlier review of this remarkable book. For those who may have missed it, however, I will reiterate that this book is the result of the author's continuing research over about 12 years and is drawn from approximately 60 contemporary and near contemporary regulations for the three arms. The book comprises 12 chapters that take the reader from the lowest levels of command through to the very highest, but the strength of the book is the discussion of the tactical and operational (grand tactical) levels, that is to say from battalion to Brigade. This forms the greater part of Imperial Bayonets and is perfectly complemented by extremely well executed diagrams.

In addition to a detailed examination of the regulations of all arms, there are chapters that explore that most nebulous of subjects, light infantry tactics, examine documented examples of the regulations in practice, how they were choreographed in the manoeuvres of Brigades, combined arms operations at Divisional level and, finally, a chapter that looks at strategic issues and what is called in modern parlance C3 I, or command, control, communications and intelligence.

Over the years a number of books, and there have not been very many of them, have tried to relate the science of the regulations to the tactical and operational art of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. Some, like Jean Colin's, published at the turn of the Century, and Robert Quimby's which is essentially a translation of Colin's, have tended to concentrate on the French or, like Walter Wagner's excellent volume on the Austrian army, have looked at another country in isolation.

More recent volumes have tried to broaden the discussion beyond the obsession with France and Napoleon. These have, in my view, all failed to one degree or another, and have given either distorted or incomplete explanations. George Nafziger's comprehensive research and dispassionate treatment simply eclipses all of them, by a very long way indeed.

It is sometimes said that regulations reflect theory rather than actual practice. That, to be blunt, is rubbish. Although it is undoubtedly true that some units were less capable than others, it is equally true that no evolutions were available to them that did not exist somewhere in the pages of one regulation or another. The counsel of perfection though the regulations and manuals may have been, without some understanding of the evolutions they describe it is impossible to comprehend how Napoleonic battles were actually fought, and why they were fought the way they were.

Everybody who has a serious interest in the military history of the period should be made to read Imperial Bayonets before they are allowed to read anything else.

Letter (FE#39): Imperial Bayonet Typo

Other Book Reviews:

Wellington's Peninsula Victories
British Forces in the West Indies
Recollections of Rifleman Harris
Nelson's Battles
Origins of the French Revolutionary Wars
Anatomy of Glory

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