Recollections of Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum. — Vol. I

The dignity of Marshal of France was to be the apogee of success for any general in Napoleonic France, since the Emperor only created 26 during his years on the throne. Fame, riches and high station in the Imperial Court were the bountiful reward for hard service on the battlefield. Napoleon handed out these dignities, along with kingdoms, principalities, admiralties, dukedoms for more than purposes of recognition; they were also to bind the recipient to his empire even more tightly. Marshal Macdonald was not a man to be flattered or bought; he was of Scottish descent and held his own views. His memoirs bear this imprint of forthright opinion, which had led him into trouble with the Emperor, but such was his value on the battlefield he was courted again by Napoleon.
Marshal Macdonald fought all across Europe, particularly at the battle of Jemappes in the Revolutionary armies on the Rhine. He fought well under Napoleon’s eagles in Spain, Russia, Germany and France itself. Outstanding at the battle of Wagram, his attack on the Austrian centre, for which he became the only man to be made marshal on the field of battle by Napoleon, clinched the day. Never wholly Napoleon’s man, he was a prime mover in forcing his master’s abdication in 1814 and refused to rejoin him in 1815.
This first volume Marshal Macdonald recounts his life up to and including the battle of Wagram in 1809.
Author – Marshal Macdonald, Etienne-Jacques-Joseph-Alexandre, Duc de Tarente, 1765-1840.
Editor - Rousset, Camille, 1821-1892.
Translator - Simeon, Stephen Louis, 1857-1937
Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in 1892, London, by Richard Bentley and Son.
Original Page Count – 355 pages.