Napoleon's Scouts of the Imperial Guard

Description

Driven out of Germany after his defeat at Leipzig in 1813, Napoleon seemed to face disaster. Some 345,000 Allied troops were converging on France from the east; and Napoleon had only about 80,000 men. Most of his veterans had been killed in Russia and Germany, and he was short of cavalry to counter the swarms of Cossacks. For his last and possibly most brilliant campaign, Napoleon raised three regiments of mounted Scouts for his Imperial Guard. Through the story of these units the reader can follow Napoleon's dazzling manoeuvres in the campaign of 1814; and their widely varied uniforms are reconstructed in meticulously researched colour plates.

Ronald Pawly was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1956 and still lives and works in that city. He is a respected member of several international societies for Napoleonic studies, and an expert on 19th century military portraiture. He has written many titles for Osprey, including Napoleon's Red Lancers; MAA 378, Napoleon's Guards of Honour; and Elite 115, Napoleon's Imperial Headquarters (1): Organization & Personnel and MAA 429, Napoleon's Mamelukes. Patrice Courcelle was born in northern France in 1950 and has been a professional illustrator for 20 years. Entirely self-taught, his dramatic and lucid style has won him widespread admiration in the field of military illustration. He lives a few miles from the battlefield of Waterloo with his wife and son.