Wellington and his remarkable 'old Peninsular Army' The excellence of Sir Charles Oman's scholarship as an historian is well established. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects and historical periods in an erudite but succinct and easy to read style and his comprehensive multi-volume history of the Peninsular War is widely regarded as the most significant work on the subject since the publication of Napier's history. This book is equally well known and well regarded. Within its pages Oman describes in some detail the British Army that fought the First Empire of the French in Spain, Portugal and the South of France. This story would be incomplete without that army's commander, and Wellington's performance and methodology is closely described, together with those of his most significant lieutenants. Each constituent part of the army is considered from structure to equipage and operations in relationship to the French forces which opposed them. Oman's examination of the British Army of the early nineteenth century is now regarded as a classic. This Leonaur edition is unique since it includes 40 illustrations and maps which did not appear in the original edition of the book. Oman devoted two chapters to his bibliographical sources and though they remain in this edition, since their content is fascinating and invaluable, they have been moved from the beginning to the end of the book in the interest of accessibility to the principal subject of the work. Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

At the beginning of the Napoleonic period, the British Army's record left something to be desired. During the Peninsular War (1808-1814), however, Wellington led and trained an army that never knew a major defeat on the field. Even Wellington himself described his army as "able to go anywhere or do anything." This book examines the formidable British Army which played an integral part in stalling Napoleon's advance, focusing on the staff, infantry, cavalry, artillery and sieges and sappers. Numerous illustrations, including eight color plates, vividly depict the weaponry and uniforms of Wellington's Peninsular Army.

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 on the king’s shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army. Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon’s battle-hardened troops. The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington’s rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King’s Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.

Charles Hamilton Smith's illustrations of soldiers of the British Army are a faithful and delightful record of how Wellington's troops were uniformed and equipped. Wellington's Army presents a collection of these sought after plates in a special, large format and provides a superb evocation of British military uniforms during the closing years of the Peninsular War and at the epic battle of Waterloo. The plates, drawn from life and completed in 1814, cover all the branches of service including line infantry; light infantry and rifles; heavy and light cavalry; general officers; foreign troops; artillery and engineers; and cadets and veterans. Each plate is accompanied by an incisive text by the leading expert on Wellington's troops - Philip Haythornthwaite - which discusses the unit in question, the uniform and its significant features. Wellington's Army also includes an extensive introduction analyzing the evolution of the British Army of the period and examining the colorful life of Charles Hamilton Smith.

In this compelling book, Richard Holmes tells the exhilarating story of the Duke of Wellington, Britain's greatest ever soldier.

This highly detailed study provides a clear account of how the British Army was organised, who commanded it, and how it functioned in the field during the Peninsular War. Focusing principally on infantry, cavalry and artillery, including foreign units in British pay, it provides a detailed and comprehensive order of battle. Doctrine, training, tactics and equipment are discussed in depth, and medical services and engineers are also covered. Concise biographical details of key commanders, over 60 unit tree diagrams, organisational tables, plus numerous illustrations make this an essential reference work for students of this period.

“An excellent account of the contribution of the newly formed (and short-lived) United Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Allied victory” (HistoryOfWar.org). The Dutch-Belgians have been variously described as inexperienced, incompetent, and cowardly, a rogue element in the otherwise disciplined Allied Army. It is only now being tentatively acknowledged that they alone saved Wellington from disaster at Quatre Bras. He had committed a strategic error in that, as Napoleon advanced, his own troops were scattered over a hundred kilometers of southern Belgium. Outnumbered three to one, the Netherlanders gave him time to concentrate his forces and save Brussels from French occupation. At Waterloo itself, on at least three occasions when the fate of the battle “hung upon the cusp,” their engagement with the enemy aided British recovery. Their commander—the Prince of Orange—has been viciously described as an arrogant fool, “a disaster waiting to happen,” and even a dangerous lunatic. According to the assessment of Wellington himself, he was a reliable and courageous subordinate. This book reveals a new dimension of the famous campaign and includes many unseen illustrations. For the first time, a full assessment is made of the challenge which Willem I faced as king of a country hastily cobbled together by the Congress of Vienna, and of his achievement in assembling, equipping, and training 30,000 men from scratch in eighteen months. “An extraordinary and impressively researched, written, organized and presented history that sheds considerable new light on one of the most influential battles of 19th century Europe.” —Midwest Book Review “A fascinating read.” —Military Heritage

Wellington's Headquarters is an essential introduction to the administration of the British army in the early nineteenth century. It offers a fascinating insight into the structure and operation of the Duke of Wellington's command during the Peninsular War. S.G.P. Ward's classic study, first published over sixty years ago, describes the complicated tangle of departments that administered the army, departments which had grown up haphazard and survived virtually unchanged until the time of the Crimean War. Wellington adapted the existing system in order to turn it into an efficient instrument in the war against Napoleon, despite clashes of responsibility and personality that frustrated him and impaired the army's performance on campaign. Chapters cover peacetime and wartime administration, the relationships of the staff officers, the supply and maintenance of the army in the Peninsula, the gathering and interpretation of intelligence, the organization of the army on the march and the sometimes tense relations between Wellington and his subordinates. The study raises the quartermaster general's department to its proper position, and discusses Wellington's attitude to the 'chief of staff' system which was then favored on the continent. The result of this lucid and absorbing survey is an enhanced understanding of the system that had evolved to administer the British army two hundred years ago.

The Chasseurs Britanniques Regiment was formed around a core of Frenchmen who had gone into exile for their king, and who, with their comrades, went on to serve Britain in Egypt and the Mediterranean, before joining Wellington's army in the Peninsula to fight in many of the momentous battles of the war. The first comprehensive history of this unique Regiment of the British Army. A story that begins with an account of the struggles endured by the Army of Conde. Eyewitness accounts are used to describe life and actions with the Chasseurs Britanniques. The deployments and movements of the Regiment are put into strategic and political context. Appendices provide biographical and service details for officers and men of the Regiment. Accepted views of the Regiment are challenged to provide a balanced view of its service.