As part of my Amazon order, with vouchers I received for christmas, I bought "The Completat Rifleman Harris" (sic). I have recently finished this book, and I must say I liked it. I was aware before starting this was not going to be some Cornwell-esque romp through the Napoleonic era, but much more of a day to day story of the wars from a soldiers point of view. As such, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the tone of the book was much more of a conversational style, not as dry as I thought it might be, and the language not so dated as in, for example, Robert Roger's diary.
The anecdotes related within, whilst not all derring-do, were still interesting, and very informative. I for one knew nothing about the weird unknown disease that knocked out the whole of the rifles that were deployed as part of the Walcheren Expedition (not that I claim to be anything like a napoleonic scholar), but it does give a real insight into the problems the soldier of the time faced, apart from the enemies guns.
History from the soldiers point of view.(You can find a summary of the contents here. But really, if you don't already have it, just go buy it).
Order it from Amazon here.
Always thought about picking this up, but never got quite round to it, now on the wish list.
ReplyDeleteIt's a quick read, but worth it.
DeleteSounds like good advice.
ReplyDeleteAnd freely given too, what more could you ask? ;)
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