This book has rekindled my flame of interest in the French Revolutionary Wars in Northern Italy in two ways. First the detailed accounting of the battle and events surrounding said battle and the authors enthusiasm for his subject. The author is Bernhard Voykowitsch of Vienna who has studied history, but is a Master of Law...Austrian for Lawyer? Unlike other authors Mr Voykowitsch introduces himself in a two page introduction in such a way as to put himself as an equal. Many authors come across as the stern professor in a classroom spouting information. Castiglione reads as a letter from a wargaming friend. The author also notifies the reader of an Austrian bias in the book. This bias does not make excuses for failure or attempt to change historical outcome. The bias comes with the use of Austrian sources for the relating of the campaign vice British or French sources. The book is limited to just one phase of the campaign, Wursmers first attempt to relieve the siege of Mantua. Following books are planned to cover the rest of the campaign and other campaigns of the Austrians against the French. The book is broken down into a brief overview of events leading to the siege and battle. The first siege is covered in detail. A day by day accounting is given to include skirmishes, ammunition expenditure and food to garrison ratios. Next comes a short biography of the French and Austrian commanders and their battle plans. The battle is covered in the different phases with numerous period maps and current photographs. The book ends with a critique, battlefield guide to include hotels and wargame scenarios. Every aspect of the siege is relayed to the reader to include sorties, armaments, fortifications as a description of the town itself. All of this is accented by period maps from French and Austrian archives and photographs taken by the author. The photos really give the reader and gamer a better feel of a battleground. I always though sieges where boring affairs that did not lend any information for wargames. Appears I was wrong as numerous small battles are described to include order of battles. One n particular was Cerese mill on June 5 1796 that included land and naval forces. The next section of the book is a small bio sketch of the commanders. On the Austrian side the biographies are drawn from the Vienna kreigsarchiv. Many Austrian commanders of the 1809 campaigns were brigade commanders under Wurmser. The biography I liked was on Wurmser. FML Wurmser has the unenviable reputation of being a poor and bumbling commander. All the rule systems I have used have always rated Wurmser a low as possible. It may come as a shock to know that when Wurmser was assigned to the Austrian Army, Europe thought he was do to Napoleon what he had done in Belgium. Conventional Wisdom of the period rated him an outstanding General. He has a distinguished career beginning in the 1740. His victories alone in 1793 along the upper Rhine include Rohrbach, Germersheim, Essingen,Bienwald, Lauterburg and Weissenburg. In 1795 Mannheim and Pflaz. Therefore it should not come as a surprise when he almost defeated Napoleon. The French commanders are listed, the well known and the not so well known. As with the Austrians their ages are listed. The average age of French generals were 39 years while the Austrians were 50 years. Importantly many of the young French generals are rated poorly by Napoleon. The author include Napoleons assessment of his generals to the French government dated 14 Aug 1796. Berthier was rated as talented, active, courage, everything for him. Despinoy (age 32)- limp, without activity/courage. not made or war, is not loved by the soldiers not fights at their head, haughty, profound, political and good to command in the interior. Supposedly far away from the field army! I will not go into a page by page review of the book, though I did enjoy it that much. The data consulted by the author reveals new aspects f both armies. Appears the French where not the solid troops rules and prior authors would have us believe. I counted three instances where multiple battalions of French troops surrendered or routed. The lack of horses was addresses as the problem for lack of artillery and cavalry. Appears Napoleon acquired 1600 horses prior to the campaign to enable him t have the numbers of artillery and cavalry listed in his order of battles. Lastly for the French army, two regiments listed on everyones OB's appear to not have been organized and sent to the army by the time of this battle. They were the 63 and 80th demi-brigades. There is not much new to relate about the Austrians, except to note that the majority of the Imperial troops were new recruits or depots troops. The best troops were left in garrison in Mantua or came with Wursmer when he took over command. The battle is covered using unit histories from both sides. Appears very few secondary sources were consulted. The maps, drawn from period maps, show original positions, axis of advance and ending positions for all the units. The author walked the battlefields and took numerous photos. The product is that I felt I was actually there looking at an objective as an actual participant would have done. The ability of the author to walk the field reveals interesting tidbits of information. The "hill" used to anchor the Austrian left flank is nothing but a slight rise in the ground of only 15 feet. I also have never read where the Austrians used fortifications in this battle. According to the 4th demi-brigades records, this rise had two redoubts constructed on it. The usual accounting of what went right and wrong is given. The critiques are the along the same vein as other accountings I have read. The main presentation is that the French made fewer mistakes than the Austrians and were able to capitalize on interior lines. One interesting note..this battle plan was not Wursmer but his chief of staffs. Per Austrian procedures the Army General declares the objective..relieve Mantua and the chief of staff puts the plan together. For the number of casualties Memoires de Napoleon, Tome I, p. 8 is used. This represents the French point of view. The French claimed 40,000 Austrians were killed, wounded or prisoner and they lost only 7,000. Typical Napoleon claim and typically noted to be a lie, but used by historians as a base to gauge the causalities. The Austrian daily reports after the battle shows @ 17,000 officers and men. A few days later when stragglers were returned the tally was @ 12,500 men lost, 62 guns (mostly battalion), and 247 cassions. Flavor I would like to relate two more instances that reveal more of the flavor of this campaign. Per Austrian records..the garrison at Mantua sallied forth as Sergurier was lifting the siege in response to Napoleons orders. 800 French soldiers and the entire siege train was captured, approx 180 guns with attached equipment. This counters Napoleons report to the French government that sergurier "burnt his carriages, spiked his guns and disposed of the powder and shot." The second refers to Josephine. She had come to visit prior to the commencement of the advance. Napoleon left Madame Josephine to fend for herself against the Austrian right column. The dairy of an emigrant officer Marques de Verac contains this short note of her escape.."the guns from the fortress (brescia) killed 2 of the horses of the coach by which Madame Bonaparte tried to save herself; she had to flee and take a little land cart." Just speculation but given Napoleons attitude toward others, I doubt the capture or death of his wife would affect his decision making process or his life. Overall this is a good book about an ignored or glossed over campaign. Present in an easy manner, without any perceived whining as appears from other German authors present other campaigns in a new light. Napoleon still won and out generalled Wursmer..though is was a closer run thing. The only places this book is lacking is in editing. The grammar at times made one have to read the passage twice and word choice. I mark that off to a literal translation from German to English. I do the same thing when I try to communicate with in-laws. I try to put Spanish into English grammar! At the end of his book there is not a bibliography as Americans are use to finding. The sources are noted throughout the book or in the introduction. As I am not informed on Austrian publications this may be normal. If this series continues I believe these shortcoming will be resolved. This book can be obtained from On Military Matters, should have an ad in this issue or direct from the publisher at email:bernhard@helmet.at or his website:members.eunet.at/helment. Back to MWAN #102 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum 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