THE LIFE OF A GENERAL IN NAPOLEON’S LIGHT CAVALRY The Memoirs of Jean-Nicolas Curély

This first English edition of Jean-Nicolas Curély’s memoirs reveals the daily realities of Napoleon’s light cavalry through the eyes of a soldier who rose from laborer’s son to general. Though often away from the era’s headline battles—reflecting the scouts-and-raids role of light cavalry—Curély still rode in all of Napoleon’s major campaigns, from Austerlitz to Leipzig and the retreat from Moscow. Wounded five times and decorated with the Légion d’Honneur, he climbed from hussar at 19 to general at 40. His memoirs mix sharp combat detail with his fierce care for his men and horses, offering a vivid, ground-level account of service from 1793 to Waterloo—essential reading for Napoleonic enthusiasts.