We received the following: Translation and Commentary by Scott Bowden Napoleon's Grande Armée of 1805–1807 was one of history's greatest armies, and the 3rd Corps under the command of Marshal Louis Davout achieved feats of arms seldom if ever equaled in the annals of military history. Davout's command reached its apogee of glory on 14 October 1806 at the celebrated Battle of Auerstädt. Outnumbered by more than two to one by the Prussians, Marshal Davout's superb 26,000-man corps defeated and put to flight the proud descendants of the army of Frederick the Great. Marshal Davout's military papers, presented to the French Ministry for War in 1874 by his heirs, represent an invaluable primary source to the study of the first campaigns of Emperor Napoleon's new Grande Armée. These include the actual after-action reports filed by Davout's brigade, division, and other commanders and they detail the marches and combat these officers personally directed. They provide an amazing historical window on the campaigns in Germany and Poland. The original book, titled Opérations du 3e Corps, was published by Davout's nephew in 1896. It has never been available in the English language — until now. Our new book, the first translation of the original into English by award-winning author and historian Scott Bowden, features additional analysis, color maps, color orders of battle, officer biographies, and other material designed to supplement the original work and place it in context. About the Translator Scott Bowden is a five-time, award-winning historian and author of numerous books dealing with Napoleonic and American Civil War military history. Two of his books are part of the curriculum at the School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Bowden's Napoleonic research is renowned for its innovative and exhaustive use of French archival material, as well as his thorough grasp of the tactics, personalities, and regiments that comprised Napoleon's incomparable Grande Armée. Two of his earlier books, Armies on the Danube 1809 and Armies at Waterloo, are highly prized by collectors. Bowden's most recent book, Last Chance for Victory: Robert E. Lee and the Gettysburg Campaign, written in conjunction with Bill Ward, garnered several prestigious awards, including the Douglas Southall Freeman History Award and Southern History Literary Award. His analysis of Lee at Gettysburg has generated a wide reappraisal of the traditional understanding of the famous battle, a considerable achievement given the number of volumes already written on the subject, and, as such, is a landmark contribution to Civil War history. Bowden's new book, Napoleon's Finest: Marshal Davout and His 3rd Corps, Combat Journal of Operations, 1805–1807, the first English translation of the 1896 Opérations du 3e Corps, should become a benchmark of equal value to Napoleonic historians. More info: http://www.militaryhistorypress.com/NapoleonsFinest.html Back to 4th Quarter 2003 List of News Items Back to Master List of News Items Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2003 by Coalition Web, Inc. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com