Author: General Baron Gourgaud
Title: Napoleon and the Grand Army in Russia, or a Critical Examination of the Works of Count Ph. De Segur
Description: London, Martin Bossange and Co, 1825. Hardcover. pp. xv, 453, 54. 8vo. Bound in original printer's boards; the boards in which our copy is encased are shabby, with the spine having disappeared. Former owner's name stamp to top of title page. Contents a little foxed, yet still quite clean and tight. A suitable candidate for re-binding, and priced accordingly. With a 54 page Appendix at end in which are set out the Orders of the Emperor, &c. during the year 1812. Gaspar, Baron Gourgaud (1783-1852) was the principal orderly officer and aid-de-camp to Napoleon, who accompanied his master into exile on the island of St. Helena and kept an extensive and personal diary of his relationship with the deposed Emperor, which was subsequently published (in English) as 'The St. Helena Journal of General Baron Gourgard 1815-1818, Being a Diary Written during a Part of Napoleon's Capitivity'. Phillipe Paul, Comte de Segur, (1780-1873) was a distinguished French general and historian who served under Napoleon throughout most of the important campaigns of the first empire. He retired in 1818 and wrote 'Histoire de Napoleon et de la grande armee pendant l'annee 1812' (first published in Paris, 1824, in two volumes). It presented an unflattering portrait of Napoleon and provoked his loyal aid-de-camp to challenge Segur to duel, in which Segur was wounded. Gourgaud wrote this 'Critical Examination' to challenge and respond to Segur's book, observing of his enemy: 'He writes almost at random; blending unconnected facts, and relating them without order; confounding with the events of one epoch, those belonging to another .. as for military facts, they consist of a series of inaccurate statements; distorted pictures; little anecdotes, for the most part fabricated..'. .

Keywords: Napoleon;Bonaparte;Russia;France;Emperor;Wellington;Lord Nelson;;


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