You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The contributors shed fresh light on the life, character and achievements of the man who is arguably the best known figure in British history--the Duke of Wellington. They reflect the new wave of Wellington studies which has resulted from the opening of the massive Wellington archive at Southampton University. Their essays provide a thematic and chronological sequence illustrating the Duke's many-faceted career, from early life to his later years, when he was the most celebrated figure in public life. Distributed by St. Martin's. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
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 ma...
Deacon awoke only to find himself in a familiar room and bed. There was an envelope lying beside him on the pillow. Written on the outside was open me. He opens it and a ring falls out into his hand. He knew right away that it was Davids. Deacon just snickered and pulled out the letter that was inside Nice trick David. I believe Ive been down this road before? Deacon said out loud before reading it. He wasnt prepared for what he was about to read
'The author has done a quite outstanding job of editing and footnoting this rare memoir . . . this will be of genuine interest to the Peninsular War historian or enthusiast.' Philip Haythornthwaite John Vandeleur's letters home to his mother are a lively and engaging account of active service during the Napoleonic Wars, recounting everything from day-to-day life on campaign to the experience of pitched battle at Vitoria and Waterloo. As first a light infantryman and then a light cavalryman, Vandeleur was frequently on the outposts of Wellington's forces, in frequent contact with the French and often obliged to live a rough-and-ready lifestyle as a result. The conditions that he endured, and the camaraderie that sustained him, are vividly recounted in this fascinating collection – previously only available in an extremely rare private publication over a century ago. Expertly edited and enhanced with contemporary documents and commentary by Andrew Bamford, this is an outstanding contribution to our understanding of the Peninsular War and Waterloo campaign.
The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’s own words—“scum of the earth”—and assumed to have been society’s ne’er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke’s derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain’s industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain These men depended ...
Sir Arthur Wellesley's 1808–1814 campaigns against Napoleon's forces in the Iberian Peninsula have drawn the attention of scholars and soldiers for two centuries. Yet, until now, no study has focused on the problems that Wellesley, later known as the Duke of Wellington, encountered on the home front before his eventual triumph beyond the Pyrenees. In Wellington's Two-Front War, Joshua Moon not only surveys Wellington's command of British forces against the French but also describes the battles Wellington fought in England—with an archaic military command structure, bureaucracy, and fickle public opinion. In this detailed and accessible account, Moon traces Wellington's command of British...
None