Philippe Henri de Segur was a French officer– an aide de camp— on Napoleon's staff-who served with the Grand Army throughout the Russian Campaign of 1812. This made him the ideal author for its history. He witnessed the early successes of the French and allied armies and the pyrrhic victory of Borodino. He accompanied Napoleon to the Kremlin and saw Moscow burning. By no means least, he was able to report the nightmare retreat through the snows of winter which brought about the destruction of an army and the beginning of the end of Napoleon and the golden epoch of the First Empire. Segur has created a memorable work-part history-part first hand account-which takes the reader vividly to the heart of these terrible events whilst clearly explaining their sequence.
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