REVIEW BY ANDRÉ VAN LOON
To start with what this book is not: Martin Sullivan, a lecturer in business and previously an investment banker, does not give us a straightforward biography of Louis-Nicolas Davout, Duke of Auerstädt and Prince of Eckmühl, who lived between 1770 and 1823.
The book does not delve into Davout’s lineage, education at the École Royale Militaire, first experiences in the revolutionary French army, or tensions with Napoleon during the campaign in Egypt. Nor does it look at Davout’s string of victories as Marshal commanding the Grande Armée’s Third Corps or his exile from power after Napoleon’s fall.
Instead, Napoleon’s Undefeated Marshal is an analytical snapshot of a moment in time: the start of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809. Sullivan is fascinated by how Davout’s leadership helped to reverse the risk of defeat by Austria’s Archduke Charles, and his triumph at the Battle of Eckmühl on 22 April that year. It was Davout, Sullivan contends, who gave Napoleon the upper hand by outsmarting the Austrians, setting the scene for the emperor’s subsequent victory in the Battle of Wagram in July, which ended the war.
War Classics – Sagittarius Rising