Military maxims of Napoleon
by Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French Napoleon I
Category: History

2011 Reprint of 1940 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Reprint of the 1940 edition published in "Roots of Strategy: A Collection of Military Classics." Contains 114 Military Maxims formulated by Napoleon. The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars that followed revolutionized military strategy. The impact of this period was still to be felt in the American Civil War and the early phases of World War I. Napoleon I of France took advantage of technological advances to pursue a brutally effective "strategy of annihilation" that terrorized the populace and would have much influence of the conduct on the American Civil War. Napoleon invariably sought to achieve decision in battle, with the sole aim of utterly destroying his opponent. The influence of Napoleonic strategy persisted through the American Civil War (1861-65). The practice of strategy was advanced by generals such as Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, all of whom had been influenced by the feats of Napoleon (Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was said to have carried a book of Napoleon's maxims with him.)