Author: Stuart Reid
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1783830891
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
'Wellingtons Highland Warriors' covers the early history of the British Armys Highland regiments, from the raising of the Black Watch in 1739 to the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Stuart Reid provides an entertaining and thoroughly original study of the circumstances in which the regiments were authorized and recruited, not just in the Highlands but all across Scotland, so that Highlanders and Scotchmen became synonymous. It also tells the story of how they acquitted themselves in almost every corner of the globe from the bogs of Ireland to the burning plains of India, and in the process earning for themselves a reputation which is literally second to none.Each chapter follows a theme based around the experiences of one particular regiment and employs extensive but careful use of contemporary correspondence and memoirs to let those involved tell the story in their own words. The story is a fascinating one which reveals the very different expectations and experiences of Highland soldiers; filled with engaging rogues such as Simon Fraser and Allan Cameron of Erracht, with stories of bitter feuds as rival chieftains and Highland proprietors battled each other for recruits, and those recruits themselves who were more than capable of giving as good as they got; demanding and receiving legally binding concessions from their landlords turned recruiters and then like George Gordon from the Cabrach, striding forth in high dress with his sword by his side to announce his new profession in a calculated display of swank quite incomprehensible to his English counterparts.

Author: Gabriele Esposito
Publisher: Pen and Sword Military
ISBN: 1526786680
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
This illustrated history presents a detailed overview of the British infantry’s organization, uniforms, and equipment during the Napoleonic Period. The years from 1800 to 1815 were one of the most glorious periods for the British Army—and the infantry was its backbone. Lavishly illustrated with color artwork, this book examines how the foot regiments evolved to absorb the lessons of defeat in America, transforming them into the efficient and dependable bedrock of victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Historian Gabriel Esposito details the uniforms, equipment, and weapons of the infantry, along with their organization and tactics. Chapters are devoted to the Guards, the line regiments of foot, the Light Infantry and Rifles, as well as Highland and Lowland Scots regiments. Esposito considers not only those units serving with Wellington in the Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign, but all British infantry units, including those in Canada, the West Indies, India and elsewhere—including the home defense Fencibles. Foreign units serving with the British army, most notably the King's German Legion, are also included.

Author: Alice Marie Crossland
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited
ISBN: 1911397044
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Using a wealth of unpublished sources, this book tells the story of Lady Georgiana Lennox and the unique friendship she cherished with the 1st Duke of Wellington. Georgy first met the Duke on his return from India when he was serving under her father the Duke of Richmond who was then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The Lennox family moved to Brussels in 1813 and Georgy's mother threw the now legendary Duchess of Richmond's Ball the night before the Battle of Waterloo. Georgy had a front row seat to the battle, and remained in Brussels afterwards to help the many wounded soldiers who returned from the front. Georgy was a beautiful and immensely popular young lady with many suitors during her youth. She and the Duke enjoyed a flirtatious early friendship, which blossomed into an intimate friendship in later years. At twenty-nine Georgy married the future 23rd Baron de Ros who became a diplomatic spy and later Governor of the Tower of London. Georgy had three children, and died at the impressive age of 96, by which time she was one of the last people alive who had been a personal friend of the Iron Duke.

Author: Stuart Reid
Publisher: Osprey Publishing
ISBN: 9781855322561
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Ultimately, regiments are judged by their behaviour in battle; and highlanders have always had a reputation as 'stormers', as exemplified by the impetuous charge of the Gordons at Waterloo, intermingled with the Scots greys. This reputation probably resulted at least in part from an unusually close bonding between officers and men, and an assumption that highlanders were natural soldiers, possessed of an impetuous spirit and temperamentally more inclined to use the bayonet. Complemented by many illustrations, including eight full page colour plates by Bryan Fosten, Stuart Reid's engaging text examines the uniforms and organisation of Wellington's Highlanders.

Author: Charles Oman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description

Author: Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
"This volume, consisting of selections from the despatches and documents relating to the various campaigns of the Duke of Wellington in India, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, the Low Countries, and France, from 1799 to 1815, is an epitome of the monumental work compiled by Lieutenant-Colonel Gurwood, Esquire to His Grace as Knight of the Bath ... the entire book is a condensation of his work."--Page [vii].

Author: Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman KBE
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1786255049
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 734

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Book Description
Includes over 100 maps of the actions, engagements and battles of the entire Peninsular War. Whilst writing his magisterial The History of The Peninsular War, Sir Charles Oman gathered material that was to become Wellington’s Army. Into Wellington’s Army he gathered, as he says in his Preface, “much miscellaneous information which does not bear upon the actual chronicle of events in the various campaigns that lie between 1808 and 1814, but yet possesses high interest in itself, and throws many a side-light on the general course of the war ... these notes relate either to the personal characteristics of that famous old army of Wellington, which, as he himself said, ‘could go anywhere and do anything,’ or to its inner mechanism — the details of its management. I purport to speak in these pages of the leaders and the led; of the daily life, manners, and customs of the Peninsular Army, as much as of its composition and its organization. I shall be dealing with the rank and file no less than with the officers, and must even find space for a few pages on that curious and polyglot horde of camp followers which trailed at the heels of the army, and frequently raised problems which worried not only colonels and adjutants, but even the Great Duke himself.”

Author: Major-General Finlay Cochrane Beatson C.B.
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1908902272
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
After the glorious victory of Vittoria, Wellington followed the retreating French army to the very borders of La Belle France itself. Facing him and his army of British, Portuguese and Spanish troops were significant physical barriers to progress toward the final resolution of the conflict in the Peninsula which had raged since 1808. The Pyrenees mountain range alone would have been a significant obstacle, added to the number of defensible river lines that lay beyond it, and faced with the enemy now commanded by Marshal Soult, a man far more able than the deposed King Joseph. And so, as the Allied army assume the offensive, much hard fighting would have to be done before they set foot on la Bell France and take the fight into Napoleon’s own lands. This book forms part of General Beatson’s trilogy dealing with the campaigns in and around the Pyrenees during late 1813 and 1814. They are rightly acknowledged as the standard works on these campaigns and provide an insight into the later, often ignored stages of the Peninsular War. An acclaimed classic of Military History. Author — Major-General Finlay Cochrane Beatson C.B. (1855-1933)

Author: Paul Cowan
Publisher: Frontline Books
ISBN: 1473851920
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 149

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Book Description
Few men from the 71st Highland Light Infantry who sailed from Cork with Wellington to Portugal in 1808 returned to the Irish port six years later. The author of Vicissitudes in the Life of a Scottish Soldier was one of the survivors and claims only four other men from his company came through the entire six years with him. As one of Wellington's elite Light Infantry units the 71st were in the fore of the fighting in some of the hardest fought battles of the Peninsular War. The book was controversial on its release in 1827 for its unvarnished and unsentimental account of the grim war against the French in Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and France itself. A cynic with a highly developed sense of humour, the author was not afraid to criticise his superiors, be they thieving sergeants or officers who were far from gentlemen. Editor Paul Cowan draws on little known diaries and other accounts written by the author's contemporaries to corroborate and expand on this frank but all too long neglected first-hand picture of the war in the Peninsula as it was really fought.

Author: Tim Newark
Publisher: Constable
ISBN: 1849012318
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
'Highlanders have long been among the most feared soldiers in the world and Tim Newark's book admirably tells their stirring tale. A great read!' Bernard Cornwell On the fields of Waterloo, the deserts of Sudan, the Plains of Abraham and the mountains of Dargai, the trenches of Flanders and the jungles of Burma - the great Highland regiments made their mark. The brave kilted troops with their pipes and drums were legendary, whether leading the charge into the thick of battle or standing fast, the last to leave or fall, fighting against the odds. Acclaimed historian Tim Newark tells the story of the Highlanders through the words of the soldiers themselves, from diaries, letters and journals uncovered from archives in Scotland and around the world. At the Battle of Quebec in 1759, only a few years after their defeat at Culloden, the 78th Highlanders faced down the French guns and turned the battle. At Waterloo, Highlanders memorably fought alongside the Scots Greys against Napoleon's feared Old Guard. In the Crimea, the thin red line stood firm against the charging Russian Hussars and saved the day at Balaclava. Yet the story is also one of betrayal. At Quebec, General Wolfe remarked that, despite the Highlanders' courage, it was 'no great mischief if they fall'. At Dunkirk in May 1940, the 51st Regiment was left to defend the SOE evacuation at St Valery; though following D-Day the Highlanders were at the forefront of the fighting through France. It is all history: over the last decade the historic regiments have been dismantled, despite widespread protest. Praise for The Mafia at War: An engrossing history that reads like a thriller. 'The Godfather' meets 'Band of Brothers'. Andrew Roberts An engrossing account that has the read-on factor of the finest thriller. James Holland Newark tells an extraordinary tale with pace and conviction, and impressively unravels what really happened from the pervasive myths. History Today