8.75 x 5.5 in.  432 pages.  8 plates.  4 maps.
Greenhill Books Napoleonic Library

Louis Davout's prodigious talent for war made him one of Napoleon's most effective capable and feared lieutenants.  With masterful prose, John Gallaher paints a complete picture of the man who was outstanding in battle and brilliant on campaign.

This definitive biography - the only available study of the Iron Marshal in English - charts Davout's career from his enlistment as a Volunteer in the Republican army to his appointment as Minister of  War in 1815.  A veteran of campaigns in Germany and along the Rhine under the flags of the Republic, Davout first came to Napoleon's attention in Egypt and he was created a marshal in 1804.  He quickly won a reputation as a fierce disciplinarian, an energetic and resolute leader, a capable subordinate and a succesful and trusted independent commander - as demonstrated at Auerstadt, Eckmuhl and Hamburg.

Based on extensive research in the Davout family papers and a deep understanding of the Napoleonic military machine, this superb biography stands as a unique source on Napoleon and the men who forged triumph from success.

THE IRON MARSHAL was first published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1976, and is now reissued as the thirty-fifth volume in the Napoleonic Library.
 

Greenhill Books  ISBN 1-85367-396-X

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