So very soon I'm going to be starting a series of emails to a group in order to further the study of the Napoleonic/French Revolution era focusing primarily on Napoleon and the times he lived in. As I've been studying his life and times day by day now for the past five years (starting in 1791 and working my way up to 1796), I feel I'd like to step things up and start compiling my research into PDFs for a possible book someday. I don't know if I'll actually publish it, but I'd like to create a central source for all this information. Not only that, but I'd also like to give in depth looks into some more obscure and largely ignored (at least in English sources) events such as the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, a battle that has been polluted and misrepresented so many times by careless research and lack of interest by English historians.
I'll be drawing on a plethora of sources for my research, including but not limited to: Theodore Dodge's six volume set "Warfare in the Age of Napoleon", Martin Boycott-Brown's "The Road to Rivoli" (for his first campaign), William James's six volume "Naval History of Great Britain", Mark Adkin's "The Trafalgar Companion", Will and Ariel Durant's "The Age of Napoleon", Frank McLynn's "Napoleon", Andrea Stuart's "The Rose of Martinique", Hourtouille's series (primarily for uniforms), and some Spanish primary sources (such as the Madrid Gazette and personal accounts) when dealing with the Spanish side of things (given this side is largely ignored in English accounts).
So starting next week, I'll be taking an in depth look at the year 1796, and while much of the emphasis will be on Napoleon's Italian Campaign, I also want to delve into his marriage with Josephine, the kind of person he was, the concurrent campaigns on the Rhine, and politics of the day. Next year I'll be going into 1797, and the year after that 1798, etc. I'll be sending articles I'm writing out in emails to interested parties, including friends and family. If you'd like to be part of this ongoing project, I'd be happy to include you in my list of recipients. If you'd like to be part of this, feel free to PM me your email, and also state whether your want it to be carbon copied or blind carbon copied whenever I send out these articles.
