With Musket, Canon and Sword: Battle Tactics of Napoleon and His Enemies

by Brent Nosworthy

Book Overview

Battle Tactics of Napoleon and His Enemies This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1885119275
• ISBN13: 9781885119278
• Release Date: March 1996
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 516 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

one of the best books on tactics

This is one of the best books on tactics. A lot of useful information, especially for the beginner.

A Classic of its Kind!

This work should become the standard reference item for any serious study on tactics in the Napoleanic period. For far too long we have been influenced by the generalist view of the tactics and formations employed in this period of warfare. Even major historians like Chandler and Elting while providing great overall perspective of the period, are very scanty when it comes to describing how troops actually fought and in what formations. This book provides a lot of answers and has a nuts and bolts approach which is fascinating. Mr. Noseworthy's explanation of how the aristocracy of the 18th Century limited the employment of non-linerar tactics in the French and other armies goes a long way toward explaining why the French were able to employ these methods so well in the Napoleanaic period. Here we see that the tactics of the French Revolution and Napoleanic periods did not simply fall out of the sky, but were already established principals whose time had finally come. Mr. Noseworthy discusses in detail how French formations fought and delivered fire, and dispels a lot of myths about the French army. Contrary to popular opinion, the French fought in a variety of formations besides just column, and were not adverse to employing lines. Reference is made to how the British fought in this period, and we learn it was not platoon fire that defeated the French in Spain and Waterloo, but point blank vollies followed by spirited bayonet charges. The book quotes a lot from primary sources, many of them seldem referred too before, even by major researchers in the field. This book goes a long way toward re-evaluating how we should understand Napoleanic Warfare, and as such is bound to ruffle a few feathers as far as popular established views are concerned. Mr. Noseworthy's writing is clear, subtle, and to the point. There is seldem a paragraph that does not contain some interesting fact. This book really should be re-printed in a new edition as it is a classic of its kind. It belongs on the same shelves as Chandler and other noteable Napoleanic historians. Buy this book wherever you can find it!