1813 Leipzig: Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations [Hardcover]

Digby Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 19, 2006

The crucial three-day battle of Leipzig, known to posterity as the Battle of the Nations, was the biggest battle of the Napoleonic Wars. It was also one of Napoleon's worst defeats - Leipzig sealed the fate of Napoleon's empire. Now, in this superbly narrated account of the battle, Digby Smith describes the events of 16, 17, 18 and 19 October 1813, and stresses both the significance of the battle and the brutality of the fighting. At the height of the battle Napoleon fielded more than 200,000 men against an Allied force - which included contingents from Russia, Austria, Prussia and Sweden - of some 360,000 soldiers. Cornered against the River Estler, Napoleon, outnumbered and suffering heavily from the fire of 1,400 Allied guns, was soundly defeated, had to relinquish control of Germany and was forced back into France. Digby Smith's evocative account of Leipzig concentrates on the ferocious fighting, charts the fortunes of the three day struggle and underlines the incredible human cost of the battle. Using a wealth of first-hand accounts, many of them previously unpublished in English, he brings the dramatic struggle to life and demonstrates just what it was like for the average French, German, Russian, Prussian, Austrian or Swedish soldier to take part in the Battle of the Nations.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

A brilliant account of the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars • Includes numerous eyewitness testimonies • Charts the course of the battle hour by hour The crucial three-day battle of Leipzig, known to posterity as the Battle of the Nations, was the biggest battle of the Napoleonic Wars. It was also one of Napoleon's worst defeats - Leipzig sealed the fate of Napoleon's empire. Now, in this superbly narrated account of the battle, Digby Smith describes the events of 16, 17, 18 and 19 October 1813, and stresses both the significance of the battle and the brutality of the fighting. At the height of the battle Napoleon fielded more than 200,000 men against an Allied force - which included contingents from Russia, Austria, Prussia and Sweden - of some 360,000 soldiers. Cornered against the River Estler, Napoleon, outnumbered and suffering heavily from the fire of 1,400 Allied guns, was soundly defeated, had to relinquish control of Germany and was forced back into France.

From the Publisher

A brilliant account of the largest battle of the Napoleonic Wars. Includes numerous eyewitness testimonies and charts the course of the battle hour by hour.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Greenhill Books; First edition (February 19, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853674354
• ISBN-13: 978-1853674358
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,026,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Account of the "Battle of the Nations", March 29, 2001

By 

Aussie Reader ""Rick"" (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1813 Leipzig: Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations (Hardcover)

I had great expectations when I started reading this book. As soon as I saw the cover I knew that I had to read it, since there have been so few decent accounts of this pivotal battle. At long last a new book on the 1813 battle of Leipzig, the `Battle of Nations'.

Alas it was not as good as I hoped. Although I found the research excellent and the first hand accounts very interesting the book was missing something. What it lacked, for me anyhow, was a story. The narrative was dry with lots of detail but it didn't seem to flow, to get you involved, as a good story should. I know the author is not writing a novel but a book that is just full of facts and details will lose its audience if its too dry to keep the reader awake.

I found the maps to be OK but I still found times when the author mentioned a place and I failed to locate it. This book will be of great benefit to the war-gamers and hardcore Napoleonic War readers. However for a person who is looking for a free flowing account that just pulls you into the story and at the same time gives you the facts required to understand what happened and why this book may be a hard slog.

9 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Leipzig Made Simple!, December 7, 2001

By 

"jgates75" - See all my reviews

This review is from: 1813 Leipzig: Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations (Hardcover)

I have been struggling to find a manageable book about the Leipzig campaign for some time. It's a big battle and hard to find a good balance between extremely detailed (long-winded?) accounts, or accounts which are simply too basic and superficial. After all, it is THE battle of Napoleonic wars in terms of size and duration!

I found this Digby Smith book very accessible. He writes well, and the book is beter laid out than, say, the Bowden triology, which to my mind dont engage the reader as well, and focus unduly on the French perspective of the campaign - at the expense of the rest. Importantly for me, (and where he scores over the excellent Osprey title on Leipzig) he has a good set of orders of battle in the appendix. Digby Smith is always hot on providing lots of data in his books, and this book is no exception. Its not the extreme detail of a Nafziger orbat, but it tells you all you need to know. An excellent overall text, and, for me, just the right balance between content and detail - and in just one volume!

17 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Grievous errors abound amidst many eye-witness accounts, October 5, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: 1813 Leipzig: Napoleon and the Battle of the Nations (Hardcover)

Digby Smith, a.k.a. Otto von Pivka, makes a mess out of this effort to tackle the massive four-day struggle between the Emperor Napoleon I and his enemies. And after reading one certain "Five-Star" review in this column, this reviewer is left with the impression that such a high rating must be due to the fact that the "Five-Star" reviewer MUST be somehow in debt to Mr. Smith.

Factual errors---grievous ones at that---plague the book from the start. In fact, Chapter One is so riddled with mistakes, that one HAS to question the editorial capabilities of the publisher's staff. Only a few of these mistakes will be pointed out here. The author maintains on page 11 that by April, 1813, "Britain was pouring money and equipment into the coffers and depots of Napoleon's enemies via the Baltic." Such was not the case. The Allied powers were hard pressed to fund and supply their own efforts prior to the subsidy treaties between Britain/Prussia/Russia were concluded and signed in the middle of June (treaty with Prussia on 14 June; treaty with Russia on 15 June). Similar trouble crops up with Mr. Smith's handling of the Austrians, when he states on page 12 that "Austria joined the Allies...on 27 June 1813." The 27 June agreement DID NOT have the Austrians join the alliance, but rather authorized ultimatums to be delivered to Napoleon as the Allied price of peace. Austria later officially declared war on France in August.

Once the campaign begins, Smith's work seems to get worse. Smith claims on page 17 that Napoleon gave Marshal Ney command of the Army of the Bober on 15 August "with the aim of thrusting towards Berlin. This was, instead, Marshal Oudinot's Army of Berlin...Napoleon did not form the Army of the Bober until more than a week later, and it was under Marshal Macdonald. Smith then continues on a disastrous serious of mistaken identities. On August 22, Smith states that Oudinot, now as commander of the Army of the Bober, faced the Allies in Silesia. Then Smith claims on page 19 that on the following day, Oudinot, clashed with the Allied Army of the North "only 17 kilometers south of Berlin."

The mistakes go on and on and on and on. Example: In Chapter Two,on page 35, Mr. Smith claims that "under the terms of the Treaty of Tilst of 8 September 1808, Prussia's army had been limited to 42,000." It was the Treaty of Paris of 8 Septmber 1808 that limited the size of the Prussian army. Factual mistakes also show up often under the narrative of the Battle of Leipzig, such as Mr. Smith's claims on page 208 that Bulow's 3rd Prussian Corps was part of Blucher's Army of Silesia; rather, Bulow was with the Army of the North.

Sources are scant and without ANY French archival sources (these are easily accessed at the Chateau de Vincennes) and anaylsis is lacking in any detail or depth.

In the end, this is a treatment which seems to be aimed at an audience that enjoys lengthy eywitness accounts...and this is where the book's value may be found.