I have gradually collected quite a few books about the battles of the Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. I have now begun to take an interest in the periods between the battles. Are there any books, preferably in English, on this subject?
I'm thinking of life in the camp, winter quarters, marches and so forth. Also interested in information about the supply links and what was made / produced in the camps.
Thank you very much for all the good suggestions. I have now ordered about a dozen books and have enough to read until well into 2022.
If you are interested in the British Army you should read Anthony Brett-James' Life in Wellington's Army. It covers it all. I was going to write a similar book but after reading it I decided I really couldn't add anything new to it.
My French was rusty but not as rusty as I feared. I think the two books by Morvan really are what I was looking for. Thanks again.
Thanks. I will give it a try.
Without French you won't just not even scratch the surface, in case it is rusty - polish it up by using French sources, Soldat Impérial is free to download - don't buy just print outs - look at the available pdfs first and see if you can deal with the text. I am unaware that the two volumes of Morvan are translated and I am afraid they are only available in French.
Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately my French is very rusty. Do you know if these have been translated into English?
Amazon claims that this is in English, but I doubt it.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Soldat-Impérial-1800-1814-Jean-Morvan/dp/1357224761/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=%22Le+Soldat+Impérial%22&qid=1632904109&qsid=260-9142549-2932834&sr=8-1&sres=114250932X%2C0559716605%2C0559716575%2C1178927792%2C0483160644%2C0282349847%2C1790348277%2CB07GTRC1HB%2CB00M0M9C32%2CB07K2D96RY%2CB018K8I1AY%2CB01N5RFVTW%2CB0749PYPSC%2CB07QV1ZBXP%2CB07PY9571W%2CB01HRQNQFU
Yngvar,
next the valuable sources recommended by Hans-Karl and Tom I'd suggest that you get copies of a "standard work" about the "internal life" in the French army:
Jean Morvan "Le Soldat Impérial", two volumes published in 1904. I didn't find a download online. But if you're able to read French they are a must have.
Volume I contains: Le Recrutement / Le Matériel / L'Instruction / La Solde / Les Vivres / L'Administration
Volume II contains: La vie en campagne / La bataille / La mortalité / les prisonniers / les récompenses / le moral
Greetings from Berlin
Markus Stein
also for download
Histoire médicale des camps de Boulogne
https://bibliotheques-numeriques.defense.gouv.fr/document/16a9e6a9-b294-49d7-8a21-97733d762c62?portal=332460&cote=Rn%208%20a
Thanks for the great suggestions. The book has been ordered. Feel free to come up with more suggestions.
https://www.cairn.info/revue-napoleonica-la-revue-2018-2-page-86.htm
https://archive.org/stream/napoleonatboulog00nicouoft/napoleonatboulog00nicouoft_djvu.txt
You will find plenty of information about that in a lot of memoires, a good start would be those of Elzéar Blaze - which are available in English, but also French and German (two volumes) here for example volume 2
https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10088769?page=5