It is not surprising that the writing of the biography of this vivid, talented and entertaining figure should have provided the author with a genial and absorbing task.He came of extraordinary stock; the circumstances of his birth were remarkable; he was the lover of many celebrated women; he won the lifelong friendship of men of the stature of Voltaire; he aspired to a crown, and nearly became the Czar of Russia; his activities spanned a whole continent, from Paris to Dresden, from Dresden to Warsaw, from Warsaw to Moscow. Yet he was more, much more, than an energetic and flamboyant adventurer: he was acknowledged to be the outstanding general of his era, a military genius who linked the epoch of Marlborough with the epoch of Frederick the Great. He led great armies and won great victories.It is part of the purpose of this book to restore him to the pre-eminent place in social and military history to which his achievements entitle him. The study of his campaigns has proved no dutiful or dreary labour, for he was among the wittiest and most elegant military practitioners who have ever lived. There was a touch of diablerie about the manner in which he gained his spectacular triumphs that set him apart from the other great captains of his era.

    Weigley here wrote a series of biographical essays on the development of American military thought. Starting with the American Revolution, Weigley covers George Washington and Alexander Hamilton; John C. Calhoun; Dennis Hart Mahan; Henry W. Halleck and George B. McClellan; William T. Sherman And Ulysses S. Grant; Emory Upton and his disciples; John A. Logan; John M. Schofield; R. M. Johnston; Leonard Wood; and ending with John McAuley Palmer and George C. Marshall.

    

    masters of the great castle of Clandara.HE was James Macdonald, a nobleman notorious for his lurid past, and the scion of the family whom the Frasers had fought for centures.She was as proud as she was beautiful. He was as violent as he was handsome. They broke every taboo to come together -- and not even a conflict that tore all Scotland in two could keep them apart....