Napoleon's Irish Army (book review)
the Third Foreign Battalion. We know about their internal feuds and squabbles, about how many of them spoke French, and about how many of them were over the age of 40. But what we don’t learn from his book is how representative these soldiers were. How different are these soldiers from Germans, Polish, Italian, or Austrian soldiers? Furthermore, how important are these Irish soldiers? We learn from Gallaher that they did not see combat until 1807, a full four years after the Legion’s formation, and that the only major theatre operation they fought in was Spain. They did not see action in Russia, so this must mean that they were not considered as highly by Napoleon or his military staff as they are by Gallaher. The inability to place these Irish soldiers and officers into any sort of context turns what is an interesting story into one that has dubious relevancy.
Footnotes:
[1] John G. Gallaher, Napoleon's Irish Legion, (Carbondale and Edwardsville, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1993), p. 35.
[2] Ibid., p. 56.
[3] Ibid., pp. 70-1.
[4] Ibid., pp. 123-4.
[5] Ibid., p. 86.
[6] Ibid., p. 111.
[7] Ibid., p. 110.
[8] Ibid., p. 174.
[9] Ibid.
The copyright of the article Napoleon's Irish Army (book review) in Modern British History is owned by Joseph Sramek. Permission to republish Napoleon's Irish Army (book review) in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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