French Light Infantry 1784-1815


Book Description

From the partisans and legions of the mid-eighteenth century to the Napoleonic regiments, this title is a comprehensive study of French light infantry between 1788-1815. It covers the formal chasseur battalions and regiments and the light companies of scouts and voltigeurs in Napoleon's armies. It details the separate roles of the chasseurs and car




Incomparable


Book Description

An elite battalion under Louis XVI, the 9th Light Infantry regiment were with Napoleon from almost the beginning, turning the field at Marengo and breaking the Austrians. They then spent over a decade fighting their way across the continent, following Napoleon to the bitter end. Bringing their Eagle out of hiding when Napoleon returned from exile in 1815 they almost saved the day again, at Waterloo, spearheading a charge to rejoin Napoleon. But unlike at Marengo, they failed. Napoleon dubbed them 'Incomparable', and their story is extraordinary even by the standards of the dramatic and turbulent years in which they lived.




The Great Waterloo Controversy


Book Description

As the Battle of Waterloo reached its momentous climax, Napoleon’s Imperial Guard marched towards the Duke of Wellington’s thinning red line. The Imperial Guard had never tasted defeat and nothing, it seemed, could stop it smashing through the British ranks. But it was the Imperial Guard that was sent reeling back in disorder, its columns ravaged by the steady volleys of the British infantry. The credit for defeating the Imperial Guard went to the 1st Foot Guards, which was consequently honored for its actions by being renamed the Grenadier Guards. The story did not stop there, however, as the 52nd Foot also contributed to the defeat of the Imperial Guard yet received no comparable recognition. The controversy of which corps deserved the credit for defeating the Imperial Guard has continued down the decades and has rightly become a highly contentious subject over which much ink has been spilled. But now, thanks to the uncovering of the previously unpublished journal of Charles Holman of the 52nd Foot, Gareth Glover is able to piece together the exact sequence of events in those final, fatal moments of the great battle. Along with numerous other firsthand accounts, Gareth Glover has been able to understand the most likely sequence of events, the reaction to these events immediately after the battle and how it was seen within the army in the days after the victory. Who did Wellington honor at the time? How did the Foot Guards gain much of the credit in London? Was there an establishment cover-up? Were the 52nd robbed of their glory? Do the recent much-publicized arguments stand up to impartial scrutiny? The Great Waterloo Controversy is the definitive answer to these questions and will finally end this centuries-old conundrum.




'Their Infantry and Guns Will Astonish You'


Book Description

The book details the rise and fall of the Army of Hindustan. Containing detailed organizational tables and pay scales. Campaign and battles narratives. Details of the European soldiers of fortune who raised and led these 'Trained Brigades' in the service of the House of Scindia and the Maratha Confederacy.




History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery Vol II (1784-1815)


Book Description

This two-volume history of the Royal Artillery is one of the earliest published on that subject, and covers the period from its formation in 1716 to Waterloo, a hundred years of history. This volume takes the history of the Regiment to Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon, and in connection with performance of the Artillery in that battle the author devotes an Appendix to a letter from Wellington to Lord Mulgrave, then Master-General of the Ordnance, in which he wrote: "To tell you the truth, I was not very well pleased with the Artillery in the Battle of Waterloo" and when the French cavalry charged "they ran off the field entirely, taking with them limbers, ammunition and everything." Major Duncan angrily refutes, in detail, the accuracy of such a statement, based as it was on false reports, implying the Iron Duke was talking through his cocked hat. This makes a lively conclusion to a most entertaining account of a further thirty-two years in the history of the Gunners. Operations described include the ill-fated expedition against the French in Flanders, led by the Duke of York, but the main focus is on the Napoleonic Wars - the campaign in S America, the Walcheren campaign, a malaria-infested island where battle casualties amounted to a little over 200 while thousands died of sickness, and the Peninsular War culminating in the Battle of Waterloo. Descriptions include detailed order of battle of artillery units involved with strengths and names of all the officers in each unit. But just as impressive is the wealth of information on the continuing development of the Regiment, beginning with the raising of the Royal Horse Artillery in January 1793. We read all about equipment, dress, pay, in fact there is a statement of the Artillery Forces of Great Britain in the year 1810, according to the establishment laid down in the King's Warrant, listing every unit, with numbers in each rank and daily pay of each rank. To finish, the author provides a tabular statement showing date of formation and former designation of every battery now (1879) in the Service. There is a good index. These two volumes, telling the story of the first hundred years of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, are an invaluable source of information and essential reading for any historian, student or enthusiast.




The British Invasion of Delaware, Aug-Sep 1777


Book Description

During the American War for Independence in Augustand September, 1777, the British invaded Delaware aspart of an end-run campaign to defeat GeorgeWashington and the Americans and capture the capitalat Philadelphia. For a few short weeks the hills andstreams in and around Newark and Iron Hill and at Cooch's Bridge along the Christina River were the focus of worldhistory as the British marched through the Diamond State between the Chesapeake Bay and Brandywine Creek.This is the story of the British invasion of Delaware,one of the lesser known but critical watershedmoments in American history.




Napoleonic Uniforms


Book Description

In 1993 The Macmillan Publishing Company set the Napoleonic enthusiast community alight when it produced the major two volume work, Napoleonic Uniforms by John R. Elting, featuring the superb works of the famous illustrator Herbert Knötel. Now, in an unprecedented transatlantic co-operation, Greenhill Books in London and Casemate Publishing in the USA are together bringing these books back into print after some 14 years. This new edition, as before, is sold as a two volume set. In addition, the new edition is presented in a cloth bound slipcase. Pagination and an index have been added, significantly enhancing its reference value. Napoleonic Uniforms is the only reference work of its kind to depict accurately the entire Grande Armée in detail. It portrays the French armies as seen by their contemporaries, and combines authoritative text with lavish illustrations, enabling the reader to experience the spectacle first hand. Napoleonic Uniforms also depicts the various types of soldiers within the various regiments of the Grande Armée - officers, sergeants, color-bearers, bandsmen, drummers and trumpeters, privates and surgeons. In addition the volumes contain material on lesser-known formations such as the Army of Egypt (1798 - 1801), the pre-Revolutionary French Army, and Napoleon's police and internal security organizations. Nine hundred and eighteen original watercolors by Herbert Knötel, an internationally acclaimed authority on military uniforms, with a special talent for depicting men and horses in action, bring the nineteenth-century French soldier to life. Together with the late Colonel John R. Elting's definitive captions, they preserve a significant aspect of this famous era for historians, researchers, teachers, students, model makers, "uniformologists", and the general reader interested in this historical period.




King George's Army - British Regiments and the Men Who Led Them 1793-1815


Book Description

King George’s Army: British Regiments and the Men who Led Them 1793–1815 will contain five volumes, with coverage given to cavalry regiments (Volume 1), infantry regiments (Volumes 2–4), and Ordnance and other regiments (Volume 5). It is the natural extension to the web series of the same name by the same author which existed one Napoleon Series from 2009 until 2019, but greatly expanded to include substantially more biographical information including biographies of leading political gures concerned with the administration of the army as well as commanders in chief of all major commands. Volume 1 covers in great detail the cavalry regiments that comprised the army of King George III for the period of the Great War with France, and the men who commanded them. Regimental data provided includes shortform regimental lineages, service locations and dispositions for the era, battle honors won, tables of authorized establishments, demographics of the field officer cohorts and of the men. But the book is essentially concerned with the field officers, the lieutenant colonels and majors who commanded the regiments, and Volume 1 alone contains over 1,000 mini-biographies of men who commanded the regiments, including their dates of birth and death, parentage, education, career (including political), awards and honors, and places of residence. Volumes 2 to 5 will extend the coverage to ultimately record over 4,500 biographies across more than 200 regiments. These biographies will show the regimental system in action, officers routinely transferring between regiments for advancement or opportunity, captains who were also (brevet) colonels, many who retired early, some who stayed the distance to become major generals and beyond. Where it has been possible to accurately ascertain, advancement by purchase, exchange or promotion has also been noted. Readers with military ancestors will no doubt find much of interest within, and the author hopes that the work will allow readers to break down a few ‘brick walls’; either through connecting to the officers recorded, or through an understanding of the movements of the regiments around the world, or from the volunteering patterns of the militia regiments into the regular army. Encyclopedic in scope, and aimed to be a lasting source of reference material for the British army that fought the French Revolution and Napoleon between 1793 and 1815, King George’s Army: British Regiments and the Men who Led Them will be a necessary addition to every military and family history library for years to come.




Austrian Cavalry of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792-1815


Book Description

The Austrian cavalry that fought against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France, from original sources, including unpublished iconography and detailed illustrations depicting uniforms and equipment.




Like a Brazen Wall


Book Description

Providing both the strategic context and tactical detail of the Battle of Minden, Like a Brazen Wallgives a fresh and more balanced perspective.