Eighteen-year-old German stonemason Jakob Walter served in the Grand Army of Napoleon between 1806 and 1813. His diary intimately records his trials: the long, grueling marches in Prussia and Poland, the disastrous Russian campaign, and the demoralizing defeat in a war few supported...
This is the contemporary account of Jakob Walter, a Westphalian conscript in Napoleon's Grande Arm e. Walter took part in the Emperor's campaigns against Prussia, Austria and finally, the disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. This is what it really meant to "march with the Emperor"...