NAPOLEON'S ADMIRALS: Flag Officers of the Arc de Triomphe, 1789-1815

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On the four sides of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, serried tablets display the names of 660 honored commanders of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Most are those of generals and marshals of the French Army - but 26 of them are those of admirals -- commanders of the fleets of Republican and Napoleonic France.

This appraisal of the Anglo-French naval war of 1793-1814 presents not only their individual stories, but explodes myths. For example, the aristocratic officers of the French Navy did not emigrate en masse when the Revolution came, leaving the Navy leaderless and doomed to repeated defeats at sea. These former King's officers stayed, and loyally tried to serve their country as the Revolution pursued its wasteful and unpredictable course. Three of them paid for their loyalty under the guillotine.

Of the 26 'Admirals of the Arc,' 23 had learned their trade in the French royal and merchant navies of the ancien regime. Republican France could call on a wide range of seasoned combat veterans from the American Revolutionary War (1778-83), whose stories are a revelation in themselves.