The Campaigns of Napoleon by Chandler, David G - 1966

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966. Second Printing [stated]. Hardcover. Good. xliii, [1], 1172 pages. Frontis illustration. Illustrations. Maps (with color). Occasional footnotes. Appendices. References. Bibliography. Glossary of Military Terms. Indexes. Black marks on top, side, and bottom edges. Minor page and edge soiling. Cover has some wear and sunning/soiling. David Geoffrey Chandler (15 January 1934 - 10 October 2004) was a British historian whose study focused on the Napoleonic era. Later life he taught at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Oxford University awarded him the D. Litt. in 1991. According to his obituary in The Daily Telegraph, his "comprehensive account of Napoleon's battles" (The Campaigns of Napoleon) is "unlikely to be improved upon, despite a legion of rivals. ... General de Gaulle wrote to Chandler in French declaring that he had surpassed every other writer about the Emperor's military career." He was also the author of a military biography of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and of The Art of Warfare in the Age of Marlborough. "The Campaigns of Napoleon" is an exhaustive analysis and critique of Napoleon's art of war as he himself developed and perfected it in the major military campaigns of his career. To be sure, every operation Napoleon conducted contained unique improvisatory features. But there were from the first to the last certain basic principles of strategic maneuver and battlefield planning that he almost invariably put into practice. To clarify these underlying methods, as well as the style of Napoleon's fabulous intellect, Mr. Chandler examines in detail each campaign mounted and personally conducted by Napoleon, analyzing the strategies employed, revealing wherever possible the probable sources of his subject's military ideas. Introducing the elements of Napoleonic "grand tactics" as they developed in his Italian, Egyptian, and Syrian campaigns, Mr. Chandler shows how these principles were clearly conceived as early as the Battle of Castiglione, when Napoleon was only twenty -six. Several campaigns later, he was Emperor of France, busily constructing the "Grande Armee." This great war machine is described in considerable detail: the composition of the armies and the "elite" Guard; the staff system and the methods of command.