Edward Costello enlisted into his local militia regiment in Ireland in 1806, and transferred, not without having a few adventures in his native Ireland, to the 95th Rifles. Not quite well drilled enough to join in Sir John Moore’s 1808-1809 campaign, he narrates some stories of his comrades who did, including Tom Plunket, famous for shooting the French General Colbert. His service in the Peninsular campaign, started almost immediately with the epic forced march to Talavera under General “Black Bob” Crauford, a fierce discipliarian, but liked by his men as Costello points out. Numerous skirmishes, affairs of outposts and combats punctuate Costello’s narrative, along with amusing asides of his comrades and their japes, drinking and occasionally their punishment by the lash. Present at the battles of Fuentes d’Oñoro, El Bodon, Salamanca, Vittoria, Nivelle and the storming of Cuidad Roderigo and bloody Badajoz, he captures the mood of the men and the hellish atmosphere of a battle, and the sorrow of lost friends. After a brief break in his active service Costello once more engages during the Waterloo campaign, and is heavily engaged at Waterloo and Quatre Bras. After the fall of Napoleon Costello’s career turns to the British Legion , which is no sinecure despite his elevation to Lieutenant as he is posted to join the expedition to Spain and sees the vicious civil war at first hand, with scenes that remind him of the savagery of his experiences between the Guerillas and the French many years before. A gem in the sparkling vein of memoirs written by the men and officers of the famed Rifle brigade during their adventures in the Peninsular war. Costello writes with a verve and wit, and some idiosyncratic spelling, often only found in the works of the officers of his regiment such as Kincaid. A justly acclaimed classic.

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, lives on in popular memory as the "Invincible General," loved by his men, admired by his peers, formidable to his opponents. This incisive book revises such a portrait, offering an accurate--and controversial--new analysis of Wellington's remarkable military career. Unlike his nemesis Napoleon, Wellington was by no means a man of innate military talent, Huw J. Davies argues. Instead, the key to Wellington's military success was an exceptionally keen understanding of the relationship between politics and war.Drawing on extensive primary research, Davies discusses Wellington's military apprenticeship in India, where he learned through mistakes as well as successes how to plan campaigns, organize and use intelligence, and negotiate with allies. In India Wellington encountered the constant political machinations of indigenous powers, and it was there that he apprenticed in the crucial skill of balancing conflicting political priorities. In later campaigns and battles, including the Peninsular War and Waterloo, Wellington's genius for strategy, operations, and tactics emerged. For his success in the art of war, he came to rely on his art as a politician and tactician. This strikingly original book shows how Wellington made even unlikely victories possible--with a well-honed political brilliance that underpinned all of his military achievements.

This study demonstrates the emergence and development of the identity of the ‘military medical officer’ and places their work within the broader context of changes to British medicine during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Many books have been written about the British struggle against Napoleon in the Peninsula. A few recent studies have given a broader view of the ebb and flow of a long war that had a shattering impact on Spain and Portugal and marked the history of all the nations involved. But none of these books has concentrated on how these momentous events were perceived and understood by the people who experienced them. Charles Esdaile has brought together a vivid selection of contemporary accounts of every aspect of the war to create a panoramic yet minutely detailed picture of those years of turmoil. The story is told through memoirs, letters and eyewitness testimony from all sides. Instead of generals and statesmen, we mostly hear from less-well-known figures - junior officers and ordinary soldiers and civilians who recorded their immediate experience of the conflict.

Britain has historically been seen as an upholder of international norms, at least in its relations with western powers. This has often been contrasted with the violence perpetrated in colonial contexts on other continents. What is often missed, however, is the extent to which the state with its capital in London—first England, then Great Britain—inflicted extreme violence on its European neighbours, even when still using the rhetoric of neighbourliness and friendship. This book comprises eleven case-studies of Anglo-British strategic violence, from the siege of Harfleur in 1415 to the fire-bombing of Hamburg in 1943. Chapters examine actions that were top-down and directed, and perpetrated for specific geopolitical reasons—many of them at, or well beyond, the bounds of what was sanctioned by prevailing international norms at the time. The contributors look at how these actions were conceived, executed and perceived by the English/British public, by the international legal community of the time, and by the victims. This history of English violence in Europe complicates not only easy notions of England/Britain as a champion of the ‘standards of civilisation’ or of the ‘liberal international order’, but also of the supposed distinction between ‘European’ and ‘extra-European’ warfare.