At Wellington's Right Hand

At Wellington's Right Hand PDF Author: Alexander Gordon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
Alexander Gordon served as aide-de-camp to his uncle, Sir David Baird, in the Coruna campaign of 1808-9, then joined Wellington's staff and remained at his side through to the Waterloo campaign. His letters, presented here, offer a unique insight into the British campaigns in the Peninsula.

At Wellington's Right Hand

At Wellington's Right Hand PDF Author: Alexander Gordon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
Alexander Gordon served as aide-de-camp to his uncle, Sir David Baird, in the Coruna campaign of 1808-9, then joined Wellington's staff and remained at his side through to the Waterloo campaign. His letters, presented here, offer a unique insight into the British campaigns in the Peninsula.

Wellington's Right Hand

Wellington's Right Hand PDF Author: Joanna Hill
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752492993
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill of Almarez was imaginative, brave – and perhaps more surprisingly for the period in which he lived an d fought – compassionate towards those under his command. He was a man who frequently led from the front in some of the deadliest battles ofthe Napoleonic Wars. Hill was given his own ‘detached’ corps and fought his way through Spain, Portugal and France, winning battles against the odds – such at St Pierre, where he defeated the redoubtable Maréchal Soult when outnumbered two to one. When ministers at home asked that Hill be allowed to leave the Peninsula and lead an army elsewhere, Wellington dismissed the idea with ‘Would you cut off my right hand?’ Hill fought at Roliça, Corunna, Talavera, Bussaco, Almarez, Vitoria and Waterloo. He succeeded the Duke in 1828 as Commander-in-Chief. Based upon theHill papers made available to Joanna Hill – the General’s great, great, great niece – and a wide range of other primary sources, Wellington’s Right Hand is an important addition to the literature of the Napoleonic age and in particular to that of the Peninsular War.

Wellington in the Peninsula, 1808-1814

Wellington in the Peninsula, 1808-1814 PDF Author: Jac Weller
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 9781848326538
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This classic account of Wellington s tactics and strategy in the Peninsular War is one of the best single-volume works ever written on the epic campaign. Jac Weller covers all the battles with the French in which Wellington was involved. Talavera, Busaco, Salamanca and Vitoria are among the famous battles that he brings to life once more, with the aid of meticulous research, extensive visits to and photographs of the battlefields themselves, and an unwavering ability to cut a clear path through tangled military events. Wellington in the Peninsula brilliantly demonstrates how a great commander finally achieved victory after six years of battle against Napoleon s army.

Architects of Empire

Architects of Empire PDF Author: John Kenneth Severn
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806138107
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Book Description
A soldier and statesman for the ages, the Duke of Wellington is a towering figure in world history. John Severn now offers a fresh look at the man born Arthur Wellesley to show that his career was very much a family affair, a lifelong series of interactions with his brothers and their common Anglo-Irish heritage. The untold story of a great family drama, Architects of Empire paints a new picture of the era through the collective biography of Wellesley and his siblings. Severn takes readers from the British Raj in India to the battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars to the halls of Parliament as he traces the rise of the five brothers from obscurity to prominence. Severn covers both the imperial Indian period before 1800 and the domestic political period after 1820, describing the wide range of experiences Arthur and his brothers lived through. Architects of Empire brings together in a single volume a grand story that before now was discernible only through political or military analysis. Weaving the personal history of the brothers into a captivating narrative, it tells of sibling rivalry among men who were by turns generous and supportive, then insensitive and cruel. Whereas other historians have minimized the importance of family ties, Severn provides an unusually nuanced understanding of the Duke of Wellington. Architects of Empire casts his career in a new light--one that will surprise those who believe they already know the man.

Mr. Wellington

Mr. Wellington PDF Author: David Rabe
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
ISBN: 1429998229
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 98

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Book Description
An acclaimed playwright's first work for children...A gentle and thoroughly original animal story Young Jonathan finds a small, frightened squirrel on the road and brings it home tucked inside his sneaker. But the squirrel named Mr. Wellington is weak and listless, and fearful of the unfamiliar surroundings. Told from alternating perspectives--Jonathan's and Mr. Wellington's--this beautifully written story, enhanced with pen-and-ink wash illustrations, has all the markings of an enduring classic animal tale.

Salamanca 1812

Salamanca 1812 PDF Author: Ian Fletcher
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1846036291
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
Salamanca was the most decisive battle of the entire Peninsular War. This detailed, illustrated volume recounts its progression, alongside full-colour maps and illustrations. Wellington smashed Marmont's French Army and his pursuit of its shattered remnants led to the famous cavalry charge of the King's German Legion at Garcia Hernandez. There would be two more years of sieges and hard fighting before the Iron Duke crossed the Pyrenees into France but from Salamanca the British and their Portuguese and Spanish allies always had the upper hand. Ian Fletcher examines this important battle in detail and also discusses the campaign which led up to it.

Napoleon and Wellington

Napoleon and Wellington PDF Author: Andrew Roberts
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297865269
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
A dual biography of the greatest opposing generals of their age who ultimately became fixated on one another, by a bestselling historian. 'Thoroughly enjoyable, beautifully written and meticulously researched' Observer On the morning of the battle of Waterloo, the Emperor Napoleon declared that the Duke of Wellington was a bad general, the British were bad soldiers and that France could not fail to win an easy victory. Forever afterwards historians have accused him of gross overconfidence, and massively underestimating the calibre of the British commander opposed to him. Andrew Roberts presents an original, highly revisionist view of the relationship between the two greatest captains of their age. Napoleon, who was born in the same year as Wellington - 1769 - fought Wellington by proxy years earlier in the Peninsula War, praising his ruthlessness in private while publicly deriding him as a mere 'sepoy general'. In contrast, Wellington publicly lauded Napoleon, saying that his presence on a battlefield was worth forty thousand men, but privately wrote long memoranda lambasting Napoleon's campaigning techniques. Although Wellington saved Napoleon from execution after Waterloo, Napoleon left money in his will to the man who had tried to assassinate Wellington. Wellington in turn amassed a series of Napoleonic trophies of his great victory, even sleeping with two of the Emperor's mistresses.

Spying for Wellington

Spying for Wellington PDF Author: Huw J. Davies
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806162139
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 459

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Book Description
Intelligence is often the critical factor in a successful military campaign. This was certainly the case for Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular War. In this book, author Huw J. Davies offers the first full account of the scope, complexity, and importance of Wellington’s intelligence department, describing a highly organized, multifaceted series of networks of agents and spies throughout Spain and Portugal—an organization that was at once a microcosm of British intelligence at the time and a sophisticated forebear to intelligence developments in the twentieth century. Spying for Wellington shows us an organization that was, in effect, two parallel networks: one made up of Foreign Office agents “run” by British ambassadors in Spain and Portugal, the other comprising military spies controlled by Wellington himself. The network of agents supplied strategic intelligence, giving the British army advance warning of the arrival, destinations, and likely intentions of French reinforcements. The military network supplied operational intelligence, which confirmed the accuracy of the strategic intelligence and provided greater detail on the strengths, arms, and morale of the French forces. Davies reveals how, by integrating these two forms of intelligence, Wellington was able to develop an extremely accurate and reliable estimate of French movements and intentions not only in his own theater of operations but also in other theaters across the Iberian Peninsula. The reliability and accuracy of this intelligence, as Davies demonstrates, was central to Wellington’s decision-making and, ultimately, to his overall success against the French. Correcting past, incomplete accounts, this is the definitive book on Wellington’s use of intelligence. As such, it contributes to a clearer, more comprehensive understanding of Wellington at war and of his place in the history of British military intelligence.

Wellington’s Guns

Wellington’s Guns PDF Author: Nick Lipscombe
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472804686
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472

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Book Description
Written in the same engaging style of Mark Urban's Fusiliers and Rifles, this is a brilliant study of the Gunners who revolutionised warfare during the course of the Napoleonic Wars despite the opposition of their commander-in-chief. Dismissive, conservative and aloof, Wellington treated his artillery with disdain during the Napoleonic Wars – despite their growing influence on the field of battle. Wellington's Guns exposes, for the very first time, the often stormy relationship between Wellington and his artillery, how the reluctance to modernize the British artillery corps threatened to derail the British push for victory and how Wellington's views on the command and appointment structure within the artillery opened up damaging rifts between him and his men. At a time when artillery was undergoing revolutionary changes – from the use of mountain guns during the Pyrenees campaign in the Peninsular, the innovative execution of 'danger-close' missions to clear the woods of Hougomont at Waterloo, to the introduction of creeping barrages and Congreve's rockets – Wellington seemed to remain distrustful of a force that played a significant role in shaping tactics and changing the course of the war. Using extensive research and first-hand accounts, Colonel Nick Lipscombe reveals that despite Wellington's brilliance as a field commander, his abrupt and uncompromising leadership style, particularly towards his artillery commanders, shaped the Napoleonic Wars, and how despite this, the ever-evolving technology and tactics ensured that the extensive use of artillery became one of the hallmarks of a modern army.

Wellington

Wellington PDF Author: Rory Muir
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300198604
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 693

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Book Description
The leading Wellington historian’s fascinating reassessment of the Iron Duke’s most famous victory and his role in the turbulent politics after Waterloo. For Arthur Wellesley, First Duke of Wellington, his momentous victory over Napoleon was the culminating point of a brilliant military career. Yet Wellington’s achievements were far from over: he commanded the allied army of occupation in France to the end of 1818, returned home to a seat in Lord Liverpool’s cabinet, and became prime minister in 1828. He later served as a senior minister in Peel’s government and remained commander-in-chief of the army for a decade until his death in 1852. In this richly detailed work, the second and concluding volume of Rory Muir’s definitive biography, the author offers a substantial reassessment of Wellington’s significance as a politician and a nuanced view of the private man behind the legend of the selfless hero. Muir presents new insights into Wellington’s determination to keep peace at home and abroad, achieved by maintaining good relations with the Continental powers and resisting radical agitation while granting political equality to the Catholics in Ireland rather than risk civil war. And countering one-dimensional pictures of Wellington as a national hero, Muir paints a portrait of a well-rounded man whose austere demeanor on the public stage belied his entertaining, gossipy, generous, and unpretentious private self. “[An] authoritative and enjoyable conclusion to a two-part biography.” —Lawrence James, Times (London) “Muir conveys the military, political, social and personal sides of Wellington’s career with equal brilliance. This will be the leading work on the subject for decades.” —Andrew Roberts, author of Napoleon and Wellington: The Long Duel