Chapter Summaries

Joseph arranged tents, field dining cars, and more instructors for the swelling army, but volunteers’ needs were quickly met by Parisians. Gaizika reached Paris with help from Madam Mipaide and found citizens providing recruits with food and shelter as they prepared to enlist.

• Joseph told the General Staff Headquarters to coordinate recruitment support and ordered more tents, field dining cars, and instructors.
• Gaizika walked toward Paris with other young men answering the call to enlist, encouraged by Viscount Cobert’s message that citizens must defend their motherland.
• Madam Mipaide gave the exhausted Gaizika a ride to Paris, where Stanley taught him the popular battle song, “The Song of Departure.”
• Madam Mipaide directed Gaizika and the other passengers to a Recruitment Office, where an elderly Parisian offered them a meal and a place to stay.
• Parisians welcomed tens of thousands of volunteers into their homes while recruitment continued at the city’s two offices.

Gaizika’s new recruits began training under disabled veterans while France expanded railway labor, gun production, and animal requisitions. In Switzerland, Sérurier explained that Massena would move toward Volhynia, leaving the French one week to deal with the advancing Russians while Blücher was unlikely to risk an escape toward Lausanne.

• Gaizika arrived at the new barracks, where Lieutenant Caso welcomed retired veterans as instructors and began training the recruits.
• Chief Engineer Leprince learned that local volunteers had joined the Nancy-Strasbourg railway worksite and arranged to seek bread for them.
• Luxembourg ironworks supplied gun components that helped France produce 15,000 percussion-cap guns each month.
• The General Staff’s logistics department increased its target for requisitioned mules and horses after citizens readily supplied livestock.
• Sérurier learned that over a thousand Cossack cavalry had entered Switzerland and said the French would wait for the Russians to advance before attacking.
• Sérurier explained that Massena would head to Volhynia, giving the French time to fight the Russians while Blücher hesitated to risk marching toward Lausanne.

Suvorov led the Russian Army through Zurich and planned a surprise attack near Wädenswil while arranging a route to relieve the Prussian Army at Schwyz. Sérurier countered the Russian assault, unaware that most of Suvorov’s forces were still held back.

• Rosenberg reported that the Russians had driven the French from Zurich, but Suvorov suspected the retreat was a lure and ordered his troops to gather supplies.
• Suvorov entered Zurich, learned that its supplies were depleted and its parliamentarians had fled, then established a new parliament that declared Switzerland’s support for the Anti-French Alliance.
• After scouting found no French forces in nearby towns, Suvorov concluded that they were near Wädenswil and ordered Rosenberg, Gorchakov, and Vorotov to carry out coordinated maneuvers while Weirote contacted Blücher.
• Suvorov sent thirty thousand soldiers toward Wädenswil while keeping more than twenty-four thousand with the rear echelon.
• When Russian troops attacked Wädenswil, Sérurier abandoned his planned ambush, regrouped his twenty-five thousand soldiers, and prepared to hold the town until Massena arrived.
• Sérurier repelled the Russian assault until it weakened around four in the afternoon, not realizing that fewer than six thousand Russians were engaging him and the Cossacks had withdrawn.

Suvorov led 50,000 Russian troops toward Volhynia, hoping to surprise the French, but Massena’s force reached him first after receiving an urgent signal. The French broke through the Russian line, leaving the battle in chaos as their volley struck Vorotov’s troops.

• Suvorov withdrew from Wädenswil and marched northwest, expecting to catch French forces near Volhynia.
• A French Hot Air Balloon revealed the enemy’s presence, and French artillery struck before the Russian troops finished forming up.
• A mobile signal vehicle carried news of the Russian attack to Volhynia, allowing Massena to march toward Wädenswil and seize the initiative.
• Suvorov ordered his forces to reposition while Massena concentrated his troops for a frontal breakthrough and sent Oudinot and Gazen to block the Russian flanks.
• French Rifled Guns tore gaps in the Russian line, and Vorotov’s troops faltered as French infantry advanced through their fire.
• The French infantry fired its first volley at close range, sending Minié Balls into the Russian line.

Suvorov’s Russian forces were routed by the French and forced to flee toward Lake Lucerne, while Blücher chose to abandon the Russians and lead his Prussian army out of Switzerland. Blücher’s troops reached the foot of Rosstock Mountain without French interference.

• Vorotov’s Russian line collapsed under French fire, and Suvorov ordered his regrouping troops to retreat toward Wädenswil.
• Suvorov turned his army south toward Lake Lucerne after Sérurier blocked his route east, hoping to use Blücher’s ships to cross the lake.
• Rosenberg surrendered to the French after his Russian force was split and trapped by French infantry and horse artillery, while Gorchakov’s main force escaped to Aarau.
• Weirote asked Blücher to prepare ships for Suvorov’s retreat, but Blücher ordered his army back to Altdorf instead of helping the Russians.
• Blücher led his Prussian troops through Woodvine Valley and over Rosstock Mountain, reaching its foot four days later.

Blücher’s Prussian Army attempted to escape through Panix Pass but found Davout’s French forces blocking the route, while the French defeated Suvorov’s army at Lake Lucerne. In Paris, Joseph ordered Massena to keep the trapped Prussians supplied and planned to turn their resistance into propaganda before sending prisoners to build railways.

• Blücher rejected a retreat toward Schwyz and led his hungry army toward Panix Pass, where the soldiers abandoned their heavy weapons and vehicles.
• Davout’s artillery struck the Prussian column from fortified positions, forcing Blücher to retreat to Glarus and prepare defenses as Massena’s Legion approached.
• Suvorov refused to abandon his soldiers at Lake Lucerne, returned to the frontline, and was killed by a cannon shell as the Russian line collapsed.
• Duke of Broglie reported the French victories and expected Blücher’s Legion to surrender, while Joseph decided to send food to the Prussians and publicize their continued resistance.
• Joseph ordered that the 27,000 prisoners be sent to Nancy to build railways and asked Count Eman to summon Mr. Tressaguet.

Joseph arranged labor and financing for the Luxembourg-Verdun Railway while France mobilized for war. He also learned that Sardinia’s reparations could provide funds for further railway construction.

• Tressaguet reported that prisoners of war could speed construction of the Nancy Railway and save 3.5 million Francs, then proposed building a Luxembourg-Verdun line.
• Joseph agreed to consider the railway, and Gaudin said the French Reserve Bank could lend the Treasury 3 million Francs from rising deposits.
• Tressaguet proposed extending the railway to Trier, but Joseph told him to plan the Verdun-to-Luxembourg section first.
• Talleyrand reported that the Mediterranean Security Organization was revising its proposal to assign Aosta to France, and Joseph approved completing the vote.
• Talleyrand said Sardinia sought to limit reparations to 10 million Francs and that Milan and Genoa could transfer Sardinian assets worth 7 million Francs to France.

Joseph arranged the payment of war reparations and the return of Suvorov’s remains, while Alexander I responded to Russia’s defeat by preparing to send more troops to Western Europe. Meanwhile, Viscount Olivier agreed to help manipulate Russian coal and iron prices in exchange for access to new steelmaking technology.

• Joseph ordered that Sardinia receive the Milan and Genoa Banks’ money before handing it to France, and that French soldiers supervise the transfer.
• Joseph secured funding for the Verdun–Trier railway and rejected Tressaguet’s request to extend it to Cologne.
• Joseph ordered Suvorov’s remains returned to Russia with a ceremony that blamed Blücher for the marshal’s death.
• Alexander I ordered Kosakoff’s Corps to act independently and told the Military Committee to send another twenty-five thousand soldiers under Kutuzov, with Britain paying the costs.
• Belmont persuaded Viscount Olivier to follow instructions to influence coal and iron prices, promising that the scheme would stay within the rules.

Viscount Olivier used the strikes at Donbas United Coal Company to secure higher wages, then persuaded British mine owners to join a pricing alliance that drove up coal and iron prices across Russia. By January 1799, rising costs had contributed to inflation and a one-kopek increase in bread prices in Saint Petersburg.

• Viscount Olivier’s workers struck twice, and he raised their wages to 10 rubles and then 13 rubles a month.
• Workers at British firms struck and left for better pay, forcing the British bosses to raise wages to 11 rubles.
• Viscount Olivier proposed that Donbas and British mine owners raise their coal and iron prices together by 25 percent, and they formed a pricing alliance.
• Coal and iron prices in the Urals rose by 25 percent, spreading higher costs to Russian goods and driving inflation.
• Bread prices in Saint Petersburg rose by one kopek in January 1799.

Blücher’s forces captured a wheat convoy, extending their ability to hold out, while Massena planned to ambush Allied forces entering Switzerland. In Verona, Wellesley warned Archduke Karl and the Allied commanders against reinforcing Switzerland and asked them to recall their original objective.

• Blücher learned that his army had only four days of food remaining and ordered Major Kleist to intercept a nearby Swiss wheat convoy.
• Kleist’s Hussars captured most of the convoy’s wheat, giving Blücher’s army enough food to last another half month.
• Massena discussed a plan to watch Blücher at Glarus and spring coordinated attacks on Allied forces entering through Basel or St. Gallen.
• Wellesley arrived at the Allied headquarters in Verona as commanders debated sending more troops to Switzerland.
• Wellesley argued that Switzerland favored French ambushes and asked the Allied commanders to remember their original operational objective.

Wellesley persuaded the Allied commanders to abandon Switzerland and Mantua as the main focus and shift their forces toward Württemberg to pressure the French on multiple fronts. A week later, Austrian troops began moving toward Württemberg as France’s newly trained soldiers marched to board a train.

• Wellesley argued that the Allies should leave Mantua and Switzerland, concentrate their forces around Württemberg, and attack French positions from several directions.
• Archduke Karl agreed to send twenty thousand men toward Basel to ease Blücher’s pressure, while Wellesley insisted the Allies should not split their forces.
• The Allied commanders began planning operations based on Wellesley’s proposal, and a week later Austrian troops withdrew from Northern Italy toward Württemberg as Austria started another round of conscription.
• On January 11, 1799, Gilles Gaizika stood with the newly trained 23rd Infantry Division of France’s Sixth Army Corps in the eastern suburbs of Paris.
• Gaizika and Nacelli marched toward a train, which Nacelli recognized from the newspapers as a fast means of carrying hundreds of people.

Gaizika and his company traveled by train from Paris toward the front, marveling at how quickly it carried them toward Verdun and Nancy. The next day they continued toward Strasbourg, where Sergeant Paupard pointed out Russian prisoners building a railway.

• Gaizika boarded the train with Nacelli and experienced its speed as it carried them from Paris to Verdun in about five hours.
• Gaizika's company continued by train and camped east of Nancy, where Sergeant Paupard entertained the soldiers with a serialized story about Paul I's assassination.
• The next day, Gaizika's unit unloaded supplies from a freight train and resumed its march toward Strasbourg.
• Sergeant Paupard told Gaizika and the soldiers that the shackled workers they saw were Russian soldiers captured by General Massena.

Alexandra visited Russian prisoners of war, fed and treated them, and told them that the Tsar had killed Paul I and used them for his own ambitions. Meanwhile, the French army gathered at the Rhine as Wellesley learned that Emden had been attacked and the Allies would send troops to help Blücher break out.

• Alexandra distributed warm bread to the Russian POWs, arranged medical care, and urged them to remember how the Tsar had deceived and abandoned them.
• Sergeant Paupard reassured Gaizika that Alexandra was telling the prisoners a story, and the guards lowered their guns.
• The 23rd Infantry Division assembled at Strasbourg as the Newly Formed Sixth Army reached the eastern bank of the Rhine.
• Wellesley discovered that Prince Heeringen had intercepted his supply convoy, leaving his troops short of supplies.
• The Duke of York told Wellesley that Emden had been attacked and William III would only send reinforcements if the Allies helped Blücher break out.
• Archduke Karl agreed to detach twenty thousand troops to reinforce Blücher.

Wellesley and the Duke of York planned to contain French forces in Switzerland while criticizing delays by their allies in Brazil and North America. Several months earlier, Napoleon traveled through Louisiana to recruit troops, encountered a Cherokee patrol, and learned that its town had its own court and a formally qualified tribal judge.

• Wellesley urged General Picton to hold Basel and delay Massena's retreat from Switzerland, and the Duke of York agreed to write to him.
• Wellesley and the Duke of York discussed João's slow progress in Brazil and the United States' failure to begin its campaign against Louisiana.
• Napoleon regretted traveling into the snowy Louisiana wilderness to recruit troops and met Rocall's French-speaking patrol near Geosai Town.
• Rocall's patrol arrested eight Americans for entering Louisiana without authorization and escorted them toward town.
• Napoleon learned that Geosai Town's residents belonged to the Cherokee Tribe and that their Tribal Chief had earned judicial qualifications in New Orleans.

Napoleon learned that Father Vigne had won Native American tribes’ devotion by presenting cowpox inoculation as God’s blessing, then arrived in Geosai Town to recruit soldiers. As Carol led him toward the Tribal Chief’s home, a leather-wrapped ball flew out of the dust and struck Napoleon’s shoulder.

• Napoleon questioned the Native Americans’ faith, and Carol warned him that doubting their belief in God would be taken as an insult.
• Carol showed Napoleon his inoculation scar and explained that the blessing protected people from smallpox.
• Napoleon realized Father Vigne had tied cowpox inoculation to Catholic conversion, an approach Joseph had devised to unite the tribes under Louisiana.
• Carol led Napoleon through Geosai Town toward the Tribal Chief’s home.
• A leather-wrapped ball shot out of the dust and hit Napoleon’s shoulder.

Napoleon struggled to recruit enough Cherokee and other tribal warriors for the Louisiana Militia Battalion until Father Lorier enlisted the church’s help. A church call for a Holy War inspired thousands of Native Americans to volunteer, leaving Napoleon with a roster of 7,700 men.

• Napoleon visited Hassai and asked the Cherokee to enlist, but Hassai offered only a small number of warriors.
• Napoleon traveled among several tribes and recruited fewer than three hundred soldiers before deciding to seek compulsory conscription.
• Napoleon met Father Lorier, who promised that the church could help recruit the soldiers he needed.
• The Louisiana church called believers to join a Holy War against the American heretics, prompting a rush of tribal volunteers.
• By early September, a roster of at least 7,700 young men from various tribes reached Napoleon.

Napoleon struggled to train four thousand Indigenous recruits until Serge Otu showed him how to use them as skirmishers, prompting Napoleon to adopt new tactics and abandon the need for more uniforms. Elsewhere, Lefebvre kept French forces facing a larger Prussian and English army across the Ems, while Massena found that the Allies had abandoned Blücher.

• Napoleon screened the Indigenous recruits, retained four thousand, and found that they could not manage ordinary military formations.
• Serge Otu proposed organizing the recruits for forest and open-country fighting, and Napoleon recognized their potential as skirmishers.
• Napoleon began teaching Indigenous officers to coordinate skirmishers with infantry lines and told Governor Elcano that more uniforms were unnecessary.
• Lefebvre continued to hold the French position near Emden, tying down Prussian and English troops while awaiting reinforcements.
• Massena observed that the Allied Forces had abandoned Blücher and regretted that the French had left him so much food.

Massena and Picton moved their armies toward the same narrow defensive position near Basel, where Picton’s artillery was ambushed. In Charleville, Joseph inspected the Ordnance Factory and learned that it employed 120 women, leaving him to respond to their work in a weapons factory.

• Massena ordered Sérurier to march toward Basel after a messenger reported an enemy force approaching from the east.
• Picton led his troops out of Basel, then slowed their march as he prepared to establish a defensive line southeast of the city.
• A French ambush struck Picton’s artillery as Hesse soldiers struggled to haul seventeen cannons through muddy ground, killing gunners and smashing a cannon crew.
• Viscount Montbéliard showed Joseph the factory’s production process and reported its output of Percussion Cap Guns and Rifled Guns.
• A flatbed struck Kahn, a female worker, and the factory director nervously explained that women had been hired to make up for men gone to war.
• Joseph asked how many women worked at the factory, and the director answered that there were 120.

Joseph praised the female workers at the Ordnance Factory, ordered fairer pay based on their workload, and discussed moving the factory to Namur. The General Staff then presented him with a plan amid uncertainty about the Allied Forces’ next move and their numerical advantage along the Rhine.

• Joseph praised the female workers’ contribution to France, and Kahn and the other workers thanked him.
• Joseph ordered Viscount Montbéliard to use the women’s original names and raise qualified workers’ wages according to their workloads.
• Joseph asked Montbéliard to prepare information about the female workers for interviews and discussed relocating the Ordnance Factory to Namur.
• Berthier, Moreau, Victor, and other officers arrived at Moriton Manor and presented the General Staff’s next operational plan.
• Berthier told Joseph that the Allied Forces might target Baden, Mainz, or Cologne and outnumbered French forces along the Rhine by more than two to one.

Joseph reconsidered the French Army’s defensive strategy and proposed adapting Moreau’s maneuver plan into a rapid thrust through Jena toward Berlin. The generals were stunned, but recognized the plan could draw the Allied Forces into battle and exploit Prussia’s weak defenses.

• Berthier recommended holding the Rhine line until French reinforcements arrived, while Moreau proposed maneuvering through Bavaria to encircle and divide the Allied Forces.
• Berthier warned that Moreau’s plan depended on Bavaria’s limited supplies and could leave the ally exposed, while Moreau argued it offered the best chance to destroy the enemy.
• Joseph compared the deployment to the Battle of Jena and recalled how Napoleon’s rapid advance had defeated Prussia and opened the road to Berlin.
• Joseph proposed tying down Brunswick’s corps in Cologne, feinting toward Saxony, and sending the main French force through Jena directly to Berlin.
• Berthier and the other generals initially froze at Joseph’s bold proposal, then judged it feasible because central Germany was weakly defended and the Allied Forces would move to confront the French.