celtic_cyclops

I tend to get obsessive about things for long periods of time. It has become that I can date events or the purchase of objects by reference to what I was into at the time. For example Star Trek covers most of the early 80's followed by the Onedin Line (it was on at 6am when I came home from shifts I did to pay for my HECS upfront), then the American Civil War (Ken Burns doco when I was doing articles in the early 90's), then Nirvana followed closely by X Files & Smashing Pumpkins and finally Buffy and all things Whedon.

Lately I have returned to my first obsession, the Age of Napoleon. From a historical perspective, it is very cool to relate to that time exactly 200 years ago, to compare the progression of life then and now.

In any event, when I was young, I was always fascinated by the battle of Austerlitz which was probably Napoleon's masterpiece battle (but not best campaign) which was on 2 December 1805. I had always hoped to be present on that battlefield on the 200th anniversary. Unfortunately that isn't going to happen so I am determined to do the next best thing which is to keep a diary which reflects the events of that campaign. So those of you who are bored by my exceddingly dull obsessions please look away for the next 3 months whilst I indulge myself.

As of yesterday, Napoleon broke camp at Boulogne and is moving the 200,000 men of the Grande Armee (formerly the Armee d'Angleterre) to the south east towards Bavaria. The army is moving by 7 seperate "streams" of corps in order to increase speed by travelling different roads and maintain secrecy of destination with Murat forming a cavalry screen. Tomorrow, General Mack of the Holy Roman Empire will invade Bavaria with 50,000 men and occupy Ulm in anticipation of the arrival of the Russian main army.