Grande Armée

The desperate route traversed Genappe, traversed Cotterbrau, traversed Gosselie, traversed Fraine, traversed Charleroi, traversed Thien, and only halted at the frontier.

Alas, and who then was fleeing in that manner? The Grand Army.

This vertigo, this terror, this downfall into ruin of the loftiest bravery which ever astounded history, is that causeless? No.

The shadow of an enormous right is projected athwart Waterloo.

Their cannons stand with yawning mouths.

The match is lighted.

They grind down under their heels the Imperial Guards and the Grand Army.

They have just crushed Napoleon, and only Cambronne remains.

He harassed the retreat mile after mile, kept up pressure with rear guard actions, raids, and battles, never letting the French regroup.

The Grand Army came apart under hunger, cold, disease, and relentless Russian pressure.

Napoleon had written the warning himself.

"Retreats," he said, "cost more than the bloodiest of battles.

Part Six: In Which Napoleon Discovers That Russia Goes On for Quite a While.

In June 1812, Napoleon crosses the River Niemen and invades Russia with the Grande Armée, an enormous multinational force numbering well over half a million men at the beginning of the campaign.

This is Napoleon at peak confidence.

He controls much of Europe.

One of the most enduring legacies of the Second Empire was the transformation of Paris under the direction of Baron Georges Haussmann, whom he appointed as city prefect in June 1853.

Over the next 17 years, Haussmann implemented the emperor's plans to demolish much of the medieval city, replacing the narrow streets with large parks, expansive squares, and a ring of wide boulevards named after the marshals of La Grande Armée in Napoleon I's time.

A few months after his appointment, Haussmann announced plans to build a grand thoroughfare named the Avenue Napoleon III, now the Avenue de l'Opera, which led to a magnificent new opera house constructed by the architect Charles Garnier between 1861 and 1875.

The transformation of Paris was accompanied by a set of policies aimed at stimulating economic growth.

Liam, this book, Conscription, a surprise for you in terms of a topic? Because I'm going to ask Graham for his take on this, but I'm interested in your take on Graham's choice here, because I kind of feel as though this makes a degree of sense given all of that incredible database work.

But also, when you've got books like Fortune Napoleon's Grand Armée, I'd have imagined most people would have been kind of scared away from this.

And it was only when Graham said to me, yeah, I'm going to do this book on conscription, that I kind of went, that's actually a really good idea.

Why haven't more people thought about that?

And it was from there that I realized actually conscription as a process isn't that well understood.

There are some brilliant books on conscription and the French nation or the French army that Alan Forrest's work stands head and shoulders above many.

Michael Hughes, who you mentioned with Forging the Grand Armée.

John Elting's work's good.

The sentry started, then saluted and stood to attention.

On his face was a worshipping look of admiration and awe, such as some young soldier of the Grande Armée might have worn on seeing Napoleon.

For the newcomer was Clarence Chugwater.

Your name, said Clarence, eyeing the sturdy young warrior.

Of soldiers, uh, who cannot be furnished.

We, we, and just, just look at the, uh, Grande Armée de la République in, uh, in the, uh, i- in the time of Napoleon.

Uh, th- they, uh, the, the disaster for that army was that it could not be, uh, that it could not be supported logistically.

On another...