An Analysis of the Organization and Composition of the French Imperial Armies of the Hundred Days 

by

Scott Bowden and Peter Cross

Project Overview (September 29, 2022)

There has never been an English language study of the organization and composition of all the French Imperial armies of 1815. This multi-volume series will hopefully correct this and leave a lasting contribution to the historiography of the Napoleonic epoch. As envisioned, it will expand upon the acclaimed Armies at Waterloo first published in 1983 by award-winning historian and author Scott Bowden. Additional years of research will include narrative and analysis of the aspects impacting the formation, organization, equipping and motivating of Napoleon’s last armies, along with detailed orders of battle for all the armies, as well as newly-commissioned color maps, informative graphs and sidebars, and other images that will visually aid the telling of the story.

In order to accurately and thoroughly create the historical record that will be remembered, and at the same time be a must for anyone interested in Napoleon, his armies and the Hundred Days reign, the story draws on Napoleon’s own Correspondance, as well as that of Marshal Louis Davout, along with a great many cartons from the French army archives located at château Vincennes. From these cartons, there are included the general military correspondence, the letters of the generals who served the Emperor, the situations (parade-states) and registres of the armies, as well as the journals of the Garde Impériale, the infantry and cavalry regiments of the line, and the state of the artillery equipments and support troops. Only in this manner can the complete story be told of Napoleon’s 1815 armies that were des Alpes, du Jura, de la Loire, de la Moselle, du Nord, des Pyrénées, du Rhin and du Var.

Updates will appear in the Lombardy Studios monthly eNewsletter. Estimated publication date for the initial volume is late 2023.

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