Guy Dempsey, the noted Napoleonic historian, is the author of an important new study - to be published by Greenhill - on Napoleon’s foreign soldiers. The book, Napoleon’s Mercenaries, looks at the diverse collection of foreign volunteers, renegades and deserters fighting in the ranks of the French Army. It covers the organisational history of each unit, the various uniforms and insignia adopted, and gives biographical sketches of key officers and commanders. It also gives complete unit histories, an astonishing feat given the diverse nature and background of these exotic formations. One of the units covered is Napoleon’s Légion Irlandaise (Irish Legion), a regiment composed initially of Irish exiles from the aborted rebellion of 1798 but later made up of assorted foreigners and prisoners of war. Guy Dempsey traces the history of the unit and gives an insight into how such a polyglot formation functioned, even describing how British prisoners of war were tempted to join Napoleon’s Army: “The diary of a British prisoner at Verdun provides a grim anecdote that demonstrates the unusual dynamics of recruiting prisoners of war. He describes the arrival in town in January of 1810 of a recruiting party that distributed cards with the following text in English: ‘Any young man of spirit that has an inclination to serve in the first Irish regiment of foot, forming at Landau, has only to apply to the Recruiting Officer. The Officer will procure his release immediately. He shall be well fed, well paid, well clothed, receive rapid promotion, and will enjoy more advantages in this Regiment than in any other in France. The engagement is only for four years.’ The diarist goes on to report the ‘melancholy accident’ that occurred when one prisoner who had succumbed to this sales pitch and signed on to the Irish Regiment changed his mind about turning his coat: ‘The Sergeants came for him, but the man refused to go. Being in liquor he became unruly, and still persisted he would not go, upon which, one of the Sergeants (a villain) drew his sword and stabbed the poor fellow in the body. He was taken to the hospital, bleeding in a most dreadful manner.’” Napoleon’s Mercenaries has 352 pages of text and 16 pages of illustrations and will be published in February 2002. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 112 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