audiobook Buffalo Soldiers: African American Troops in the US forces 1866-1945 (General Military) by Ron Field; Alexander Bielakowski in History

Description

'In war; let your great object be victory; not lengthy campaigns. Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate; the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or peril...' (Sun Tzu The Art of War). We speak of Caesar who conquered Gaul; not the legions; MacArthur who landed at Inchon; not the Marines - and we speak of Napoleon; one of history's most successful generals. Major General Jonathon Riley is supremely well qualified to write on Napoleon's generalship and has written an informed and insightful account. He opens with a short treatise on generalship in order to define Napoleon's achievement before moving on to the man himself. He examines Napoleon as a strategist; as a coalition commander; Napoleon's campaigns and Napoleon on the battlefield. Areas often ignored in the context of pre-industrial warfare - logistics and counter-insurgency - are also examined. Riley proceeds to three specific case studies beginning with Napoleon's first essay in generalship and the conquest of Piedmont; Napoleon at the height of his powers at the conquest of Prussia; to Napoleon's final defeats and the Battle of the Nations in 1813.