Fighting for Napoleon

Most accounts of the French side of the Napoleonic Wars take a strategic view, look at military organisation and tactics, or rely on the memoirs of officers. This book turns to the lowest ranks instead, using over sixteen hundred letters that ordinary men of the army sent from the front line.

The letters describe campaigns and battles, recruitment and training, life in barracks, captivity and wounds. Most were written by men with little schooling, addressed to their families, and the Wilkins use them to show what motivated common soldiers and what military service was really like. The result is a counterpoint to the memoirs of officers such as Jean-Roch Coignet and Marcellin de Marbot.

The book suits military and cultural historians, and readers interested in everyday life in the Napoleonic period. Edition note: published by Pen & Sword in 2016, 183 pages, ISBN-13: 9781473833739.