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Life Of A Napoleonic Soldier Essay Research

Life Of A Napoleonic Soldier Essay, Research Paper


“The Diary of a napoleonic foot soldier” is a autobiography/biography piece of


literature of a soldier who went to war during Napoleon’s rule. Jakob Walter is


or was the author of this book, and Walter explains to us what he did during


several war campaigns.


Even though Walter was only nineteen, he was enlisted to the army by


conscription and assigned to the regiment of Romig, later to be called the


Franquemont Regiment. His first major mission was to escort several convoys of


captured Prussians, from Glogau to Dresden during the month of March,1806.


His voyage to Dresden was simple but the way back to Glogau, they were


surrounded by Prussians at the city of Bunzlau. So they stayed in Bunzlau and


caught any spies that somehow got in. One spy that was caught was whipped one


hundred and fifty times on his back, until he was half dead, and then shot,


because he was about to send letters to the Prussians about the city’s manpower.


After the siege there was over Walter headed back to Glagau. Other missions


assigned to him were the safe escort of the money wagons from Glagau to the


Vistula River, the attack on the fortress Stettin, and the siege at Glatz.


Walter had a brother in the was with him who was stationed in the


Lilienburg Regiment. Whenever they fought and whenever they were in the


same city, they would look for each other because they had a strong brotherly


love.


In 1809, Walter was called back to war when war with Austria broke out.


He writes about the march from village to village, and would stay at other


people’s houses where there was plenty of wine to drink. In October he came to a


village where he was quartered at a place housing a nun. Upon seeing Walter


read a lot, the Nun started asking questions and Walter lied telling her he was a


monk. He left that place leaving the hosts liking him and then two years go by (


maybe a part of the diary was missing!)


The next part of the diary was long, so I will only point out some of the major


and interesting events of 1812 and 1813.In January, 1812, Walter was recalled to


war. His regiment marched for months traveling through Poland and into Russia.


Food was scarce and hunger took over all the sol

diers, so they pillaged villages.


As time went by, more villages were already pillaged or even burnt down before


the soldiers got there. They marched through several cities and at last came to


St.Petersburg, where other troops were waiting so they could all attack the city


on August 17,1812. After they took over the city, they burnt down and pillaged


the city. Walter and his regiment went onto other cities but found all burnt down.


He did find useful and life-saving things such as fur and grain with a hand


grinder. The battles in Russia and Poland were bloody, and deadly. To all the


cities and grounds they fought for or on, hundreds of thousands died. People


fought amongst each other for food and horses, such as Walter, whose horse was


stolen at least two times. Everyone believed that their “time was up” and it was


their last hour. Winter didn’t help either, it made staying warm difficult and


freezing to death pretty simple. An interesting event that came upon Walter was


when he and some soldiers were attacked by Cossacks, and Walter pretends to


act dead after someone lances him to the ground. He then waits until they all


leave, ( he knew he was outnumbered ) and then gets up and walks away. He is


separated from the group and travels to meet up again with them. As he gets to


someone from the army, he is robbed and he catches a fever, both of which he


survives through. On February,24, 1813, he finally makes it home to see his


family, including his brother, all well. Walter, though falls sick and so is taken to


a hospital. He is feeling better weeks later when he isn’t sick anymore and he has


been discharged from the army.


I LOVE THIS BOOK!!!! At first the introduction was not as appealing as it


could of been, but the diary Jakob Walter wrote was amazing. The details were


vivid, picturable and interesting. Enough so that I read the diary in one reading.


Walter explains how life as a napoleonic soldier was, and the hardships they had.


Walter shows how hungry he was and how any food is good food. I could never


eat hog’s face raw or coagulated horse blood, but that’s just me, and walking for


thousands of miles in extreme hot and severe cold temperatures. This book is


superb and I’ll probably buy this book and add it to the shelf

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