Heinrich August Vossler (1791–1848)

The Württemberg cavalry officer Heinrich August Vossler was one of the few of Napoleon’s Grande Armée returning from Russia in the winter of 1812. The description of the invasion of Russia and retreat forms the first part. In the second part Vossler narrates how he became a prisoner-of war being taken to Russia only to be released and re-patriated when Württemberg changed sides, abandoning France and joining the Russian coalition with Prussia and Austria.
Vossler is no great writer. However it is still worth reading for his account of the march and the unimaginable conditions during the retreat in ice and snow with little food and lack of warm clothing during which the great majority of the soldiers perished. The book is well edited with a map and name-index. (X-20)… (meer)