"Thiébault: Soldier of Napoleon: Volume 2" Topic

"Personal narratives of the careers of Napoleon's soldiers of the First Empire are not common in English translation nor are they so devoid of interest to the modern student of the Napoleonic Wars as to be unwelcome or ignored. Thiébault's military recollections fill two substantial volumes and it is worth noting that the English language translator, Butler, was the same person who brought the exploits of the real Brigadier Gerard, Marbot, to English readers. Thiébault joined the army of the Revolution in 1792, serving in both the armies of the Rhine and the North. By 1795 he had risen to the rank of adjutant to Solignac in Italy. In 1801 he was promoted to General and at Austerlitz commanded a brigade and was wounded in the Pratzen plateau assault. He then served extensively throughout the Peninsular War and subsequently as an infantry division commander in Germany in the campaigns of 1813 and 1814 which led to the fall of Napoleon. In 1815 he rallied to his master's banner and commanded at the defence of Paris at the close of ‘the One Hundred Days'.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands."
See here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Thanks for the heads up Armand. I've always wanted to read this guy. There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to reviewing Thiebault: either he provides one of the most insightful memoirs of the period, or he's the vilest character assassin of his age. Be interested to form my own opinion!

Agree with you my friend!

Glad you like it!.

Amicalement
Armand

Thank you for the link cousin.

Kevin Kiley condemns this book freely as inaccurate and ghost written, unless he uses it to support his position ;-)

When did I use Thiebault to support any position that I have taken?

I'm referring to Thiebault's memoirs, not to his two staff manuals, both of which are both excellent and insightful.

Here is what I have quoted in the past regarding Thiebault:

From Cronin's biography of Napoleon, 445-446:

'Baron Thiebault is another who rallied to the Bourbons and paid for a good job by circulating a MS in which he abused not only Napoleon, but all the men of the Revolution and Empire. From Thiebault's notes a journalist ghost-writer named Calmettes worked up Memoirs which appeared in 1893-94, half a century after Thiebault's death. Their partiality has long been recognized by historians.'

I have never used Thiebault's memoirs in my research. I have used the staff manuals as they are excellent and worthy of study.

The two, the memoirs and the staff manuals, are not the same thing.

Google Books has both volumes and they are free to download.

Paul.

No mention my dear cousin.

I was not aware they can be read for free.

Any link?

Amicalement
Armand

Not only they are free to download but there is also

GENERAL PAUL THIÉBAULT
HIS LIFE AND HIS LEGACY
By
JACKSON L. SIGLER
A Dissertation submitted to the
Department of History
In partial fulfillment of the
Requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

which can be downloaded as well and provides a lot of interesting back round about thiebault and the memoires