Swords Around a Throne:
Napoleon's Grande Armee

Book Review

Reviewed by Jeff DeTroye

Author: John R. Elting
Pages: 782
Illustrations: 33 black and white reproductions of illustrations of soldiers of the period by Herbert Knotel.
Maps: One endpaper map of the area of the European continent defended by the Grande Armee in 1812.
Footnotes: 875
Appendices: Two, a comparison of French Napoleonic and United States Military Grades (ranks), and a glossary of Napoleonic era military terms.
Bibliography: 250 entries, organized by chapter for which they were consulted, most in French. Includes both primary and secondary sources, many annotated.
Index: 703 entries
Publisher: Da Capo Press, New York
Publication Date: 1997
Binding: Paper (softbound)
ISBN: 0-306-80757-2
Price: $19.95
Summary: This is Da Capo's paperback reprint of Colonel Elting's masterpiece on the French Grande Arm& originally published in 1988. Elting's superb writing style and his meticulous research created the definitive work on the Grande Armee

Colonel Elting is one of the pre-eminent Napoleonic historians of our time and has authored, co-authored, edited, and contributed to seventeen books, with more to come. A recent New Yorker essay on Napoleon by Paris correspondent Adam Gopnik [24 November, 1997], described Elting as "a terrifyingly comprehensive social historian of Napoleon's army who seems to know every regiment of the Grande Arm~e down to the typical smell of its horses manure." Gopnik, who quotes from Elting's work at length in his piece, described the book as "thrilling," and one hopes that Elting's exposure in such a celebrated magazine will introduce him to the larger readership his work deserves.

Hyperbole aside, Swords Around a Throne does indeed cover virtually all aspects of Napoleon's famous army history, uniforms, equipment, organization, recruiting, tactics, leadership thirty-three chapters in all. Reviews of the original edition called it a "literary jewel," with pages that "sparkle with shafts of humor as well as new insights and interpretations," and "scholarly without being ponderous or presumptive." The book is all that and more.

Swords Around a Throne begins its examination of the Grande Armie by briefly reviewing the French army's heritage from the ancien regime and examining the upheavals experienced during the Revolution. It then moves to its primary focus - the army of the First Empire, renamed the Grande Armee in 1805 from the existing Armee des Cotes de l' Ocean (Army of the Ocean Coast), to its final defeat at Waterloo as the Army of the North in 1815.

Elting covers the different combat and non-combat branches within the Grande Armee: their equipment, weapons, and organization. The book also delves into a long list of related topics, explaining such diverse subjects as strategy and tactics, how surgeons of the time dealt with venereal disease, and the social standing of Austrian Grenzers (border troops). Although the focus is not on uniformology, Elting is careful to describe the apparel of even the more obscure units he mentions in the book.

Colonel Elting has a reputation for being outspoken on commonly accepted "facts" in order to correct historical misconceptions. For example, he writes that while Napoleon's marshals "were a prideful lot and not always a devoted band of brothers,...they seldom failed each other in combat." Their disputes have been "considerably exaggerated by various authors with books to peddle."

He points out that there were no cuirassier heavy cavalry regiments in the Imperial Guard, despite their appearance "in the books and memoirs of some imaginative Englishmen." Another widely repeated "fact" Elting disputes is that Eugene (Napoleon's stepson) needed constant supervision when assigned to a major command. Elting writes that this is due to some historians' unquestioning use of "Macdonald's self-glorifying memoirs."

The book also contains a considerable amount of plain common sense about military operations. For example, Elting recounts some basic rules that Berthier, Napoleon's chief of staff, wrote for the operations of a military headquarters that "should be engraved inside every modern staff officer's skull."

Generally, Napoleon's operating policies for the Grande Armee are presented in a favorable light. For example, in 1805 Napoleon ordered the innoculation of all recruits against smallpox, eliminating that disease as a problem within the army (Elting also notes that the Bourbons discontinued the practice in 1815). Another example, when urged to devastate large areas of Saxony in 1813 to delay the forces advancing against him, Napoleon refused since Saxony "was an ally, and such treatment would be dishonorable." Wellington, by comparison, apparently had not felt the same concern for his Portuguese allies in 1810 when he devastated areas he retreated through to the famous fortified line at Torres Vedras.

Elting has some comments about the war in Spain that disagree with some widely-held beliefs. For example, in a passage dealing with the Peninsular War, which in some British accounts is presented as one long series of victories for the future Duke of Wellington, Elting writes that "until 1813 Wellington's position in Spain was frequently precarious, with as many retreats as advances, and that [Marshall Suchet beat off all British attempts against eastern Spain". While discussing how many French commanders were triumphant over Spanish guerrillas militarily (contradicting another commonly held misconception), they failed in winning the local population over to their cause due to their harsh methods. Not that the Spanish officials were any better - "After all, none of the nations Napoleon overran was noted for its honest government and dedication to human rights." Colonel Elting has few sacred cows.

Swords Around a Throne is an excellent book, well-researched and extremely well written. Colonel Elting breathed life into his subject with humor and intelligence that makes his book a delight to read. This book is a splendid choice for both the reader just breaking into the field as well as for the veteran Napoleonic reader needing to recharge his enthusiasm.

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