Be Your Own Napoleon

I agree with the previous reviewer, this will or never would have been a textbook for the better military academies out there. As an entertaining and reasonably well-informed introduction to strategy, operations, and tactics, this book serves well, covering a wealth of eras and situations, and at least mentioning considerations it does not have room to detail, such as the importance of supply and maintaining a line of communications. Seymour can write, with flair and not without humor, and his style never intrudes on the main point at hand. Describing German mercenary Baum's surprise raid into Vermont during the Saratoga Campaign (which later turned into the Battle of Bennington): "Baum was to command 170 of his own dismounted Brunswick Dragoons, 150 grenadiers and light infantry under Major von Barner, a somewhat motley collection of Tories, Canadians and Indians under Colonel Peters, fifty of Captain Fraser's marksmen, and two three-pounders from the Hesse-Hanau battery; presumably to satisfy the German craving for martial music, although it was scarcely conducive to secrecy, some musicians where thrown in for good measure" (p.101). For the price, it's hard to go wrong with this book, and reading it will likely encourage more delving into whichever of the campaigns covered catch the reader's attention, which could be many of them.