At Napoleon's Side in Russia

Nowhere is the crisis of the Napoleonic tragedy described as clearly as in the memoirs of Armand de Caulaincourt. He was an aristocrat of the Old Regime who had accepted the French Revolution and was ready to serve the new Emperor. Riding day by day at Napeleon's side, Caulaincourt could see the gro [...]
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Nowhere is the crisis of the Napoleonic tragedy described as clearly as in the memoirs of Armand de Caulaincourt. He was an aristocrat of the Old Regime who had accepted the French Revolution and was ready to serve the new Emperor. Riding day by day at Napeleon's side, Caulaincourt could see the growing horror of defeat and disaster culminating in the rout of the Grand Army's retreat from the vast expanses of Russia. Napoleon's Grand Army had entered Russia triumphantly on June 18, 1812 with as many as 600,000 men while the remnants that staggered out were a mere few thousand. It was the greatest military disaster in history. Recent findings in Vilnius, Lithuania, have confirmed the scale of the ruin of the French army in 1812. The New York Times reported on September 14, 2002 on the discovery of mass graves of what had been the Grand Army at a construction site in Vilnius. Caulaincourt was made Duke of Vicenza, Master of Horse, and was twice the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador to Russia as well as a close political advisor to Napoleon. The literary value of Caulaincourt's memoirs has led to comparisons with Tolstoy's War and Peace.They are the closest insight available into Napoleon as the winds of fortune began turning against his great adventure. It has been out of print in English until this new Enigma edition.