Napoleon’s Shield and Guardian: The Unconquerable General Daumesnil

This biography is the story of Pierre Daumesnil a loyal follower of Napoleon during his rise and his fall. Enlisting as a private soldier in 1793, Daumesnil was caught up in the Napoleonic Wars, surviving all the campaigns and emerging as a much-decorated general and Baron of the Empire. Wounded at Wagram, losing a leg, Daumesnil became governor of the fortress of Vincennes, where he played his most celebrated role in the wars of Napoleon by refusing to surrender the fortress to the Allies in 1814 and again in 1815.
 
Edwar Ryan is a Napoleonic enthusiast and author of Napoleon's Elite Cavalry, Greenhill 1999.