Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany

Michael V. Leggiere

Cambridge University Press, Apr 9, 2015 - Biography & Autobiography - 498 pages

This is the first comprehensive history of the campaign that determined control of Germany following Napoleon's catastrophic defeat in Russia. Michael V. Leggiere reveals how, in the spring of 1813, Prussia, the weakest of the great powers, led the struggle against Napoleon as a war of national liberation. Using German, French, British, Russian, Austrian and Swedish sources, he provides a panoramic history that covers the full sweep of the battle for Germany from the mobilization of the belligerents, strategy, and operations to coalition warfare, diplomacy, and civil-military relations. He shows how Russian war weariness conflicted with Prussian impetuosity, resulting in the crisis that almost ended the Sixth Coalition in early June. In a single campaign, Napoleon drove the Russo-Prussian army from the banks of the Saale to the banks of the Oder. The Russo-Prussian alliance was perilously close to imploding, only to be saved at the eleventh-hour by an armistice.

Contents

• The North German and Polish theater of war 18121813: 3
• Lutzen and surrounding area: 4
• Region between the Elster and the Spree Rivers: 5
• Bautzen and surrounding area: 6
• Region between the Bober and the Katzbach Rivers: 7
• Odd man out: 21
• Prussia in 1806: 23
• Prussia after the Treaty of Tilsit: 25
• Central Europe in 1810: 33
• A new Coalition: 70
• Russian advance from the Niemen to the Vistula: 74
• Saxony: 120
• General Gebhard Leberecht von Blucher 17421819: 121
• Hamburg and surrounding area: 144
• Allied advance from the Vistula to the Saale: 146
• The Saale: 175
• French and Allied concentration along the Saale: 192
• General Ludwig Adolph Peter zu Wittgenstein 17691843: 200
• Großgorschen: 226
• 00 p m: 234
• 00 p m: 241
• Napoleon at the battle of Großgorschen 2 May 1813: 243
• The Elbe: 268
• Napoleon observing his troops crossing the Elbe at Dresden: 291
• From Lutzen to Bautzen: 295
• Bautzen: 298
• The Grande Armee crossing the Elbe at Dresden 14 May 1813: 313
• Combat of Konigswartha 19 May 1813: 326
• The Prussian Thermopylae: 336
• Napoleon directing the crossing of the Spree at Bautzen: 338
• Battle of Bautzen 20 May 1813: 339
• Battle of Bautzen 21 May 1813: 350
• The Kolberg Infantry Regiment at the battle of Bautzen: 351
• Region between the Spree and the Neiße Rivers: 363
• The death of General Geraud Christophe Michel Duroc: 364
• Region between the Neiße and the Bober Rivers: 367
• Silesia: 382
• Combat at Haynau 25 May 1813: 386
• Region between the Katzbach and the Oder Rivers: 403
• Allied retreat to the Oder River: 411
• The neutral zone in Silesia: 420
• page 10: 423
• 24: 424
• 33: 425
• Assessment: 429
• Bibliography: 456
• 74: 465
• 144: 468
• 146: 470
• 192: 472
• 403: 483

About the author

Michael V. Leggiere earned his PhD from Florida State University in 1997 after completing work at FSU's Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution. His first book, Napoleon and Berlin: The Franco-Prussian War in North Germany, 1813 (2002) won the La Société Napoléonienne Internationale 2002 Literary Award. His article, 'From Berlin to Leipzig: Napoleon's Gamble in North Germany, 1813', which appeared in the January 2003 volume of The Journal of Military History, won the Society for Military History's 2004 Moncado Prize for excellence in military history. Dr Leggiere's second book, The Fall of Napoleon: The Allied Invasion of France, 1813-1814 (Cambridge, 2007) won the La Société Napoléonienne Internationale 2008 Literary Award. Dr Leggiere's third book, Blücher: Scourge of Napoleon, was published in February 2014. Dr Leggiere has conducted extensive archival research in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin in 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2009 and topographic research in Germany, France, and Poland in 1998, 2002, and 2013. He is an active member of the Society for Military History, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era. In 2005 he received the La Société Napoléonienne Internationale Legion of Merit Award for Outstanding Contributions to Napoleonic Studies.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany; Volume 1 of Cambridge Military Histories, ISSN 1754-758X; Volume 1 of Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany - The War of Liberation, Spring 1813; Volume 1 of Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany 2 Volume Set; Volume 1 of Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany: The Franco-Prussian War of 1813, Michael V. Leggiere, ISBN 1107098092, 9781107098091
• Author: Michael V. Leggiere
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2015
• ISBN: 1107080517, 9781107080515
• Length: 498 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Historical; History / Europe / France; History / Europe / General; History / Europe / Germany; History / Military / General; History / Modern / General; History / Wars & Conflicts / Napoleonic Wars