Newsgroup: it.cultura.storia
Titolo: maida 2 puntata .

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      Reviewer: tholmberg from Hoffman Ests., IL USA
Schneid, author of the excellent Soldiers of Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy
(Westview, 1995), presents a brief overview of the campaigns in Italy
between 1805 and 1815. This volume, unlike Schneid's previous book, is
military history in the sense of focusing solely on campaigns and battles.
Schneid looks at the chief military campaigns of 1805, 1809, 1813-14, and
1815 (Murat's last hurrah and Suchet's last stand in Savoy), covering the
battles of Caldiero, Maida, Sacile, Piave, Raab, Mincio, and Tolentino.
What went on between campaigns is passed over lightly and the book presumes
knowledge by the reader of the Napoleonic era as a whole. Political and
diplomatic affairs are touched upon only as they affect military matters.
Schneid tells us briefly what happened, where it happened and how it
happened. He does not analyze the political or diplomatic reasons why it
happened, nor does he look at the larger implications of these campaigns.
The title of the book is, of course, misleading. During the years covered,
Napoleon was fighting in Germany and elsewhere. Campaigning in Italy was
left to his marshals, Jourdan, Masséna, etc., or to his son-in-law and
Viceroy, Eugène de Beauharnais. Schneid can be excused, on marketing
reasons, for entitling the volume "Napoleon's" rather than "Eugène's" or
even "Charles's Italian Campaigns." The campaigns in Italy during this
period were largely a sideshow to battles occurring elsewhere.
Napoleon's 1805 campaign was perhaps his most masterful, so events in
Germany overshadowed those in Italy. Masséna, less energetic than in the
past and strategically "less than brilliant," still managed to fulfill his
role of preventing the Austrian Archduke Charles from affecting the campaign
in Germany. Schneid errors in presenting the Battle of Maida (1806) as a
classic British line versus French column battle, following Oman, who in
later editions admitted his error. For the 1809 campaign Schneid prefers
Epstein's (Prince Eugene at War: 1809) more positive assessment of Eugène's
performance to that of Macdonald and Pelet. For the 1813-1814 campaign
Schneid unfortunately has to compete with the much fuller recent account by
Nafziger and Gioannini (The Defense of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Northern
Italy, 1813-1814, also by Praeger, 2002).
Schneid indicates that this book was written prior to his Soldiers of
Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy, which was Schneid's doctoral dissertation, and
laid aside for a number of years. I did find a number of errors that
indicate the book might have benefited from another run through the
editorial process (if books are edited these days). For instance, Schneid
inexplicably refers to William Bentinck throughout (including the index) as
William Bentick. One also finds occasional partial sentences, such as,
"Neither he nor Bellegarde found prospect of a Bonapartist ruler in Italy
appealing." (p. 141) In addition, the dating of some events, such as that of
Murat's "treachery," is confused. Though not an error, Schneid mentions that
by the time Metternich replied to Murat's advances in 1813, Murat was
already on his way to Dresden, where he had been ordered by Napoleon.
Schneid indicates that Murat did not respond to the Austrians' belated
offers because Murat "was already on his way to join the Emperor." Nafziger
adds the detail that Metternich's message was in cipher and Murat didn't
have the key. Nafziger also adds that despite this, Murat kept a
representative in the Allied camp who kept him informed of developments
there.
The book lacks an analytical index that, because the book covers a number of
campaigns, would have been helpful. Also included are orders of battle for
the 1805, 1809, 1813-14 and 1815 campaigns (down to brigade and regimental
levels). There are eight maps, seven of which are for specific battles and
one of northern Italy. The maps, however, are not detailed and will probably
disappoint most military history readers. The bibliography includes archival
sources from France, Italy and Austria, as well as published memoirs, staff
histories and secondary sources. By far, though, the majority of the
footnotes refer to French sources.
Because Italy was a sideshow Schneid's book is a useful, if not essential,
overview of an often-ignored area of Napoleonic history. While Schneid's
account of the campaigns of 1805-15 comprise 160 pages of text, Nafziger and
Gioannini give us 235 pages on the 1813-14 campaign alone (so if you buy
your books by their bulk the Nafziger book will be your first choice).
Epstein does a better job at elucidating the often stormy relationship
between Eugène and Napoleon. Of use though are Schneid's descriptions of
relatively in-depth such largely overlooked battles such as Caldiero.
Schneid's account is chronological and his descriptions of battles are
straightforward and relatively easy to follow, but rather dry and lacking in
the "gunpowder and blood" that distinguishes a master military historian.
The chief drawback to the book for the casual reader of military history
will be its price.
Baccio

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Grazie Baccio
seppur in ritardo.
L'amico Amedeo si sta già mobilitando.
Ciao
Lorenzo