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The Armies of the First French Republic, and the Rise of the Marshals of Napoleon I. Vol III Paperback – December 12, 2011

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Once Napoleon had consolidated his grip on the reins of power of the new-born French Republic, he began to change the nature of the state from a nascent democracy of sorts into an Empire with all the trappings of dynastic royalty. The Senatus Consultum of 18th May 1804 gave the form to the Imperial Court; households of courtiers were established for the Emperor and Empress and the Imperial family, dignitaries of the Empire, ministers of the Empire were appointed; and having previously been abolished in 1793 the dignity of the Marshal of the Empire was recreated. Fourteen active and four honorary Marshals were handed their batons, eight more would be created during the years following; intended to be bulwarks of the regime. However these men were not plucked from obscurity they were men of genuine renown, and in most cases significant military talent, they had fought in numerous battles and campaigns during the tumultuous early days of the Republic. However apart from a handful of individual biographies and collections of anecdotes which mainly dealt with the years of glory under the Empire, few works in English had really investigated the formative careers of the Marshals under the banners of the Republic. In his epic five volume work, published posthumously between 1926-1936, Colonel Phipps looks into the early careers of the Marshals as they pursued La Gloire from their varied beginnings as sons of inn-keepers, coopers, officers of the Royal French Army; some of noble blood, some of the most common. The careers of men such as Masséna, Ney, Soult, Mortier, Murat and Davout are charted in detail, they are compared and contrasted with each other with expert judgement. The Author uses his extensive knowledge of the numerous French first-hand sources of the period along with published histories which have never been translated into English. The third volume concentrates on the lesser known armies, those that fought against Spain in the south of France and against insurrectionary elements of the French population that had not been reconciled to new Republic. This volume sheds light on the careers of the Marshals and their colleagues during the campaigns that were short on supply, invariably brutal and in the case of La Vendée, bitter civil war. The text is whole and complete, there are no missing or indistinct pages; the fold-out maps have been re-aligned to fit into the text spread across two pages.
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  1. Print length
    308 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Pickle Partners Publishing
  4. Publication date
    December 12, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    5.83 x 0.69 x 8.27 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    190869226X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1908692269
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pickle Partners Publishing; Illustrated edition (December 12, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 308 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 190869226X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1908692269
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.83 x 0.69 x 8.27 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 1 rating

Customer reviews

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Top review from the United States

David J. Maschek
5.0 out of 5 stars Great military history despite a missing page
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2014
Verified Purchase
This reprint of a 1931 book is almost the only English-language military history for the War in the Vendee, the War in the Pyrenees and the war in Italy before 1796. (For the 1796 campaign in Italy, read Martin Boycott-Brown's splendid "Road to Rivoli".) As such the book is a must-read for anyone seriously interested in the French Revolutionary Wars. The Siege of Toulon is also covered, but that story is given in other English-language sources such as David Chandler. As in volumes 1 and 2, Ramsay Phipps not only notes the careers of the future Napoleonic marshals but other important figures as well, such as army commanders (e.g., Dumerbion, Scherer, Dugommier) and other officers. Those students of obscure campaigns can read, for example, how the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees was constantly seeing its generals denounced and guillotined by its overbearing "representatives-on-mission" while the Army of the Western Pyrenees did not suffer from that problem. There is a serious printing error: page 269 is missing while page 267 is printed twice.
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