Marengo
Terry Crowdy
Format: Hardback
Pages: 320 pages, 22 illustrations
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books Ltd
Publication Date: 06/2018 (UK)
Category: Napoleonic Wars
ISBN: 9781473859203

On 14 June 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte fought his first battle as French head of state at Marengo in northern Italy. Unexpectedly attacked, Napoleon's army fought one of the most intense battles of the French Revolutionary Wars. Forced to retreat, and threatened with encirclement, Napoleon saved his reputation with a daring counterattack, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

This battle consolidated Napoleon's political position and placed the crown of France within his reach. Meticulously researched using memoirs, reports and regimental histories from both armies, Marengo casts new light on this crucial battle and reveals why Napoleon came so close to defeat and why the Austrians ultimately threw their victory away.

With the most detailed account of the battle ever written, the author focuses on the leading personalities in the French and Austrian camps, describing the key events leading up to the battle, and the complex armistice negotiations which followed. For the first time, the author exposes the full story of Carlo Gioelli, the enigmatic Italian double agent who misled both armies in the prelude to battle.

"The most interesting find was an 1804 account by Hauptmann Geppert, who was on the permanent staff and this appears to be part of the staff process of planning for future conflicts. As I maintained, Stutterheim and Mras did not copy off each other, but drew from this common source and of course, it dispels the idea that the idea that the Guard story was "made up" by the Austrians in the 1820s after the "glories of the Guard" under Napoleon. More generally, it will show how divisions in the senior command wrecked the Austrian campaign and should prompt some people to change their views on how Napoleon waged war as the story of the famous double agent, known as Toli in Gachot, is told for the first time. It will even reveal how the Austrians took Mantua so quickly in 1799. All written in Terry's very readable style." -Dave Hollins