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| Bataille de Wagram 6 Juillet 1809 Horace Vernet (PD) |
It strikes me that I need a title for "the prequel," even if I do extend it beyond "Part One." Suggestions are welcome. (Just not Booky McBookface, that's right out.)
Anyhoo.
I also plan to extract War in the Wild from the blog itself and put it in Word. First to see how long it is, also to review what I've written so far, get to know the main characters again, with the intent of continuing (and eventually finishing) that tale. There may be some method to this madness, Tuna commented (in part) the other day:
How long do you spend writing your war story blog posts? Do you have them already written and you're pulling parts out of a manuscript, or doing it on the fly?
My answer was, of course, "on the fly." Then I had the thought, why not take one of my existing tales and continue writing it in manuscript form, but not necessarily posting those on the blog as I write them. Rather, I would write a lot, then post chunks of that on the blog. That might actually work. I can write in the background (so to speak) and not have to worry about getting something of the tale posted each day. Perhaps get ahead in the game.
I don't know, might be an option.
But sometime in the next cuppla, I think I'm going to start my Napoleonic series. It's hands down my favorite period in history and (bonus here) I already know a lot about the period. Research will be more along the lines of verifying what I remember, rather than explore new ground. Makes the writing go faster, which is why I think Almost A Lifetime seemed to flow as I wrote it. I already knew a lot about the ETO so the research was double-checking my facts.
Hopefully, you will be too.
So why the Napoleonic Wars? Let's get into that next.
To begin, you should read this post, then have a look at this one. Both go far in explaining my interest in the wars of Napoléon Bonaparte.
The plan is to follow a few characters in the various armies of the period, no doubt I will focus on the main combatants: Britain, Prussia, Austria, Russia, and (naturellement) la belle France.
I don't plan to go into the wars of the French Revolution, though I may allude to them at times and have the characters talk about those events as needed to advance the story. This tale will proceed from the days when the bulk of the French Army was encamped along the Channel coast, waiting for the right circumstances to invade England.
Those circumstances never arose, but events in Austria and Russia made Napoléon realize that he had to deal with a looming threat to the East. Orders were dispatched and the forces encamped along the coast ceased to be the Armée d'Angleterre¹ and became La Grande Armée² as they marched east to settle affairs with the Russians and the Austrians.
For the first installment we'll march with the French from the English Channel to a windswept snowy battlefield before the Pratzen Heights in what is now Czechia³. On that field, the one year anniversary of Napoléon's coronation as Emperor, the French Army defeated the combined forces of the Czar of Russia and the Emperor of Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz.
As you might guess, there will be Russian and Austrian characters involved as well.
We shall see how this pans out.
I'm excited.
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| La bataille d'Austerlitz. 2 decembre 1805 François Gérard |
¹ Army of England
² The Grand Army
³ Czech Republic
Cue Flounder GIF from Animal House......"Oh boy, is this great".
ReplyDeleteLet us hope so.
Delete“Done With Bonaparte” is running through my head.
ReplyDeleteSuch a haunting song.
DeleteI'm looking forward to this!
ReplyDeleteHopefully I can do it justice.
DeleteLike a pimple on your butt, he’s there every time you turn around. Napoleon.
ReplyDeleteThat was my jocular suggestion for a title.
DeleteNapoleon’s fingerprints are all over Europe and the Middle East. In Leipzig I visited the monument to the Battle of the Nations, where Napoleon was outnumbered and defeated in 1813. The massive monument was to commemorate the enormous losses and destruction as a warning against war. It was inaugurated in 1913, a year before the start of WWI.
Timbotoo #1 - I like it. He was the bogeyman for a generation of British children.
DeleteTimbotoo #2 - Leipzig was a massive battle, sprawling over three days as I recall. (Most battles of that era lasted a day!)
DeleteI hope to examine the Emperor's career from the eyes of his soldiers. He was a brilliant man, much of what we know about him in America is filtered through the British viewpoint which is, as you might suspect, not very flattering.
I, too, am looking forward to this Sarge.
ReplyDeleteI do not know that the impact of the Napoleonic period (and wars) are fully appreciated due to being over-run by World Wars I and II. The Concert of Europe, the agreement between the victors that "kept the peace", was more or less held in some fashion or form up to the start of World War I. In a very real sense, it is one of the background pieces of the modern West.
(Also, of course, we in the US are beneficiaries as Britain had to split its attention between Napoleon and the US in the War of 1812. Had the full weight of the British Empire been visited upon the nascent US Republic. we might have a very different history indeed.)
Very true that overshadowing of the Napoleonic Wars by the far more devastating World Wars. France's failures in WWII can be traced back to the casualties she took in WWI AND the Napoleonic Wars (1,000,000 dead). There were simply not enough men to have children. France was exhausted by those wars.
DeleteThe War of 1812 - excellent point! Waterloo was such a near run thing (according to Wellington) partially due to many of Wellington's Peninsular veterans being in America (getting cut down at the Battle of New Orleans!). They weren't available to man the army sent over to Belgium to stop Napoléon.
War of 1812 offers a chance to tie in some of your rustic frontier characters (or their progeny) again. Surely some New Englanders must have emigrated south and west to the frontier of Tennessee. Thence to join Jackson's army to round up gators, stuff them with cannonballs and powder their behinds.
DeleteJohn Blackshoe
There could be a visit to that war. Who knows where the Muse will take me?
DeleteYou might add Poles as well, since they fought quite much under Napoleonic eagles, first as Legions, then as army of Duchy of Warsaw.
ReplyDeleteThe Poles will most certainly be along. Who can forget the charge at Somosierra?
DeleteI really liked your "War in the Wild." I couldn't wait for the next installment. It's a part of N. American history that has been mostly forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI plan on getting back to that tale at some point. Maybe sooner than later?
Delete..."Ready...Forward March..." and we will see the road leads (I am reminded of the song from the WW2 film 'A Walk in the Sun'. "The road leads down through a Philippine town and hits highway seven north of Rome"...(Awaiting eagerly).
ReplyDeleteWait no more!
DeleteHow about something along the lines of "World War Zero". The Napoleonic Wars pretty much involved most of the known/civilized (in a Roman kind of way) world at the time. Governments that won or lost or participated were reshaped into the form they were in when WWI launched. And, a lot of the tactics involved were attempted in WWI until they ran into machine guns. Just a suggestion.
ReplyDeleteI like the concept, and it really hits home in a logical way. Some claim the Seven Years War was the first world war, it was waged from the Americas to India and involved all of the European powers. But in some ways, it just laid the ground work for the Napoleonic Wars which were on a larger scale and were also fought across the globe. (War of 1812 was an extension of the Napoleonic Wars and the British and French squared off in India as well.)
DeleteWorld War Zero, I like it.
Perhaps an earlier number. Remember back when England, Spain, Portugal, and France warred for all of North and South America. Francis Drake capturing the riches of the treasure fleet from the East Indies and raiding the ports on the Pacific side.
DeleteBig geographically, limited in scope politically. Nothing like the later wars. Though many did suffer.
DeleteLooking forward to where your muse leads. I’d really like to visit New England again, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteAs I age, war bothers me more than it did in my youth. Terrible things are done with fresh, young blood. Many in charge find themselves somehow wealthy if it ever ends. MacNamara, Cheney, Halliburton, the military industrial complex (can I write that here?) Oh Ike! Where are ye?
Indeed, we could use an Ike right about now.
DeleteI do like the War in the Wild series, but I'm a New Englander (marched in the Patriots' Day parade in Lexington when I was 12). It takes place in my backyard, I've lived in four of the six states.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why I want to get back to it. I too call New England home, born and raised here, expect to die here. It's an interesting period in our history which too few know about!
Delete