An outstanding feature of With Napoleon in Russia, the brilliant full-colour account of the ill-fated French invasion of Russia, will be Faber du Faur’s ninety-three colour plates, which graphically illustrate the ordeal of the invaders. But the book will also present his memoirs. Faber du Faur’s recollections serve as a commentary to the plates but also, in their own right, give an idea of what it was like to experience 1812 first-hand. Here is the German lieutenant’s description of the night following the storming of Smolensk: “There was continual skirmishing but it seemed as though the fighting was dying down particularly as the various fires, which had broken out here and there, had made such progress as to render movement in the streets virtually impossible. We could not tell whether or not the fire had been started by the Russians themselves, to impede our progress or destroy provisions hoarded in the town, or whether it had been caused by the fighting. Or perhaps it was a combination of these two factors? Whatever the cause, it remains a mystery to this day. Meanwhile, as these scenes were being played out on the right bank, the masses of the Grande Armée were gathering on the left bank, forming up on the heights above the town. To the strains of martial music they began filing down towards the Borysthene, in preparation for the crossing of that river the very next day. It was an imposing scene complete with impressive music; the firing of Russian artillery which, positioned on the heights opposite, sought to hit our massed ranks; the groan of our own artillery firing in reply and attempting to silence the Russian guns. All this, on a beautiful summer’s evening, in the delightful, rolling countryside around Smolensk, branded our souls with a magic which is impossible to describe and which will live forever in the minds of all who were present at the scene. The rumble of cannon fire gradually died away and fighting had virtually ceased. The conflagration had come between the two opposing armies and had made itself the master of the battlefield. A cannon fired the final shot of 18 August and the fighting was over. A profound silence descended, a silence broken by the roar of flames devouring houses. Our troops had gathered and were resting after the day’s ordeals. Even so our hearts cried out for a good number of troops who had quitted the campfires that morning never to return. Many fell by the river, having fallen in the assault of the bridgehead or in the street-fighting. Those that died quickly probably died well. If, wounded, they lay in the streets at the mercy of a roaring inferno they would surely be consumed by that merciless fire. At 10 o’clock we were gathered in that part of the town untouched by the fire, the reflection of which was dancing on the surface of the river and off the surface of the Tartar walls and towers. The whole area was lit up but the scene was of but short duration. Even before midnight the fire abated and the most beautiful, the richest part of Smolensk, which had been such an imposing sight that morning, now lay smouldering, flaming cinders amongst smoking rubble. What horrors met our eyes as we passed through the ruins of the St Petersburg suburb the next day, where the fire had run its awful course. We marched through rubble and piles of ashes, over smoking ruins and hundreds of shrivelled corpses. We despaired at the sight of shakos and helmets, which the flames had not been able to consume, and at the charred corpses - all that remained of our brothers-in-arms and countrymen who thus had died, consumed by the fire after having fallen, grievously wounded, in the street-fighting the day before. Our advance was cautious in the extreme, believing as we did that the Russian rear-guard might ambush us and fall upon us at any moment. We eventually reached the junction of the Moscow and St Petersburg roads and, after pushing out reconnaissance parties, discovered that the Russians had taken the road to Moscow, which follows the Dnepr, and were but little distance from Smolensk. They were drawn up on the heights on the opposite banks of the Stabna, a small tributary of the Dnepr, after having destroyed the bridges over this river, and they also occupied the village of the same name. They welcomed us by showering our left flank with a devastating discharge of shot and shell. Marshal Ney, who was present on the field of battle, ordered Ledru’s and Razout’s divisions to advance down the Moscow road in columns of companies. The 25th was directed to form up in line to cover their left flank and III Corps’ artillery to counter the fire of the Russian batteries. The advance began. The Russians were pushed back from their initial position after about an hour of fighting; they took up a second position behind Valutina-Gora and prepared to receive us in a far more determined manner.” Presented in a special, large, landscape format, the plates, sketches and text make With Napoleon in Russia a remarkably complete, and compelling, account of the 1812 campaign. The book is beautiful and also serves as a wonderful historical record of the most infamous event of the Napoleonic era. Greenhill will be distributing a four-page, full-colour leaflet about With Napoleon in Russia throughout the summer. In all some 29,000 copies will be printed and distributed through Hersants Military Books, Ken Trotman Ltd, Stackpole, First Empire, Military Illustrated, Battlefield Review and, of course, Greenhill. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 108 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Greenhill Books This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com