The British archives of the Napoleonic wars are unique, brimming with
personal letters to family and friends or journals that record their
innermost thoughts. The human aspect of war comes to the fore, the humor
and exhilaration; the fears and miseries; the starvation and exhaustion;
the horror and the joy.
It is usually accepted that very few common soldiers of this period
could read or write and that the few letters and journals that do exist
emanate from more senior officers, who were required to be able to write
to perform their duties. Volume I proved this to be a fallacy, and this
volume continues with a further three accounts, and shows how the
ordinary soldier saw things, giving a different aspect to our studies.
Also included:
* The poignant final letters of older family men such as Major Arthur
Heyland, jar noticeably with the bawdy and carefree scribbles of youth
by such as Ensign Kinchant (including describing his visits to
bordellos) who also lost his life that day.
* A long series of letters by Lieutenant Frederick Johnston of the 6th
Inniskillings and of Lieutenant George Blathwayt of the 23rd Light
dragoons sheds important light on cavalry regiments who have few
previously published memoirs.
* A very interesting letter by Second Lieutenant Richard Cocks Eyre of
the 2nd Battalion 95th Rifles makes a mockery of the myth that British
troops did not openly plunder the local farmhouses before the battle for
food and fuel to burn.
*A letter by a civilian visitor to the area six weeks after the battle
ends this volume, which will engage and fascinate the reader.
