Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and MusketRedcoat is the story of the British soldier--those noncommissioned men whom Kipling called "the backbone of the army"--from roughly 1760 to 1860. Based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them, this book is rich in the history of a fascinating era. Among the highlights are Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul, the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny. The focus of Redcoat, however, is on the individual recollections and experiences of the ordinary soldiers in the wars of Georgian and early Victorian England. Through their stories and anecdotes--of uniforms, equipment, floggings, wounds, food, barrack life, courage, comradeship, death, love, and loss--Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of an extraordinarily successful fighting force. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - euang - LibraryThingA sociology of the British soldier 1700-1860: Professor Holmes has written a thematic sociological history of the British redcoated soldier in the age of the Brown Bess musket, i.e from the time of ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - jamespurcell - LibraryThingExcellent reference work with a good bibliography and table of contents. Read full review
Contents
3 | |
13 | |
21 | |
32 | |
47 | |
ALL THE KINGS HORSES AND ALL THE KINGS MEN | 77 |
SWORD AND STATE | 79 |
LINE OF BATTLE | 88 |
MORE LIKE PRISONS | 263 |
DAUGHTERS OF THE REGIMENT | 290 |
CARROT AND STICK | 305 |
FOREIGN FIELDS | 325 |
CHAIN OF COMMAND | 327 |
THE TROOPERS ON THE TIDE | 343 |
THE PAINFUL FIELD | 355 |
THE IMMINENT DEADLY BREACH | 376 |
BROTHERS OF THE BLADE | 133 |
SCUM OF THE EARTH | 135 |
EPAULETTE GENTRY | 157 |
HORSE FOOT GUNS AND WOUNDS | 181 |
MARCHING REGIMENTS | 183 |
GALLOPING AT EVERYTHING | 223 |
THE NIMBLE GUNNER | 239 |
CURRENCY OF WAR | 247 |
HOME FIRES | 261 |
CAPTAINS IN OPEN FIELD | 390 |
EPILOGUE | 409 |
WORTHY OF REMEMBRANCE | 411 |
REFERENCES | 421 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 435 |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS | 444 |
INDEX | 445 |
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Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket Richard Holmes No preview available - 2002 |
Common terms and phrases
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