NAPOLEON AS a GENERAL Gbe Woleele? Series
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oO% s$t?- NAPOLEON AS A GENERAL Gbe Woleele? Series The following works are now ready. 1. WITH THE ROYAL HEADQUARTERS. By General Verdy du Vernois. 2. LETTERS ON STRATEGY. By Prince Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen. 3. INDIAN FRONTIER WARFARE. By Major Younghusband, of the "Guides." 4. THE CONDUCT OF WAR. By Lieut. -General von der Goltz. 5. CROMWELL AS A SOLDIER. By Major Baldock, R.A. 6. OPERATIONS OF GENERAL GURKO'S AD- VANCE GUARD IN 1877. By Colonel Epauchin, of the Russian Staff. 7. NAPOLEON AS A GENERAL. By Count Yorck von Wartenburg. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. NAPOLEON AS A GENERAL BY THE LATE ™* YORCK von WARTENBURG fUx^l fcOUNTj , COLONEL OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY (^~ VOL JL^ FORMING THE SEVENTH BOOK Ube Molselep Series EDITED BY Major WALTER H. JAMES 'Oii^l VOL. I. LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. Ltd. Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road 1902 LONDON : printed by gilbert and kivington, ltd., st. John's house, clerkenwell, e.c. Gibraltar, April 19th, 1897. Dear Captain James, I have read with interest the list you have sent me of the military works to be published as "The Wolseley Series." The subjects are wisely chosen, and the authors will be generally accepted as soldiers who are competent to express valuable opinions upon them. I am much flattered by having my name associated with an undertaking that is designed to improve the professional knowledge of our officers, and I rejoice to feel that under your able editorship its success is assured. In some instances I see you are not only editor but also translator, for which duty, if you will allow me to say so, your intimate knowledge of the German idiom eminently qualifies you. I hope the officers of her Majesty's army may never degenerate into bookworms. There is happily at present no tendency in that direction, for I am glad to say that this generation is as fond of danger, adventure, and all manly out-of-door sports as its forefathers were. At the same time, all now recognize that the officer who has not studied war as an applied science, and who is ignorant of modern military history, is of little use beyond the rank of Captain. The principle of selection, pure and simple, is gradually being applied to the promotion of all officers, especially in the higher grades. As years go on this system will be more and more rigidly enforced. It is gratifying to know that a large proportion of our young officers are ambitious, and without doubt there is now many a subaltern who hopes to be a Field-Marshal vol. 1, a VI or to be shot in the attempt. Experience enables me to warn all these determined men of how small their chance is of ever reaching any great position in the army unless they devote many of their spare hours every week to a close study of tactics and strategy as dealt with in the best books upon recent wars. In this series of military works from the pens of first-class writers, the military student will find ample material to assist him in fitting himself for high com- mand, and in the interest of the Empire and of the army I earnestly hope he will avail himself of it. I know how truly this work is undertaken as a labour of love by you as editor and by all who are helping you. But I also know that you and they will feel amply repaid if it assists the young officer to learn the science of his profession and, in doing this, to improve the fighting value of the service, to the true interests of which we are one and all sincerely devoted. Believe me to be, Very truly yours, Wolseley. THE WOLSELEY SERIES. before The object of this series of books is to place British officers and others translations of the best foreign military books in an English dress. It is also intended to add original works on portions of our military history which have, hitherto, been somewhat neglected. The great part played in national life by the armies of con- tinental nations, has given rise to a much larger military literature than exists in England. The incessant struggle for supremacy has led to the production by master-minds of treatises on various parts of the art of war, which are of the highest importance, but many of which have hitherto only existed in their own language. It will be the aim of this series to make them available to English readers. England has been engaged in no great war since the 1 beginning of the century. It follows, therefore, that both strategy and tactics have been more widely treated by foreign authors than by our own, not only for the reason set forth above, but also because having usually taken a personal part in them they are naturally more interested therein It is sometimes urged that lessons of continental conflicts are in no wise useful to ourselves ; this is ridiculous.- The guiding principles of the operations of war are the same, whether they are conducted against civilized or savage foes. If our army were prepared only to meet the latter it need scarcely be maintained in its present form, but no one can say with our widespread 1 This was written in 1897.—Ed. Vlll Empire that we shall not be called upon to meet civilized opponents. If we are able to deal with them, we shall certainly have no difficulty in defeating savages, for it is by the training and discipline which render troops fit to meet those of their own state of civilization that they prove superior to the savage when they meet him in the field. Strategy is the same, whether used against Arabs or Frenchmen. The tactics employed differ as the weapons of the enemy differ. But the soldiers trained to meet the highest class of opponents are, ipso facto, better quali- fied to deal with the inferior. This series, therefore, will contain translations of well- known foreign writers, and it will also contain original English works dealing with the kind of warfare in which we are most frequently engaged, and with certain special phases of British military experience which have hitherto been somewhat inadequately dealt with. The history of British arms is replete with interest and is second to none in moving incidents of gallantry. Many of these have already been recorded, but the actual lessons to be learned from them have not always been systemati- cally treated. It is hoped, as this series progresses, to do so, and to secure for future generations the practical deductions to be made from the deeds of British soldiers. A list of the volumes already arranged for will be found at the beginning of this book, and it will be the aim of the editor to add from time to time such works only as seem of the first importance in the theory and record of military achievement. Walter H. James. AUTHOR'S PREFACE Military historians commencing the study of the deeds after his have of the great Corsican immediately fall, the moment had not arrived to rightly acknowledged that to describe as collect together his strategical conceptions, a whole his characteristics as a general. Since that period and more numerous publications have thrown more light of the on his military attainments, and the publication er in a Correspondance de Napoleon i completed 1869, permits leader. But complete judgment to be given on the great of the world and new events captivate the attention estimate of interest it more intimately, so that a proper and Napoleonic literature from a scientific literary point of view has been thrust somewhat into the background. These considerations account for the appearance of this been before book, and explain why it has not attempted by a more able pen. of As no complete relation exists of the campaigns issued the Napoleon of the nature of the publications by to this Head-Quarters' Staff, I have been led compile to account of the strategy of Napoleon, confining myself the main decisions of the those points which influence General. I have in nowise attempted to write the history of each of his wars, or to trace in detail all the movements own words as are of the belligerents. Napoleon's they recorded in his correspondence and in the numerous furnished the facts works which have preserved them, have of other needed for a proper judgment. In default any of merit, this work aims at contrasting the practice on war which serve as com- Napoleon with his theories mentaries on the former, but which are somewhat widely dispersed. the In conclusion, I can only admit that I undertook Whether I task because it has interested me so highly. have succeeded or not, I leave to the reader. EDITOR'S PREFACE Colonel Count Yorck von Wartenburg of the Prussian General Staff was well known in his own country as one of the most rising men in the German Army. His untimely death in China from suffocation due to a charcoal stove in an unventilated room has deprived the service of which he was so brilliant a member of one who was admittedly destined for a high career. The work of which this translation is offered to the British Army shows that he was a most capable military historian, an able and penetrating critic. For training in strategy no better field can be found than the study of the campaigns of the Great Emperor.