Huge Update

I've rewritten the generation of the site in preparation for future plans I have for the site. While most of the work involved in this is not noticeable to a viewer, the site is more architecturally sound. Alongside this major change comes a revised menu structure and some very cool new pages.

My favorite new page is the analysis page. Check it out. It allows you to sort and filter on the available data in the system, namely all the French officers currently on the site. Playing with the filters and sorting can reveal new things about the French generals that you did not previously realize. In the future, expect this to get a lot more popular as I complete the Arc de Triomphe and add more options for filtering and sorting.

The timeline page is another interactive tool to help you better understand how events played out. Currently blue markers indicate battles where the French won, red indicate battles where the French lost, and black indicate everything else. Right now the only events in the system are battles, officer births, and officer deaths, but expect a lot more variety in the future.

The other signifcantly new page is the new map of officers' birth places. You'll notice you can filter on it just like the analysis page, so you don't have to view them all at once. If you do click on a marker, the info windows that appear aren't the best, and the links inside aren't working too well. Still working on that, easier said than done to get that working correctly. Regardless, it gives some insight into where the generals came from.

Hope you like these new features of the site, and I will continue to try and add more generals and improve upon their biographies as time permits.

The Battle of Austerlitz

Seeing as the site continues to climb in traffic, and one of the most visited pages is the Battle of Austerlitz, I moved that battle up in priority in getting more detail. A complete explanation of the battle now exists. While working on the explanation of how the battle played out, I realized I had a few decent maps of the battle and could possibly make an interactive map with google maps. And voila, there is now a map there too!

The map details the general positions of the armies late on December 1st (Friant's division is hiding off to the left), and then also shows the final French push in the afternoon of the second. The positions of the lines are my doing and just estimations.

Unfortunately that took a significant amount of time, and most battles I do not have any maps of, so I don't plan on having many of these maps with unit positions anytime soon.

I hope you enjoy the map and it helps improve your understanding of the Battle of Austerlitz!

The Polish Update

Just in time for the new year, I've improved the biographies of some of the most prominent Polish officers serving with the French. So check out Marshal Poniatowski (Józef Antoni Poniatowski), General Dombrowski (Jan Henryk Dąbrowski), and General Zayonchek (Józef Zajączek).

In the meantime I've added General Hardy by request, and updated Generals Mouton the lion of Lobau and Sebastiani.

Advanced Tables, Davout, Galleries, and More

Finally an update you say! Actually many of the following updates have been rolled out earlier, but I hadn't gotten around to announcing them. Unfortunately for the site, life is getting in the way, so you're not going to see frequent updates for a while.

First off is the more advanced tables I implemented. The best example of this is the revamped Statistics page. Now you can see officers in a tabular format, and sort on the tables by clicking on the header, allowing you to organize information as you see fit. You can also see these tables on all of the Battles pages, for example the Battle of Austerlitz. I've gone back over all the battles and updated the information on them to make the units more consistent.

Next up is a completed biography of the honorable Marshal Davout. I know he is a favorite marshal of many including myself, so I've been meaning to get his biography up there for a long time. The famous marshals, due to the volume of information on them, generally take me significantly longer than some of the generals to get a good biography and collection of anecdotes put together.

A new galleries section is available from the menu on the left, with currently one gallery. The Officers Portrait Gallery has a picture of every officer on the site that I have a picture for. Clicking on a portrait will take you to that officer's biography. Missing someone you expected to see? If you have a picture of that person, please share it and I'll make sure it gets up.

Last but not least, I've updated the biographies of many generals, including famous during the Egyptian campaign General Bon, brothers and imperial aide-de-camps Constant Corbineau and Juvénal Corbineau, Gascon cavalry leader General Espagne, and defender of Monte Legino Rampon.

Thanks to those of you who email me about the site! Your enjoyment and use of the site helps keep me going!

Napoleonic Sites of Paris Map

The latest update includes a map that has been in development for quite some time. This new map contains Napoleonic Sites of Paris which includes notable events of the time, houses of Napoleon and many officers, and monuments to the time. You can also arrive there through the maps page. On your next trip to the Paris region, be sure to check out some of these locations to get a better sense of the history.

As usual, input is appreciated. If you know of more locations that should be included in this map, let me know.

In the meantime I also made significant revisions to three officers, General Ornano the cousin of Napoleon who went on to marry Marie Walewska, Marshal Suchet the only marshal to improve his reputation in Spain, and Marshal Lannes, one of Napoleon's closest friends.