Captain Labaume

An indispensible eyewitness account of the destruction of Napoleon's Grand Army



The author of this remarkable book was an officer of the French Napoleonic army at the time of the emperor's ultimate folly-the invasion of Russia in 1812. A geographical engineer, he was appointed to viceroy Eugene de Beauharnais' command of the 4th Corps of the Grand Army-sometimes known as the Army of Observation or Army of Italy, in recognition of the origin of many of its troops and the vanguard or flank duties it invariably performed. Labaume served and fought with the army from when it was 400,000 strong until its apocalyptic end when, as one of only 4,000 men who had served for the entirety of the campaign in its principal engagements, he once again crossed the River Niemen into friendly territory. There are several well regarded first hand accounts of Napoleon's Russian campaign and while Labaume's might not be familiar to those interested in this period it is without doubt a substantial, detailed, well written narrative. It was one of the earliest works written by a survivor of the debacle of 1812 and was translated into English while Napoleon was in exile on the island of Elba. This Leonaur enhanced edition, with some original additions, gives modern readers the chance to discover the most comprehensive and relevant version of this important, authentic and essential source work. Includes battlefield maps drawn on the scene by Labaume. Recommended and invaluable.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.