The Destruction Of The Imperial Army

This volume is the most comprehensive account of the defeat of the French Imperial Army published in the last 100 years. It includes a detailed order of battles and the casualty returns for all major engagements.This work, the first in a four volume series, takes a fresh and in depth look at the events of the opening months of the Franco-German War between Napoleon's Imperial Army and King Wilhelm's German armies when within the space of four weeks in summer 1870 the established order was overthrown and Prussia laid the foundations for a military and political hegemony in Europe which led directly or indirectly to two World Wars.Many recent accounts of this pivotal conflict draw heavily on the usual tried and tested sources, for example, those which have been translated into English and are readily available, such as the German Official histories and the memoirs of senior German commanders. While this work does reference such sources, the basic narrative is taken from the numerous...