John Elting is one of the most admired figures in the world of military history today generally, and the Napoleonic Wars in particular. Greenhill are privileged to be reissuing A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars which Colonel Elting wrote with Brigadier General Vincent J. Esposito, and the announcement of this in the last Greenhill Military Book News has attracted much positive attention, and requests for further information about Colonel Elting. To quote Colonel Elting's Preface for the new edition, he writes about Napoleon: "Whether a poor lieutenant of artillery, a general, an emperor, or an exile, Napoleon Bonaparte was a very human person, yet endowed with certain extraordinary qualities that sometimes made him seem something more than, a little different from, other humans. He wrought – and sometimes trespassed – mightily. He became a myth almost before his death; he has always been a guide and inspiration to soldiers – as witness the original publication of A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars in 1964 – even to his enemies. It is doubtful that any other man has ever inspired such an outpouring of books and related literature. There have been the to-be-expected potboilers and some unmitigated junk, but also a great deal of new and valuable material, iconography as well as text, well-written and showing sincere scholarship. Wherever he now may be, the Emperor should be pleased." In preparing the new edition of A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars, we asked Colonel Elting to provide biographical information and he writes: "My first commission had been from the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Stanford University in 1932. We were taught military equitation and the functioning of horse-drawn field artillery, equipped with the famous Model 1897 'French 75'. (Much later I would realise that this had had historical value; like Napoleon's gunners, I had learned something about what horses could do and the problems of caring for them.) In those informal days I could combine college with summer duty in Company H (machine guns), 163rd Infantry Regiment, Montana National Guard, and see the Army from the buck private's worm's eye point of view. Afterward came the years of duty as company, railhead, and construction officer with the Civilian Conservation Corps (Old Army shavetails 'knew nothing and did everything') and a civilian interlude as a high school biology teacher. In 1940, President Roosevelt having evinced an urgent need of my assistance, I returned to active duty as an ROTC instructor at Oregon State College. Then there was the 71st Armored Field Artillery Battalion; the Tactics Department of the Armored School at Fort Knox; Combat Command B, 8th Armored Division (Rhineland, Ardennes, Alsace, and Central Europe campaigns); 24th Field Artillery Battalion, Philippine Scouts; and another short civilian session. With the Cold War beginning to hot up in 1948, I was recalled and assigned to the Armed Forces Information school, which was not my idea of soldiering – but, much to my surprise, my service there earned me the nomination to the Military Academy. Having been interested since boyhood in military history, especially that of the Napoleonic Wars, I had read extensively, and so was better prepared than the average new instructor. The West Point Library was a treasury of original material, mostly accumulated during the previous century. I really looted it - and learned from my continuing self-eduction that I knew less than I thought I did, and that some of the things I thought I knew were not so. In 1954 my turn for overseas duty came up. I hoped for – finally – the command of a tank battalion, but found myself in the J-2 (Intelligence) Division of the Far East Command. That, undoubtedly, was better, training me in high-level staff planning and function. My wife Ann and I enjoyed Japan, even if the later part of my tour was spent in a locked 'Action Center' dealing with information just below the 'Shoot bearer, burn before reading' category. When the Far East Command was deactivated in 1957, Colonel Esposito reclaimed me. After the success of the West Point Atlas of American Wars, with its novel integrated map-and-text format, I suggested the development of a similar Napoleonic text. The basic research and writing were my responsibility; Colonel Esposito edited my work. It was a demanding task; more-than-patient Ann sometimes murmured about being the last widow of the Napoleonic Wars. My last active service, 1965-8, was as the G-2 of the Washington Military District. Those were the happy days of Vietnam War protests and the 'siege' of the Pentagon, requiring the conversion of the District from a 'place where old elephants go to die' to a heads-up tactical headquarters. As its '2' I had ample opportunity to study the underside of democracy in action and to ponder the ancient proverb that 'God looks after small children, idots, drunken sailors, and the United States of America'. Thereafter, in 1968 I 'hung up my sword and shield' here beside the Hudson River, and have continued to study war." Colonel Elting will be 88 in February, and is coming to London to be the keynote speaker at the Napoleonic Fair (Sunday 21st February). His presentation is entitled 'A Disrespectful Look at Military History'. Back to Greenhill Military Book News No. 88 Table of Contents Back to Greenhill Military Book News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1999 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