The Great Retreat (Paperback)

Invasion and Retreat is based largely on newly unearthed military ar- archaeological artefacts. The authors scrupulously followed the route of the Grande Armee within the borders of the old Russian Empire, and discovered the buried treasure as they followed in Napoleon's horse- tracks: uniforms and accessories, firearms and bullets, cannon and cannonballs, swords and sabres, reins and stirrups, as well as the personal items - buckles, coins, pipes, razors, and souvenirs - that bring a solder's life back to life. With 1600 previously unpublished illustrations and 289 biographies of all the regiments and units, backed up eyewitness accounts of those there then, A.P. Sokolov, Director of the Russian State Historical Archive, has complied a momentous contribution to our understanding of the human cost of Napoleon's disastrous Russian adventure.