"A Surgeon in Napoleon’s Grande Armée: The Campaign" Topic

…Journal of Baron Percy

"Pierre-François Percy was Surgeon-in-Chief of Napoleon's Grande Armée. This is the first English translation of Baron Percy's notebooks, containing his interesting, revealing, and informative testimony of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic campaigns in which he played an active role, as the most senior surgeon in the French Army, from 1799-1807.

In his journal, Percy writes intimately about his life on campaign. He recounts his experiences across Europe, particularly in Switzerland (Helvetia), Germany, and Poland. The journal shows Percy's delight at seeing his surgeons recognized for their work at Eylau, and his notes express his shock at the brazen corruption of military officials and the indiscriminate pillaging to which the French army frequently resorted. He recounts his audiences with Napoleon, during which his pleas for more resources and a more professional military surgical corps frequently fell on deaf ears. Details that may have seemed trivial to Percy's contemporaries – about food, accommodation, dress, and transport – now offer a vital insight into the persistent struggles, and occasional pleasures, of those who followed Napoleon on his quest to conquer Europe…"

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