Napoleonic Wars

The conflicts that raged from the French Revolution in 1789 to Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815 reveal immense changes in warfare and the profound effect that military genius can have on history.


Napoleon’s Battle Plan at Austerlitz

Excerpt from How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War—From Ancient Greece to the War on Terror, by Bevin Alexander, page 265

The key position on the field of Austerlitz [in Moravia, December 2, 1805] was a three-mile-long ridgeline called the Pratzen, about a mile and a half east of a stream called the Goldbach. Napoleon had deliberately yielded the Pratzen heights, which seemed to be the best tactical position, and had formed his army instead mostly west of the Goldbach stream. Read more >>


Bonaparte’s Strategy in the Marengo Campaign 1800

Excerpt from How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War—From Ancient Greece to the War on Terror, by Bevin Alexander, pages 332-33

Although Bonaparte sent messages into Genoa telling Masséna [the French commander bottled up there by the Austrians in April 1800] to hold out as long as possible, time now was of the essence. Read more >>


Napoleon’s Military Genius

Excerpt from How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War—From Ancient Greece to the War on Terror, by Bevin Alexander, page 329

Napoleon Bonaparte’s military genius burst on the world like a meteor. He was only 25 years old and inexperienced in war when he mounted cannons at the harbor mouth of the great French naval base of Toulon in 1793. Read more >>


Napoleon’s Strategy at Waterloo

Excerpt from How Wars Are Won: The 13 Rules of War—From Ancient Greece to the War on Terror, by Bevin Alexander, pages 131-32

Napoleon knew [the Austrian commander] Schwarzenberg, coming from Germany, would be slow. Thus he could ignore the Austrians for the moment. Read more >>

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