Another drive-by post delivered before the brain of von Peter himself drops the memories.
Idle times in front of a screen
First up a recent review of General d’Armee …
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Next Check Your Leader TV brings us part one of a play through of the as yet unreleased Vexillarius rules. Rumour has it that the rules may be released at Salute 2026. So April 2026. At least a part two will be following …
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Christmas musings
Thoughts of Christmas 2025 have crept into the fevered brain of von Peter himself. The reason – books.
Broken Eagles – Napoleon and his German Allies in the 1813 Campaign: VOLUME I: Campaigns Overview, Bavaria, Saxony by John H. Gill. A second volume – Broken Eagles – Napoleon and his German Allies in the 1813 Campaign: Volume II – Württemberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Westphalia and the Small States – is incoming at the end of the year(?).
Traditional accounts of the campaigns of 1813 concentrate on the major powers: Napoleon’s France versus Russia, joined successively by Prussia, Sweden and Austria, and how, as in the French catastrophe of 1812, early successes were transformed into ruinous defeat. However, the smaller German states in Napoleon’s alliance system, the Confederation of the Rhine, or Rheinbund, also played an important part.
Despite its significance, there are few books, especially in English, that explore the Rheinbund’s creation, evolution and demise. This groundbreaking new work seeks to redress this. Based on years of research in archives across Germany and France, as well as battlefield visits, this unprecedented study provides the first comprehensive analysis of the confederation’s military campaigns of 1813 – culminating in Napoleon’s defeat and the collapse of his German alliance.
Presented in two parts, this first volume opens with an overview of the Rheinbund as an institution, a summary of its brief history and an overview of the campaigns, battles and sieges of 1813. It then proceeds to a detailed examination of the activities of the armies of Saxony and Bavaria in this critical year. The second volume continues with an analysis of the forces of Württemberg, Baden and Hesse-Darmstadt, Westphalia and the multitude of smaller states that comprised the Rheinbund. Supplemented by more than 100 maps, charts and orders of battle, this is an essential reference work for any Napoleonic scholar and all those with an interest in the historical development of Germany.
As a taster The dear readers of a podcast bent could listen the author on the subject via Napoleon’s Armies of the Confederation of the Rhine care of The Napoleonic Wars Podcast.
But there’s more
As if the temptations above were not enough there is yet another. Infantry in Battle 1733-1783 by Alexander S. Burns …
Infantry in Battle rewrites the story of combat in the eighteenth century by placing enlisted infantrymen and their experiences at centre stage. While popular memory and film portray these men as robotic automata they fought in flexible and adaptable ways, and they left their mark on eighteenth-century warfare.
In Infantry in Battle, Dr Alexander S. Burns provides a new understanding of combat during the mid-eighteenth century: the pivotal period between 1733 and 1783. Professor Burns arguesthat eighteenth-century soldiers informally negotiated authority with their officers on the battlefield by firing without orders, firing at longer ranges than their officers preferred, and by taking cover on the battlefield. In this process, these enlisted men played an important role by asserting tactical reforms from below.
Infantry in Battle is grounded in archival research on the American, British, and Prussian armies. However, it also covers the armies of military Europe more broadly, and includes writings from Austrian, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish soldiers. It is also the first English-language book to utilize archival material on battles from the War of Polish Succession in Northern Italy.
Infantry in Battle is a scholarly monograph, but one written with a popular audience in mind. Like his mentor, the late Christopher Duffy, Professor Burns has longstanding connections to professional military education as well as wargamers and reenactors. Cutting through myth, we see motivated enlisted men who were capable of adapting their tactics to the needs of the battlefield, rather than terrorized automata firmly controlled by their officers.
‘The American researcher Alexander Burns is of a new generation, thoroughly at home with European archives and culture.’ Christopher Duffy
“Infantry in Battle is an important entry into the revisionist canon of works on contemporary warfare. It has broad appeal to historians, wargamers, reenactors, and enthusiasts alike. It is an invaluable work that belongs on shelves alongside those of Berkovich, the Möbiuses, Christy Pichichero, and, above all, Christopher Duffy.” Jonathan Abel, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Journal of Military History
“…an important entry into the revisionist canon of works on contemporary warfare. It has broad appeal to historians, wargamers, reenactors, and enthusiasts alike. It is an invaluable work that belongs on shelves alongside those of Berkovich, the Mobiuses, Christy Pichichero, and, above all, Christopher Duffy.” Journal of Military History.
Such a purchase would feed the curiosity of von Peter himself regarding the Seven Years War in Europe.
Coincidently the The Napoleonic Wars Podcast provide a teaser for this book as well via Infantry in Battle – An 18th Century War of War Special.
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Enough.
Until we meet again …
Salute
von Peter himself
von Peter himself 