Napoleon's Marine Artillery - Jean Louis Rieu

A new personal account and history

The Marine Artillery of Napoleon's army is possibly one of the least well known units in the military history of the First Empire of the French. During the later 18th century French naval gunners were quite separate from naval crews and their task was not only to serve the guns on ships of war, but also to garrison essential ports and fortifications along the long coastline of France and beyond. The dominance of the Royal Navy at sea during this period ensured the French fleet lay blockaded in its harbours and so the men of the Marine Artillery languished for years without being called to action. By 1813 almost continuous wars of grinding attrition, culminating in the catastrophic disaster of the Russian Campaign, had seriously depleted the ranks of the French Army. Napoleon realised that in the Marine Artillery he had a valuable but underemployed asset. Its ranks were accordingly expanded, including conscripts and officers from St. Cyr, and it marched to war, not as artillery, but as infantry, in the campaign that was to be fought in Germany. Marmont, who was given command of these troops, was initially sceptical as to their practical value, but events—as this book graphically reveals—proved him to be entirely wrong. Jean Louis Rieu was a Swiss officer of the Marine Artillery whose personable military memoirs (translated into English here for the first time in their entirety) provide compelling and unique insights into the activities of the Marine Artillery and its performance on campaign on the battlefields of Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Leipzig and others. Rieu's account is accompanied in this edition by a short history of the Marine Artillery. Includes illustrations and maps.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket.