What do You think about The Diary Of A Napoleonic Foot Soldier (1993)?
It is very unusual to find the memoirs of a foot soldier from the Napoleonic Wars. Thus, the diary entries of Jakob Walter, a draftee into the Westphalian Army under service to Napolean. Eventually, he marched with Napoleon's Grand Armee into Russia.The narrative begins by conveying the life most soldiers experienced at this time in history, hurry-up-and-wait, uneventful. But as he moves into Russia, the horrors begin -- hunger, cold and the extroardinary inhumanity that followed. Walter witnesses the looting of the lame and weak by their fellow soldiers, the starvation, the disolution of Napoleon's forces. Hell on Earth was unleashed and Walter -- who was a devout Roman Catholic -- shares his experiences. He was an exceptional writer considering his station in life (relatively uneducated draftee). All in all, a highly interesting insight into why the old saw of "never fighting a land battle against Russia in winter" is all too true.
—Frank Kelly
A first hand account of Napoleons disastrous Russian Campaign, Grand strategy and martial glory are irrelevant to the conscripted private soldier who's every moment is about merely trying to survive, Jakob Walters memoir is a harrowing account of the savagery of war and a testament of how all social norms and bonds of humanity can quickly disintegrate under extreme hardship, these recollections and the other letters included penned by common soldiers rather than members of the privileged officer corp we so often see from this time period offer a priceless insight into the human tragedy of war for the common man who's lot it sadly seems is to pay the price for the grand ambitions of the "Great Men" of history, no Palaces, Principalities or riches for them, just starvation, cold and death with only the hope of getting home to their families to keep them going,
—Thomas T
This ain't no teen girl diary filled with airy-yet-painfully-heart-felt musings on puppy love written in loopy handwriting with a pen that could double as a peacock. But I'll bet Jakob Walter, author of The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier wishes he could've lived that life instead of his own.Walter was in Napoleon's army when it made the famous 1812 winter march on Russia: 500,000 men attacked, less than 40,000 successfully retreated. Walter himself barely survived to tell the tale of extreme cold, starvation, depravation, cannibalism, and the absolute breakdown of humanity. His writing is prosaic. It is serviceable with an occasional satisfying flourish. This is a memoir, not a novel. In a soldierly way, it sets down facts first. If now and then Walter recalls the joys of civility and indulges in the gifts of opinion and decorative detail, then we should accept them gratefully, for his firsthand account gives us a very early anti-war argument from the mouth of the common man.
—Jason Koivu
