The book is an organizational history of the French Armee de l'Orient that Napoleon formed and organized for the invasion of Egypt in 1798. It is full of excellent material, orders of battle, uniforms, and the assorted different foreign units that were formed and organized by the French during their stay in Egypt.
The book is organized into six chapters: The first gives an overview of the French Egyptian Expedition including a timeline of the entire French presence in Egypt. Most histories of the expedition only cover in any detail that portion of the expedition until Napoleon departed for France in 1799. This volume continues through General Kleber's command of the expedition as well as his successor General Menou until they were finally defeated by the British and went home.
The other chapters cover the men of the expedition and what their daily life was like; French army organization and tactics; the French orders of battle from 1798-1802; the uniforms and how they gradually changed in Egypt to common sense uniforms that are unique to the expedition.
The artillery, engineer, and other supporting troops are well-covered, including the numbers and types of artillery with the army.
The book is very well-illustrated with both period and modern day prints, especially of uniforms, and a good portion of them are in color. The Dromedary Regiment is especially well-illustrated and these troops would later be assigned to the Gendarmerie upon their return to France in 1802. Some of the illustrations, especially the period black and white profile portraits of some of the French commanders, are excellent and handy to have on hand.
