Napoleon's Officers
Uniforms and Equipment
Will be published approx. on 30. September 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-0361-4184-4 (ISBN)
Description
Forming part of the author's ground-breaking series of books providing the essential reference point for the dress of Napoleon's army, Napoleon's Officers: Uniforms and Equipment will be the most important study to be presented in over 200 years of this perennially popular subject for wargamers, artists and historians.
Relying primarily on period regulations and little used archive records held in the Archives Nationales and Service Historique du Armee de Terre in Paris, as well as contemporary illustrations and original items of uniforms, the author sets out to describe the dress of the Grande Armee's staff in the most complete and accurate manner since the glory days of the First Empire.
Napoleon's Officers: Uniforms and Equipment examines the dress of generals of brigade and division, including the lavish and elaborate wardrobe of General Lasalle, the idol of the light cavalry. Among the uniforms described are those of the adjutant commandants, adjutants, secretaries and other often forgotten, but essential personnel who were responsible for the day-to-day management of the Grande Armee on campaign.
The flamboyant dress of Berthier's aides-de-camp is shown, with their scarlet pantaloons and black dolmans, as well as the aides for the both the marshals of the empire and other senior field officers. Also examined are ordnance officers - the men who acted in the name of the Emperor - dressed in green or mid blue, these officers outranked any other officer in the army. These men ensured the Emperor's orders were carried out. Equally important to the functioning of the French Army were the couriers and post men who transmitted orders, they were essential to the command and control of the Grande Armee.
Other staff members were topographical officers who mapped the route of the army, war commissioners, the men who made sure the army was fed and obtained the necessary raw materials to make new uniforms, and inspectors of review who ensured that the army was clothed - the very essence of this visually stunning book.
Relying primarily on period regulations and little used archive records held in the Archives Nationales and Service Historique du Armee de Terre in Paris, as well as contemporary illustrations and original items of uniforms, the author sets out to describe the dress of the Grande Armee's staff in the most complete and accurate manner since the glory days of the First Empire.
Napoleon's Officers: Uniforms and Equipment examines the dress of generals of brigade and division, including the lavish and elaborate wardrobe of General Lasalle, the idol of the light cavalry. Among the uniforms described are those of the adjutant commandants, adjutants, secretaries and other often forgotten, but essential personnel who were responsible for the day-to-day management of the Grande Armee on campaign.
The flamboyant dress of Berthier's aides-de-camp is shown, with their scarlet pantaloons and black dolmans, as well as the aides for the both the marshals of the empire and other senior field officers. Also examined are ordnance officers - the men who acted in the name of the Emperor - dressed in green or mid blue, these officers outranked any other officer in the army. These men ensured the Emperor's orders were carried out. Equally important to the functioning of the French Army were the couriers and post men who transmitted orders, they were essential to the command and control of the Grande Armee.
Other staff members were topographical officers who mapped the route of the army, war commissioners, the men who made sure the army was fed and obtained the necessary raw materials to make new uniforms, and inspectors of review who ensured that the army was clothed - the very essence of this visually stunning book.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Barnsley
United Kingdom
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
200 colour illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 246 mm
Width: 172 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0361-4184-4 (9781036141844)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
PAUL L. DAWSON BSc Hons M. Res MIFA FINS has had a lifelong passion for archaeology and history, holding both a degree in archaeology, and a master's degree in history. Over the last twenty-five years he has written almost fifty books, primarily on the period 1660 to 1831, exploring the relationship between political and religious dissent with the state, equine nutrition and biomechanics, as well as the history of his home city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire. Perhaps he is best known for his series of ground-breaking books on the Waterloo Campaign of 1815 and his studies of the uniforms and equipment of the French army 1792-1815. Outside of writing and research, he is a gifted equestrian, riding for film and TV, as well as competing dressage and teaching classical equitation. In his free time, he is a church musician - both organist, choir director and solo singer - and lay minister with the General Assembly of Unitarians and Free Christians. Following a severe traumatic brain injury, resulting in speech, cognition and some mobility issues, he is a campaigner for disability rights for others recovering from brain injury.