De Gonneville, Colonel Recollection of Colonel de Gonneville, Facisimilie Edition, Worley Publications, U.K., 1988 2 volumes, 327 and 306 pages (approximately $40.00) Available through Ken Trotman Ltd., Unit 11, 135 Ditton Walk, Cambridge CB6 8QD, U.K. This work is an interesting piece to juxtaposition against Marbot's Memoirs. First let me say with a slight curl of my lips, that de Gonneville was a royalist whose sympathies become very clear in the second volume. Then let me say that for a man who served in Napoleon's French army from 1804 to 1814, he certainly missed every battle of note! And, when he was involved in any battle his accounting of those battles is very sketchy at best. And those battles he does address are principally in Spain. On the other hand, let me say that he had the experience of being assigned to the two most obscure cuirassier regiments in the French army at this time. He first served with the notorious 13th Cuirassier Regiment in Spain and his accounting of its actions is delightful. The second unit was the "15th Cuirassiers" or the provisional cuirassier regiment formed by Davout in Hamburg in 1813-1814. His account of the siege operations around Hamburg are interesting as well, though lacking in any overall comprehension or involvement. Early in the first volume he recounts a delightful account of a skirmish between himself, as a sous-lieutenant, with a foraging French detachment, and a vedette of Prussian Draggons and Hussars. What follows is an exceptional account of a junior officer's first major exploit, though I'm inclined to believe that 40 years later, when it was written, de Gonneville embellished the account slightly. If given a choice of this work at twice the price, there is no doubt which work I'd buy (and it ain't de Gonneville). Only if the reader is interested in details on the two cuirassier regiments is there any truly redeeming value in this work. It was a post restoration work written just before Napoleon III ascended to the throne of France and was probably written in reaction to the political tides of the time. I did not find it an enjoyable read, but I did not finish it after his accounts of his experiences in 1815. Oh! He barely mentions Waterloo and was, apparently, busy hiding outside the country. Back to Empire, Eagles, & Lions Table of Contents Vol. 2 No. 1 Back to EEL List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1993 by Emperor's Headquarters This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com