With Napoleon's Guard in Russia

EUROPEAN HISTORY: C 1750 TO C 1900. Major Louis Joseph Vionnet's memoirs of Napoleon's disastrous 1812 campaign in Russia are readable, detailed, and full of personal anecdote and vivid glimpses into the life of the nineteenth-century soldier. His account concentrates in particular on the retreat from Moscow, but he was present at all the major actions and followed the entire course of the campaign from the opening moves in July 1812 to being chased through Prussia by bands of Cossacks in early 1813. He was present at the destruction of Smolensk, toured the battlefield of Borodino and witnessed the great fire in Moscow. Vionnet was a major in the Fusiliers-Grenadiers, a regiment of veterans in the Imperial Guard, and his account provides a wonderful insight into the elan, morale and cohesion of this elite fighting force. Jonathan North has translated Vionnet's memoirs for the first time for this English edition.