Crisis in the Snows-Russia Confronts Napoleon, Eylau Campaign 1806-07-James R Arnold and Ralph Reinertsen
To the best of my knowledge, the last major work written in English that dealt exclusively with Napoleon's 1806-17 Campaign in Poland was F. Lorraine Petre's 1907 edition. A large book, it covered the entire campaign and while somewhat dry and lacking in the aspect of tactical narrative, it provided a just enough detail to satisfy readers who could not read the French and German language histories on the subject that had been in vogue only a few years earlier. Petre's book was to become the "go to" book for amateur historians and one of the first reads for professional historians who wished to delve deeper into the subject.
More than one hundred years later, James Arnold, author of "Marengo and Hohenlinden" and "Crisis on the Danube", has released a two volume set on the 1806-07 Polish Campaign; the first of which is "Crisis in the Snows: The Eylau Campaign".
Using recently unearthed sources, especially long hidden or ignored Russian and Prussian documents; along with assistance from several Russian speaking scholars, Arnold has managed to weave a compelling history, complete with detailed accounts of every major and most minor, engagements fought, culminating in the tragic Battle of Eylau.
There are almost 40 maps to accompany the battle accounts and they are nothing short of masterpieces. Using period maps of the day, Arnold and his co-author have used modern overlays to depict troop movements and concentrations on the battlefield, making it very clear and easy for the reader to follow the account of a given engagement when reading the map. What is also unique is that almost every map fits the book and is of actual use; an important factor to consider, since many modern histories boast maps that have little or no relation to what is being described in the text.
Along with a superb military narrative, Arnold does a very good job of covering the political aspects of the war and a downright superb undertaking in relating the human elements and tragedies that surround this abortive campaign.
I have been reading Arnold's books for several years now and I truly love the attention to detail that he pays to the military events, but in my humble opinion this book really shines when it confronts the aftermath of both the Battle of Eylau and the two disastrous winter campaigns that led up to it. Not only is Eylau finally and convincingly presented as the first major military defeat that Napoleon faced; but the entire campaign sees the gutting of his fully trained and superb "Grand Armee" that had been so successful just a few months earlier. Not only would massive troop losses mean a change in the battlefield tactics Napoleon would have to use in the future, but the entire campaign also showed European statesmen, enemy, allied or neutral, that Napoleon was not quite the demi-god that everyone had imagined him to be and that he might, eventually, be defeated once and for all. Even more important was the fact that the 1807 Winter campaign was a microcosm of what was to be the Russian campaign of 1812 and for all of the damage done to his army, reputation and legitimacy; Napoleon failed to learn the lesson of fighting on ground of his own choosing, as he could have done very early on in the pre-Winter phase of the 1807 campaign, rather than chasing after an enemy across terrain that was susceptible to weather and could supply only limited amounts of provisions.
Arnold and Reinertsen also do a great job with the appendices, which include full orders of battle for both the start and finish of the campaigns and brief "units present" summaries for all of the smaller actions. There is also a unique little appendix dealing with the "Battle of the Maps" (and Bulletins) that Napoleon used to prove that he had won the Battle of Eylau and despite proof otherwise, how his version of events lasted for over two centuries before Arnold, with the help of several luminaries in the field of Napoleonic history, finally exposed the truth for all to see.
Crisis in the Snows is one of the best single Napoleonic histories I have ever read and I can't wait to read its sequel, "Napoleon's Triumph". If I have once complaint, it is that the 1806-07 has a directly related sequel, The Prussian Campaign of 1806 and I honestly hope that Mr. Arnold will go back and complete this trilogy that needs to be written.
