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Battle for Paris 1815: The Untold Story of the Fighting After Waterloo Kindle Edition

by Paul L. Dawson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 45 ratings
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“For anyone seeking a full understanding of the end of the Napoleonic era this book is a must read . . . [a] tour de force of research.” —Clash of Steel
 
On the morning of 3 July 1815, the French General Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans, at the head of a brigade of dragoons, fired the last shots in the defense of Paris until the Franco-Prussian War sixty-five years later. Why did he do so? Traditional stories of 1815 end with Waterloo, that fateful day of 18 June, when Napoleon Bonaparte fought and lost his last battle, abdicating his throne on 22 June. But Waterloo was not the end; it was the beginning of a new and untold story.
 
Seldom studied in French histories and virtually ignored by English writers, the French Army fought on after Waterloo. Many commanders sought to reverse that defeat—at Versailles, Sevres, Rocquencourt, and La Souffel, the last great battle and the last French victory of the Napoleonic Wars.
 
Marshal Grouchy, much maligned, fought his army back to Paris by 29 June, with the Prussians hard on his heels. On 1 July, Vandamme, Exelmans and Marshal Davout began the defense of Paris. Davout took to the field in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris along with regiments of the Imperial Guard and battalions of National Guards.
 
For the first time ever, using the wealth of material held in the French Army archives in Paris, along with eyewitness testimonies from those who were there, Paul Dawson brings alive the bitter and desperate fighting in defense of the French capital. The 100 Days Campaign did not end at Waterloo, it ended under the walls of Paris fifteen days later.
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  1. Print length
    402 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Frontline Books
  5. Publication date
    December 19, 2019
  6. File size
    20636 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Story of the final battles after Waterloo have been strangely missing, particularly in the English language. The author has provided a very readable account of the Battle for Paris and final engagements. – Highly Recommended."
Firetrench

"The author has spent a great deal of time studying the French sources, so his work on that side of the campaign is based on solid archival research. He gives the French political leaders more credit than is often the case, acknowledging that they had a valid reason to avoid much further conflict."
History of War

About the Author

Paul L. Dawson BSc Hons MA, MIFA, FINS, is a historian, field archaeologist and author who has written more than twenty books, his specialty being the French Army of the Napoleonic Wars. As well as speaking French and having an in-depth knowledge of French archival sources, Paul is also an historical tailor producing museum-quality replica clothing, the study of which has given him a unique understanding of the Napoleonic era.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B082XGB1X1
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Frontline Books (December 19, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 19, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 20636 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 402 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 45 ratings

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Paul L. Dawson

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Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
45 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

54mm Napoleonics
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2020
Covers a subject that, until now, has been greatly neglected and dismissed by English authors. Disregard the low ratings - the book is worth a read!
3 people found this helpful
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James P. Rogers, III
1.0 out of 5 stars What a disappointment!
Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2020
Verified Purchase
Waterloo, like Gettysburg and Normandy, has been written about exhaustively. However, most accounts, whether fiction, popular history or academic, usually end with Napoleon's flight from the battlefield and the last stand of the Imperial "Old" Guard. The vanquished at Waterloo constituted only the left wing of the French army. What happened to the right wing commanded by Marshal Grouchy as well as the fugitives from the battlefield during the days after? I didn't know anything about that topic and was therefore excited to find Paul Dawson's "The Battle for Paris, 1815" at Amazon. What a disappointment! What a waste of an opportunity!
It is easier to list the things this book needs than the few merits it has. Among those are:
A. A competent proofreader. The book is replete with spelling and grammaticall errors, such as "quite" for "quit", "if" or "f" for "of" and other easily correctable mistakes. It makes one wonder if the book was proofread at all.
B. An editor. Fully one fifth of the book is concerned with Dawson's thesis that Waterloo was lost by Napoleon, not by Grouchy or Soult or Ney or anyone else, but by Napoleon alone. The author returns to this theme again and again even in parts that have no direct connection to the argument. A second fifth details (with some persuasion) why Grouchy did not and could not have come to the Emperor's aid by falling on the Prussians' rear and right flank on the day of battle. Neither of these issues have anything to do with the subject of the book.
The balance of the book is based on translated movement orders from Grouchy, Soult, Davout and others between June 19 and July 10, 1815. The translations are word for word in the stilted formal language of the time and are seldom analyzed, only repeated.
C. Maps, maps, maps. The book contains several small photographs of maps of Paris and it's defenses and two others of the area between Wavre and Soissions where Grouchy withdrew in his attempt to reach Paris before the Allies. It is difficult for the reader to understand the where and why of these movements without detailed maps of the area showing the locations of the French and Allied units involved.
D. Analysis. The author frequently just repeats what the French records state. Although it is noteworthy that Dawson was able to access records not available for one hundred years, he does not include comparable information from Prussian and English sources. It is difficult to see what the Allies were doing at the same time and why the were acting as they did. The book contains little analysis and is a major disappointment in that regard.
The part of the book that shined was in the treatment of the numbers and types of troops available to the french during the aftermath of Waterloo and the account of the defense of the capital.
This is not an enjoyable book to read and not worth the cost of purchase.
5 people found this helpful
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E.P. McLean
2.0 out of 5 stars After Waterloo
Reviewed in the United States on November 11, 2020
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Could have been a very interesting book, but the weaknesses out way the strengths. It deals with the efforts of the French government to defend Paris as the allied armies invade France after Waterloo. First it’s strengths. The author’s defense of Marshall Grouchy’s actions at Waterloo are well done and based on good primary sources. However, it takes up far too much of a book about the defense of Paris. The author is correct in stating that historians in English fail to use primary sources in other languages, but he is guilty of overusing his sources. Large chunks of primary material is placed in the text which distracts rather then enlightens. I might point out that reporting loses for horse mounted units should not be done simply because you have them. Without knowing how many men in a unit to begin with loses have no value. Summarize to move the thesis along details belong in an appendix. The biggest problem is the lack of maps. Much of the text deals with roads taken and towns visited. Becomes bewildering without a clear map to follow. Beyond some period maps at the end of the book which are notoriously hard to follow the book has no maps at all. Needs a good editor.
4 people found this helpful
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Linda Klaholz
1.0 out of 5 stars The worst history book ever?
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2022
Quite possibly the worst book I’ve ever picked up, and I’ve read thousands of historical studies over the last 50 years. “Book” is a generous term. “Battle for Paris” reads like the unedited notes of an excited grad student, replete with sloppy logic, incomplete and garbled writing, repetition of entire paragraphs, omission of context, typos, spelling mistakes, and non-sequiturs. There is no doubting Dawson’s ability as a researcher, breaking new ground in many areas. But he has singularly failed to compile a narrative that can be of any help to anyone but himself. For example, he inserts previously unpublished casualty reports for individual regiments into a page with no apparent connection to the text. He includes excerpts of previously unpublished contemporary despatches and letters, but without a single gobbett to provide any context. He bandies around place names and movements without offering a single map, and without a word of advice to the reader about their significance. His spelling of place names varies from page to page, making it even harder to locate them on other maps, contemporary or modern. His lens is entirely focused on the French experience; there is no attempt to even hint at the view from the other side of the hill, so the reader must seek other sources to learn anything about the goals, strengths and movements of those fighting the French. To be honest, a reader needs to do the same for the French side, given how garbled is Dawson’s writing. I’m very disappointed in the publisher as clearly no attempt was made to proof read this book, let alone edit it.
2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

A Case for the Psychiatrist
2.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete Study
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2019
Verified Purchase
There is an appalling featureless inadequacy in this book as there are no readable maps. The only ones are unreadable photos of vintage maps. There should be maps showing Grouchy's routes and positions during the ENTIRE 1815 Waterloo campaign and beyond in relation to where Waterloo, Napoleon, the Prussians and Wavre and Louvain were. The research is excellent but a map showing Grouchy's position in relation to Wavre and Waterloo would go some way towards proving which guns Grouchy heard in this controversial section of the book. The author would do well to read Jackson's Attack in the West about Napoleon's Italian campaign WHICH HAS A PLETHORA OF MAPS SHOWING EVERY MOVE AND POSSIBLE MOVE NAPOLEON MADE OR COULD MAKE in relation to the Austrian enemy. Jackson's maps help explain the text. There should also be maps of the allied and French armies dispositions AFTER Waterloo and the fortresses mentioned in the text. Perhaps the author would care to send me the maps to make this book more comprehensible
17 people found this helpful
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