Greenhill is the pre-eminent publisher of books on the Napoleonic Wars and now comes a reference work to which we are adding the Greenhill name as part of the title. The book is: THE GREENHILL NAPOLEONIC WARS DATA BOOK: Actions and Losses in Personnel, Colours, Standards and Artillery, 1792-1815 by Digby Smith Based on over twenty years of research, this massively detailed and outstanding reference work provides comprehensive coverage of every action in every campaign in Europe and the Middle East of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The author, Digby Smith, writes: 'This work lists over 2,000 skirmishes, raids, ambushes, clashes, battles, blockades, sieges and capitulations which took place in and around Europe and in Egypt between the years 1792 and 1815. For each action I provide as detailed an entry as possible on the participation and losses of units involved. The details given in the entries include the date and precise location of each action, who won, the names of the opposing commanders, the actual regiments which took part in the fighting (i.e. fired shots at the enemy and took casualties), the totals involved on each side, the losses incurred in killed, wounded, missing and the loss of any trophies (cannnon, colours and standards). Where appropriate I have also included a brief comment to highlight significant events, errors or consequences of the action concerned. All such comments reflect my own opinions and serve to place the action in context. An exception to these rules are the so-called 'skeleton actions', indicated by the alpha code 'XX', which were either part of the French civil war in the Vendee or did not involve the main protaganist, France. For these actions only the totals involved and the losses incurred are given. I have made a conscious and determined attempt to emphasise the participation of the many minor contingents from the smaller nations of Europe which fought on both sides of these epic struggles and highlight their oft neglected role in this dramatic and wide-ranging conflict.' Hence you will appreciate what an incredible work of reference The Greenhill Napleonic Wars Data Book is. Digby Smith adds: "This book has been designed to permit the reader easy access to any desired action and includes an alphabetical index of the actions detailed for quick reference. The main listing of the actions is, however, entirely chronological. The chronological layout of the work gives a clear overview of the range and intensity of the military activity in time and permits one to place events in the context of conflict in Europe as a whole and in direct relation to other campaigns. All too frequently the consequences of an action in one theatre of war brought far reaching changes to the course of events in another." Describing the work that went into creating this astonishing work, he says: "Completing a work of this scope and detail has been a massive and absorbing task. Despite having been actively engaged in studying the Napoleonic military era (1805-1815) closely for over twenty years, the task of resolving the many uncertainties in the battle participation of the various nations, even for this well-documented period, has absorbed much time. This is the largest and most complex book that I have produced to date and without having committed the last few years to full time, solid research and presentation this work would never have been written. The much-neglected Revolutionary Wars (1792-1801), with hundreds of engagements and patchy documentation, presented an even greater challenge; and was a task which I doubt I could have completed without the helpful assistance of many friends and acquaintances. Their advice led to numerous literary 'mining expeditions'; some more, some less profitable. What did emerge, however, was the realization that this period contains a large number of fascinating actions every bit as dynamic as any in the subsequent Napoleonic era. Perhaps the best of these is the odyssey of the Russians under Suvorov in northern Italy and Switzerland in 1799. There are still areas in which material has proved elusive, particularly concerning the French in 1794, 1795 and 1797, but sufficient data is available to give an insight into the course of military events throughout twenty-three of the most fascinating years in the political and military history of Europe and learn many surprising aspects of the operations - particularly of Napoleon Bonaparte in the earlier years of his military and political career." The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book is a monumental contribution to the understanding of the conflict from the leading publisher of books on the Napoleonic Wars. The author, Digby Smith, also known to Napoleonic enthusiasts as Otto von Pivka, is a highly respected scholar of this period and author of numerous books including Armies of the Napoleonic Wars and Navies of the Napoleonic Wars. A sample entry from The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book appears on page six of the Greenhill's Spring catalogue, this will appear in a four-page prospectus that is being produced about the book and which will be sent out to enthusiasts of the Napoleonic Wars. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 82 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1998 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