New eBook
Glory and Despair: Polish Accounts of the Sieges of Saragossa, 1808 and 1809 Kindle Edition
Jonathan North & Marek Tadeusz Łalowski
File Size: 2740 KB
Print Length: 160 pages
Publication Date: September 26, 2018
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B07HQZK7VT
The twin sieges of Saragossa became a symbol of the determination of the Spanish people to resist Napoleon’s invasion. The French would launch two attempts to capture the capital of Aragon and whilst the first, launched in the summer of 1808, would fail, the second triumphed at great cost in early 1809. Both were hard, heroic struggles. And both sides showed equal heroism. The stubborn resolve of the inhabitants, only weakened by disease and starvation by degrees, was pitted against the determination of Napoleon’s soldiers in a war which became increasingly bitter with each step the French made into the ruined city.
Napoleon’s troops included a large contingent of Poles. This book presents four detailed eyewitness accounts by three Polish infantry officers and a cavalry officer of the Vistula Legion. It relays their sense of horror at the slaughter and awe at the heroism of the besieged, and reveals their doubts as they, men who had enlisted with the French to liberate their own country, found themselves thrown into a conflict so evidently destroying the liberty of others.
The accounts by these careful observers recount what siege warfare was like during the Napoleonic Wars, and what it was like to be ensnared in the worst of those sieges. It makes for a tale of glory in the streets and amongst the squares, and bitter despair amongst the ruins of what was once a great and imposing city.
Biography
I'm Jonathan North (see more about me at http://www.jpnorth.co.uk). I was drawn early on to the period which followed the French Revolution and to the era of Napoleon, roughly 1789 to 1815. It was a time of tremendous upheaval in which the world seemed to advance at great speed, sometimes in a measured and rational way (the Code Napoleon), sometimes lurching and stumbling (the anarchy and the long wars). The period is also one of enormous historical significance, with the countries of Europe shaped and reshaped, political systems destroyed and refashioned, and the world, effectively, turned upside down and shaken.
Great historical figures dominated, with Napoleon, Nelson, Metternich and Beethoven, and others whose lives and actions remain significant, shaping the age. But, if I am honest, for me the lives of ordinary people was always more compelling, the way in which grand events sweep people up or simply pass them by. The accounts by soldiers and sailors, and of civilians caught up in some of the drama, are particularly revealing. My work has mainly looked at those accounts, and sought to bring them to a wider audience.
I've been a student of the Napoleonic age for many years but started publishing 15 years ago. You can see some of my books on these pages, or visit my website (http://www.jpnorth.co.uk/publications/) for more detail and for an insight into what I'm working on now. Thanks for reading.
http://www.jpnorth.co.uk/what-is-new/