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Bismarck's First War: The Campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864
This book chronicles the final conflict over the now almost forgotten "Schleswig-Holstein Question", once a pivotal issue for the great powers of Europe. The campaign of Schleswig and Jutland was also the first of Otto von Bismarck's Wars of German Unification, which together created a united German Empire under Prussian leadership.The detailed story of this, the last of the "Cabinet Wars", is told here for the first time in English, compiled from numerous published and unpublished sources, including many contemporary and first hand accounts, as well as official reports. This is an invaluable resource for any student of the mid 19th Century.Key topics the historical background to the conflict, the political crisis of 1863, the intervention of the "German Parliament" and the build-up to war Full descriptions are provided of all military and naval forces involved.The book includes comprehensive orders of battle for the various stages of the war, informative maps, many adapted from early sources, numerous illustrations and photographs .-
720 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 19, 2019
Academically impeccable, with an impressive array of sources both German and Danish from 1864 to the present, but Embree has no skill as a writer to match. Dry as a daily divisional report.
Only occasionally do we glimpse the brisk reality of a Baltic winter campaign:
"Having spent seven hourd standing in pouring rain, all troops not on outpost duty were allowed to return to quarters. Due to the downpour, they were not allowed to March back to their camp via the main roads, as these were "required to be kept in reasonable condition as possible" They wereforced to wallow along muddy tracks, increasing their exhaustion."(p.61)
I'll just watch the 1864 series instead....
Only occasionally do we glimpse the brisk reality of a Baltic winter campaign:
"Having spent seven hourd standing in pouring rain, all troops not on outpost duty were allowed to return to quarters. Due to the downpour, they were not allowed to March back to their camp via the main roads, as these were "required to be kept in reasonable condition as possible" They wereforced to wallow along muddy tracks, increasing their exhaustion."(p.61)
I'll just watch the 1864 series instead....
November 4, 2018
A great book to use for a terrain walk of the battle. Every little detail is recorded. A boring book if you are looking for action. So much there that could have been covered. New artillery, ironclads, breechloaders, etc. Did I mention boring?
May 2, 2022
During the 1860s, the Prussians waged three wars which were key to bringing Germany under their sway. The third of these wars, the Franco-Prussian War, ended not only with the unification of Germany but France’s succession by it as the dominant power in Europe. The second war, waged between Austria and Prussia in 1866, determined that it was the latter of the two that would be the unifying state in this process. Thanks to the pivotal nature of these conflicts, both wars have been the subject of numerous fine works that have detailed the political, diplomatic, and military events that led up to them and determined their outcome.
By comparison, the first of these wars, the Second Schleswig War, has been relatively neglected. Part of the reason for this may be its complex and obscure origins, of which the British prime minister Lord Palmerston famously claimed only three people could explain, and none of them successfully. In this respect Michael Embree is in good company, as he provides only a cursory summary of the events leading up to the war’s declaration. To be fair this is understandable, as his goal is to provide a history of the fighting rather than background to it. Yet his effort in this regard serves as a microcosm of the issues with the book that follows, personifying all of the problems with his approach.
The bulk of Embree’s book is a rote recounting of the military operations by the Danish and Austro-Prussian forces that fought each other in the spring and summer of 1864. It’s a largely bloodless description that is long on detail and short on analysis, as troop movements are described and battles detailed with very little effort to understand the motivations and goals behind the decisions taken. What readers get from this is what happened and when, with everything else is largely left unexplored. It’s especially frustrating considering the want of good English-language histories of the war, as Embree has considerable latitude in which to work. Yet for all of his evident mastery of the German and Danish materials about its events suggested by his bibliography, he would prefer to count casualties and the number of shells expended to inflict them than to make arguments for why things happened the way they did.
The result is a frustratingly limited book that provides little more than a detailed summary of an overshadowed war. Embree’s lack of engagement with the larger historical scholarship about the conflict is particularly puzzling, as instead of drawing upon such fine works as James Sheehan’s German History 1770-1866 or any of the numerous biographies of Otto von Bismarck he leans heavily upon older and outdated descriptions of Prussian motivations and how they were achieved through the conflict. If this is the best English-language history of the Second Schleswig War, it's less a testament to its merits than to the lack of any better options available, thus ensuring that for many readers “Bismarck’s first war” will remain the most unknown of the three.
By comparison, the first of these wars, the Second Schleswig War, has been relatively neglected. Part of the reason for this may be its complex and obscure origins, of which the British prime minister Lord Palmerston famously claimed only three people could explain, and none of them successfully. In this respect Michael Embree is in good company, as he provides only a cursory summary of the events leading up to the war’s declaration. To be fair this is understandable, as his goal is to provide a history of the fighting rather than background to it. Yet his effort in this regard serves as a microcosm of the issues with the book that follows, personifying all of the problems with his approach.
The bulk of Embree’s book is a rote recounting of the military operations by the Danish and Austro-Prussian forces that fought each other in the spring and summer of 1864. It’s a largely bloodless description that is long on detail and short on analysis, as troop movements are described and battles detailed with very little effort to understand the motivations and goals behind the decisions taken. What readers get from this is what happened and when, with everything else is largely left unexplored. It’s especially frustrating considering the want of good English-language histories of the war, as Embree has considerable latitude in which to work. Yet for all of his evident mastery of the German and Danish materials about its events suggested by his bibliography, he would prefer to count casualties and the number of shells expended to inflict them than to make arguments for why things happened the way they did.
The result is a frustratingly limited book that provides little more than a detailed summary of an overshadowed war. Embree’s lack of engagement with the larger historical scholarship about the conflict is particularly puzzling, as instead of drawing upon such fine works as James Sheehan’s German History 1770-1866 or any of the numerous biographies of Otto von Bismarck he leans heavily upon older and outdated descriptions of Prussian motivations and how they were achieved through the conflict. If this is the best English-language history of the Second Schleswig War, it's less a testament to its merits than to the lack of any better options available, thus ensuring that for many readers “Bismarck’s first war” will remain the most unknown of the three.
April 9, 2020
The Second Schleswig War, fought in 1864 between the Allied powers of Austria and Prussia, and the Kingdom of Denmark on the other is a war entirely unknown in the States. Obviously, during the same time period, we were quite preoccupied with slaughtering each other down South, and far too busy to pay too much attention to affairs in northern Central Europe.
However, this was a highly important and influential conflict that set the stage for the 20th century.
Michael Embree has written an exhaustive accounting of the 1864 war in Schleswig-Holstein, and the politics both building up to the war, and then the aftermath. While the detail is exhaustive, be warned, this is a bit of a dry tome. Not the worst out there, but it does have a bit of the Col. David Glantz syndrome of being academically sound, detail rich, and lifelessly written at times. Despite that, this is easily the best book on the subject in English, so bear that, too, in mind.
The war had its origins in the succession of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The Prussian and Austrian dominated German Confederation were not at all pleased with the King of Denmark's insistence upon Danish successors, and so a joint military venture between Vienna and Berlin was conducted.
The war began in late winter, in February, and the Austrians and Prussians advanced steadily against sometimes stiff Danish resistance. When the Danes abandoned the Danewerke (a long line of prepared fortifications and defensive emplacements blocking the path of Teutonic advance) however, the tide was irreversibly in favor of the Allies. And despite a successful Danish naval blockade of Prussian ports and commerce raiding against them, the Danes, surrendering the initiative, doomed themselves.
The one major engagement was the Siege of Dybbøl, a massive fortress that controlled the coastal areas and blocked Allied advance. Despite heroic Danish resistance, however, the fortress succumbed to superior Prussian firepower and a determined infantry assault. Not long after, despite defeating Allied attempts to break the Danish Naval blockade (the Danish Navy was pretty much undefeated during the War), the Danes were forced to sue for peace.
The war began the German Unification Wars, and it served as a dry run for the new Prussian Army. It also established Berlin as the dominant player in the German Confederation, a circumstance that would directly lead to the Austro-Prussian/Italian War of 1866. It forever ended Scandinavian hegemony of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, while leading exponentially to the growth of Prussian supremacy in central Europe.
While the book is a tad dry, it is on a fascinating topic and this makes up for the, sometimes, overwhelming info dump of statistics Embree seems to enjoy.
Despite that, it was good and a keeper.
Highly recommended.
However, this was a highly important and influential conflict that set the stage for the 20th century.
Michael Embree has written an exhaustive accounting of the 1864 war in Schleswig-Holstein, and the politics both building up to the war, and then the aftermath. While the detail is exhaustive, be warned, this is a bit of a dry tome. Not the worst out there, but it does have a bit of the Col. David Glantz syndrome of being academically sound, detail rich, and lifelessly written at times. Despite that, this is easily the best book on the subject in English, so bear that, too, in mind.
The war had its origins in the succession of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The Prussian and Austrian dominated German Confederation were not at all pleased with the King of Denmark's insistence upon Danish successors, and so a joint military venture between Vienna and Berlin was conducted.
The war began in late winter, in February, and the Austrians and Prussians advanced steadily against sometimes stiff Danish resistance. When the Danes abandoned the Danewerke (a long line of prepared fortifications and defensive emplacements blocking the path of Teutonic advance) however, the tide was irreversibly in favor of the Allies. And despite a successful Danish naval blockade of Prussian ports and commerce raiding against them, the Danes, surrendering the initiative, doomed themselves.
The one major engagement was the Siege of Dybbøl, a massive fortress that controlled the coastal areas and blocked Allied advance. Despite heroic Danish resistance, however, the fortress succumbed to superior Prussian firepower and a determined infantry assault. Not long after, despite defeating Allied attempts to break the Danish Naval blockade (the Danish Navy was pretty much undefeated during the War), the Danes were forced to sue for peace.
The war began the German Unification Wars, and it served as a dry run for the new Prussian Army. It also established Berlin as the dominant player in the German Confederation, a circumstance that would directly lead to the Austro-Prussian/Italian War of 1866. It forever ended Scandinavian hegemony of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, while leading exponentially to the growth of Prussian supremacy in central Europe.
While the book is a tad dry, it is on a fascinating topic and this makes up for the, sometimes, overwhelming info dump of statistics Embree seems to enjoy.
Despite that, it was good and a keeper.
Highly recommended.
July 2, 2017
Very readable overview of this now mostly forgotten war that started Prussia on its' path to Empire. Author Michael Empree has, as in his book about Radetzky's campaigns in 1848-49 in Italy, read through an immense amount of source material, and has made this rather confusing conflict more comprehensible.
Recommended.
Recommended.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews