Walcheren 1809
Title | Walcheren 1809 PDF eBook |
Author | Martin R. Howard |
Publisher | Pen and Sword |
Pages | 452 |
Release | 2012-10-24 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 1783033339 |
In July 1809, with the Dutch coast a pistol held at the head of England, the largest British expeditionary force ever assembled, over 40,000 men and around 600 ships, weighed anchor off the Kent coast and sailed for the island of Walcheren in the Scheldt estuary. After an initial success, the expedition stalled and as the lethargic military commander, Lord Chatham, was at loggerheads with the opinionated senior naval commander, Sir Richard Strachan, troops were dying of a mysterious disease termed Walcheren fever. Almost all the campaigns 4,000 dead were victims of disease. The Scheldt was evacuated and the return home was followed by a scandalous Parliamentary Inquiry. Walcheren fever cast an even longer shadow. Six months later 11,000 men were still registered sick. In 1812, Wellington complained that the constitution of his troops was much shaken with Walcheren.
The Walcheren Expedition of 1809
Title | The Walcheren Expedition of 1809 PDF eBook |
Author | Reginald Cecil GWILLIAM |
Publisher | |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 1949 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
The Walcheren Expedition of 1809
Title | The Walcheren Expedition of 1809 PDF eBook |
Author | Carl Andrew Christie |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 1975 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
A Journal of the Walcheren Expedition 1809
Title | A Journal of the Walcheren Expedition 1809 PDF eBook |
Author | D. Yarrow |
Publisher | |
Pages | |
Release | 19?? |
Genre | |
ISBN |
The Late Lord
Title | The Late Lord PDF eBook |
Author | Jacqueline Reiter |
Publisher | Pen and Sword History |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2017 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 9781473856950 |
John Pitt, 2nd Earl of Chatham is one of the most enigmatic and overlooked figures of early nineteenth century British history. The elder brother of Pitt the Younger, he has long been consigned to history as 'the late Lord Chatham', the lazy commander-in-chief of the 1809 Walcheren expedition, whose inactivity and incompetence turned what should have been an easy victory into a disaster. Chatham's poor reputation obscures a fascinating and complex man. During a twenty-year career at the heart of government, he served in several important cabinet posts such as First Lord of the Admiralty and Master-General of the Ordnance. Yet despite his closeness to the Prime Minister and friendship with the Royal Family, political rivalries and private tragedy hampered his ascendance. Paradoxically for a man of widely admired diplomatic skills, his downfall owed as much to his personal insecurities and penchant for making enemies as it did to military failure. Using a variety of manuscript sources to tease Chatham from the records, this biography peels away the myths and places him for the first time in proper familial, political, and military context. It breathes life into a much-maligned member of one of Britain's greatest political dynasties, revealing a deeply flawed man trapped in the shadow of his illustrious relatives.
The Walcheren Expedition of 1809 and Its Results
Title | The Walcheren Expedition of 1809 and Its Results PDF eBook |
Author | Valerie Patricia Fournier |
Publisher | |
Pages | 230 |
Release | 1969 |
Genre | |
ISBN |
The Walcheren Expedition
Title | The Walcheren Expedition PDF eBook |
Author | Anonymous |
Publisher | |
Pages | 156 |
Release | 2009-03-01 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9781846776359 |
A little covered Napoleonic campaign The Walcheren Expedition often appears in military memoirs of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, though rarely in much detail. The impression that the reader gains is that it was a campaign of appalling conditions producing crippling and debilitating illness that swept away many and left survivors so broken in health that they were unfit for immediate military service and indeed were frequently invalided for life. Here then is a rare account in the form of letters by a serving British infantry line officer of that campaign. This was a war of stalemate where British and French soldiers struggled with each other and the putrid miasmas that rose from the stagnant swamps of this worst of battlegrounds. For students of the Napoleonic Wars this book will provide important insight into a disastrous sideshow.