7.72 x 5.04 in.  Paperback.

When eighteen-year-old German stonemason Jacob Walter was conscripted into the Grand Army of Napoleon, he had no idea of the trials that lay ahead. The long, gruelling marches in Prussia and Poland sacrificed countless men to Napoleon's grand designs. And the disastrous Russian campaign tested human endurance on an epic scale. Demoralized by defeat in a war few supported or understood, deprived of ammunition and leadership, driven past reason by starvation and bitter cold, men often turned on one another, killing fellow soldiers for bread or an able horse.

Though there are numerous surviving accounts of the Napoleonic Wars written by officers, Walter's is the only known memoir by a draftee, and as such is a unique and fascinating document -- a compelling chronicle of a young soldier's loss of innocence as well as an eloquent and moving portrait of the profound effects of war on the men who fight it.

Honest, heartfelt, deeply personal yet objective, The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier is more than an informative and absorbing historical document -- it is a timeless and unforgettable account of the horrors of war.

Penguin USA  ISBN 0-14016-559-2

Click here to order The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier!