------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Footnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are referenced. Not all illustrations are mentioned in the table of ‘Embellishments’. Most chapters include both a illustration above the chapter head, and a trailing caption at the end. With a few exceptions the heading illustrations have no captions. Illustrations which refer in their captions to a facing page have been positioned to precede that page. These were not included in the pagination. Others, also mentioned in the table, have been moved slightly to fall on paragraph breaks. [Illustration: NAPOLEON CROSSING THE ALPS. Frontispiece. ] [Illustration: CAMP FIRES OF NAPOLEON] THE CAMP-FIRES OF _NAPOLEON_: COMPRISING THE MOST BRILLIANT ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE EMPEROR AND HIS MARSHALS. BY HENRY C. WATSON. PHILADELPHIA: H. C. PECK & THEO. BLISS. 1867. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ENTERED According to the Act of Congress, in the year 1854, BY H. C. PECK & THEO. BLISS, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration] PREFACE. The vivid pictures of war, however ensanguined, have a wonderful attraction for the mass of men. They stir the heart like a trumpet. No narratives are so generally perused with avidity as those of “feats of broils and battles;” for in them, in spite of many disgusting features, there is always something to excite a pleasing thrill. We love excitement, and it seems that it is to war, and the descriptions of its varied scenes of danger, during which the faculties of the combatants are roused to extraordinary strength, that most look for the gratification of their natural desires. We have heard of many persons who, in the abstract, condemn all wars as brutal and degrading to humanity, peruse, with unwearied attention, narratives of the campaigns of great generals, and dwell upon their details with evident manifestations of delight. The passion is irresistible.