Murat's Army: The Army of the Kingdom of Naples 1806-1815 (From Reason to Revolution)

The book relies entirely on a series of uniform sketches to cast light on the Army of Naples during the Napeonic Empire. They are not well known as a published source to amateurs, and as such are a very welcome addition to the corpus of evidence for the period.The illustrations are clear and the colours good; the text is minimal and draws attention to some title discrepancies by the artist who has sometimes misidentified units. This is a serious addition to any modeller’s armoury.

Not a great publication, some interesting images, but overall badly printed and cheap effect

Fine images

The book is advertised on Amazon as having 128 pages but in fact only has 120. On the publishers website the correct number of pages are shown, although the publishers also state that another of their titles, The French Army of the orient 1798-1801 by Yves Martin, which I also own, has 160 pages when in fact it only contained 128. Both Hellion and Amazon advertise Murat's Army as containing the battle history of the various units, when in fact this is not the case. There is very little detail or information concerning the battle history of any of the units. The book also states it has an Appendix and detailed order-of-battle (page 10) but they are not included within this title. And a lack of space cannot be used as an excuse for not including the Appendix or any detailed orders of battle, or battle history of the units, when the A4 sized paperback contains several pages that are half to almost fully blank, with page 5 containing only five lines of text, page 12 with seven and page 85 with nine lines of text. Unfortunately, the larger format does not mean more detail, as the author himself admits himself on page 4, when he states 'Boisselier often glossed over the details' and the important shako emblems 'are dashed off as squiggles'. The book does offer a brief description of the 1815 Battle of Tolentino, which suggests Murat and the Neapolitans did very well at first. However, there is very little offered to support the fact that at times during the Napoleonic wars the Neapolitans did well at times and were not always the bad soldiers they are often described as. So if you are expecting any detailed battle history or accounts of actions involving the Neapolitans, apart from the brief description of Tolentino on page 10, you will be disappointed. There are no maps and only one flag depicted, which is in black and white. The three stars I have awarded this title are for the prints alone, despite their lack of detail. The book itself is divided into an Introduction, a brief overview of the history of the Kingdom of Naples (six pages), and then eight sections of prints: Staff Officers and Aides-de-Camp, The Royal Guard, The Line Cavalry, The Line Infantry, the Light Infantry, Technical Troops, Internal Security Forces and finally, the Navy. I found the Internal Security Forces section very interesting, since, as far as I am aware, they are hard to find anywhere else. Although the book is intended to cover 1806-1815, two thirds of the prints cover the 1812-13 period, 7 prints cover 1814 and 5 prints cover 1815. The Internal Security Forces section contains 28 prints. Although disappointed by the missing section, the lack of information and orders of battle, the prints just about make up it and it is still a good book for wargamers and figure painters. Also on the positive side, the book has sparked my interest in the lesser known units and areas of the Napoleonic Wars and especially the Neapolitan 7th Real Africano Regiment.

A fantastic collection of prints showing the Army of the Kingdom of Naples.Almost all regiments are shown, resulting in a fantastic colelction of images. An absolute must for anyone re-enacting or war gaming the period.

A colourful army for a colourful king, this book is a visual treat.As with 'Godoy's Army', the book starts with a run down of the relevant history of Naples. After that, lots of inspiration for wargamers and reenactors.

Lovely colour plates with some nice attached info. Very interesting

A lively set of late 19th century uniform prints, each plate comes with a breif caption. Ideal for a wargamer looking to paint a napoleonic army of the Kingdom of Naples.