The Age of Battles

by Weigley, Russell F.

• ISBN13: 9780253363800
• ISBN10: 0253363802
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1991-05-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

From the Thirty Years War to Napoleon's downfall at Waterloo, nations sought for decisive victory on the battlefield -- a distinct change from the raiding and sieges of the medieval period or the trench warfare that came later. But while this nearly two-hundred-year span from 1631 to 1815 is presented as the glory years of war, Russell F. Weigley questions whether there were decisive battles with clear winners and losers. Was warfare during this period an effective extension of state policy? Book jacket.

Author Biography

Russell F. Weigley is Professor of History at Temple University

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xi
Battles and Decisiveness in War	p. xi
The Elusiveness of Decision	p. xii
Further Themes of This Book	p. xiii
An Overview	p. xvii
Note on Dates	p. xix
The Profession of Officership and the Birth of Modern War
The Return of the Legions: Gustavus Adolphus and Breitenfeld	p. 3
The Army of Gustavus Adolphus and the Rise of the Military Profession	p. 5
The Dutch Republic and the Birth of Military Professionalism	p. 9
The Weapons of Gustavus Adolphus	p. 14
A Strategy Seeking Battle	p. 18
Breitenfeld	p. 19
The Limits of the New Legions: Lutzen and After	p. 24
A Strategy of Erosion versus a Strategy of Annihilation	p. 25
Logistics and Christian Warfare	p. 27
Maneuver Leads toward Another Battle	p. 29
Lutzen	p. 32
On the Indecisiveness of War	p. 34
Under the Lily Banners: Rocroi	p. 37
The French Army and the Creation of Modern Artillery	p. 38
The Beginnings of Modern French Infantry	p. 39
Rocroi	p. 40
The Peace of Westphalia	p. 44
The Army of the Sun King	p. 45
Louis XIV and European Hegemony	p. 45
The Administration of the Army under Louis XIV	p. 46
Vauban	p. 53
The Early Wars of Louis XIV	p. 58
The English Army to 1660	p. 60
The Beginnings of England's Standing Army, 1660-1688	p. 63
The War of the League of Augsburg	p. 64
The Spanish Succession and the Emergence of Marlborough	p. 67
On Restraining the Violence of War	p. 69
Marlborough's Battles: Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet	p. 73
Weapons and Tactical Indecision	p. 74
The Outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession	p. 78
English Military Administration	p. 80
Blenheim	p. 80
English Intervention in Spain	p. 87
Ramillies	p. 89
Oudenarde	p. 92
Malplaquet	p. 96
The Ne Plus Ultra Lines	p. 98
The French Resurgence and the Peace of Utrecht	p. 99
On Decisiveness and Professionalism	p. 102
The Emergence of the Great Powers of Eastern Europe	p. 105
The Great Northern War	p. 107
Montecuccoli and the Army of the Habsburgs	p. 116
Brandenburg-Prussia under the Great Elector	p. 121
Prussia's Military Tour de Force: The Approach to Great-Power Status	p. 126
On the Limitations of Early Military Professionalism	p. 129
The Rise of Naval Power	p. 131
From Medieval to Early Modern Navies	p. 132
The Armada and Broadside Gunnery	p. 135
The Anglo-Dutch Naval Rivalry: The Early Phase	p. 138
The Tactics of the Line Ahead	p. 145
The Anglo-Dutch Rivalry: The Middle Phase	p. 147
The Anglo-Dutch Rivalry: The Final Phase	p. 149
Colbert and the Rise of the French Navy: The Battle of Beachy Head	p. 154
The Confirmation of English Naval Ascendancy: The Battle of Barfleur	p. 159
The Triumph of the Royal Navy	p. 161
The Eighteenth Century: The Classical Epoch of Modern War
The Battles of Frederick the Great	p. 167
Frederick the Great and the Shape of Eighteenth-Century Battle	p. 168
Frederick in Silesia: The Battle of Mollwitz	p. 170
Hohenfriedberg and the Oblique Order of Battle	p. 174
Military Preparations and Diplomatic Revolution	p. 176
Lobositz	p. 179
Prague and Kolin	p. 180
Rossbach	p. 182
Leuthen	p. 187
Zorndorf and Hochkirch	p. 188
Kunersdorf, Minden, Torgau	p. 190
The Miracle of the House of Brandenburg	p. 192
Armies and Warfare in the Time of Frederick the Great	p. 193
The French and British Armed Forces from the Rhine to the St. Lawrence	p. 196
The Royal Navy in the Early Eighteenth Century	p. 197
The Rising of "the Forty-Five"	p. 199
Fontenoy	p. 203
Culloden	p. 207
The British Soldier from Minden to Quebec	p. 211
The British Sailor from Minorca to Cartagena	p. 219
The Battle of Quiberon Bay	p. 223
Colonial Wars and European Wars	p. 230
Toward Wars of Nations: The War of American Independence	p. 232
The Conduct of the War of American Independence	p. 233
The Capes of the Chesapeake and Yorktown	p. 238
The Battle of Ushant	p. 241
D'Estaing and Byron in the West Indies	p. 244
Rodney in the West Indies: The Dominica Channel and The Saints	p. 246
Suffren	p. 251
The Peace Settlement	p. 254
Prelude to Revolution	p. 256
The Military Decline of France	p. 256
Toward a Renewed French Army: Broglie and Guibert	p. 263
The Problem of Indecisiveness in Battle: Infantry and Cavalry	p. 267
The Problem of Indecisiveness in Battle: Artillery	p. 270
The French Army and the Outbreak of Revolution	p. 273
Thunderstrokes of Battle: the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
The French Revolution: Transformation and Continuity in War	p. 279
Revolution Generates War	p. 280
Valmy	p. 284
Carnot and the Nation in Arms	p. 287
Hondschoote and Wattignies: The Emergence of Jourdan	p. 291
The Revolutionary Armies on the Offensive: Tourcoing, Tournai, and Fleurus; Souham, Pichegru, and Jourdan	p. 292
General Bonaparte on the Horizon	p. 298
The Campaign of Germany in 1796: Jourdan and Moreau versus the Archduke Charles	p. 299
Bonaparte in Italy, 1796: The Bridge at Lodi	p. 304
Bonaparte in Italy, 1796-1797: Arcola and Rivoli	p. 308
Sea Power and Empire	p. 313
The Glorious First of June	p. 314
The Irish Expedition of 1796	p. 317
Land Power over Sea Power: The Mediterranean, 1796-1797	p. 320
Cape St. Vincent: Jervis and Nelson	p. 322
Camperdown	p. 323
Bonaparte versus Nelson: The Egyptian Expedition and the Battle of the Nile	p. 325
Mediterranean Anticlimax	p. 329
Ebb and Flow in the Channel	p. 331
The Armed Neutrals and the Battle of Copenhagen	p. 332
The End of France's Egyptian Adventure	p. 337
Nelson and the Preliminaries to Trafalgar	p. 338
Barham at the Admiralty: A New Direction for Naval Strategy	p. 342
Trafalgar	p. 345
Nelson and Command at Sea	p. 350
Command of the Sea	p. 352
The Climax of Napoleonic War: To Austerlitz and Jena-Auerstadt	p. 354
Suvorov in Italy, 1799: The Trebbia and Novi	p. 355
Suvorov and Massena in Switzerland, 1799	p. 358
The First Consul's Military Reforms: The Corps System	p. 361
The Crossing of the Alps and the Battle of Marengo	p. 362
Moreau at Hohenlinden	p. 371
The Peace of Amiens	p. 374
Napoleon on the Eve of His Greatest Campaigns	p. 375
The Ulm Campaign	p. 378
The Austerlitz Campaign: Preliminaries	p. 382
The Austerlitz Campaign: The Great Battle	p. 384
The Jena-Auerstadt Campaign: Preliminaries	p. 390
The Jena-Auerstadt Campaign: The Battles	p. 394
The Gradual Eclipse of the Battle of Annihilation; The Rise of the War of Attrition	p. 399
Eylau	p. 400
Friedland	p. 404
The Peace of Tilsit	p. 407
The Iberian Disease	p. 408
The Spanish Campaign of Sir John Moore	p. 413
The Emergence of Wellington	p. 415
The Military Resurgence of Austria	p. 418
The Campaign of 1809: Eckmuhl and Ebelsberg	p. 421
The Campaign of 1809: Aspern-Essling	p. 425
The Campaign of 1809: Wagram	p. 428
The Campaign of 1809: Resolution	p. 432
Campaigns of Exhaustion and Attrition	p. 435
The Lines of Torres Vedras	p. 435
The Iberian Campaign of 1811: Attrition, Logistics, and Stalemate	p. 438
The Invasion of Russia: Preliminaries	p. 440
The Invasion of Russia: To Borodino	p. 445
Moscow and the Terrible Retreat	p. 450
Prussia's Reversal of Alliances and the Sixth Coalition	p. 454
The Resurgence of Military Professionalism	p. 457
The Prussian Military Reforms	p. 458
Lutzen	p. 462
Bautzen	p. 465
The Dresden Campaign: A Threat to Berlin	p. 469
The Dresden Campaign: Dresden, the Katzbach, and Kulm	p. 472
The Dresden Campaign: Futile Maneuvers and the Battle of Dennewitz	p. 476
Leipzig	p. 478
The Downfall of Genius	p. 483
The Spanish Campaign of 1812: Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Salamanca, Burgos	p. 485
The Spanish Campaign of 1813: Vitoria	p. 490
Through the Pyrenees and into France: Sorauren, the Nivelle, Orthes, Bayonne, Toulouse	p. 493
The Peninsular War: An Assessment	p. 498
Napoleon's 1814 Campaign of Maneuver: Sparring	p. 501
Napoleon's 1814 Campaign of Maneuver: Laon, Paris, Fontainebleau	p. 508
The End of an Age: Waterloo	p. 513
The Campaign: Preliminaries	p. 514
The Campaign: Quatre-Bras and Ligny	p. 522
The Campaign: The Eve of Battle	p. 525
Waterloo	p. 527
On the Future of War	p. 536
The Recalcitrant Indecisiveness of War	p. 537
Battle and the Profession of Officership	p. 540
Officer Professionalism and the Violence of War	p. 541
Bibliographical Notes	p. 545
Index	p. 559
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