•Draws on newly discovered eyewitness accounts from Prussian sources to present new insights into the battle and new areas of combat
•Studies the battle from the unexplored perspective of General Drouet d’Erlon, one of Napoleon’s key subordinates
•Focuses on the lesser-known engagements between the French and Prussians, for which new archaeological evidence has been discovered
•Examines death certificates issued for French officers and men on the day of the battle to suggest it was not the ‘bloodbath’ it is often thought to have been
•The result of twenty years of research in archives in France and German