Redcoats
The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket
Richard Holmes
Having read it
★★★★☆
A good and interesting read that has a bit of verve to its telling and plenty of well-researched facts to bolster the historical views.
A good passage
That it was an army born of paradox, forged in adversity, often betrayed by the government it obeyed and usually poorly understood by the nation it served, is beyond question. It drank far too much and looted a little too often, and its disciplinary code threw a long and ugly shadow onto the early twentieth century.
A second good passage
Morris noticed that Corporal Shaw of the Life Guards – who became one of the heroes of the battle, hewing down nine French cavalrymen – was drinking gin at midday, and he may well have been totally drunk when he was eventually killed. John Pearman’s comrade Jack Marshall ‘had been drinking for several days before the battle of Aliwal, and when the fighting was almost over rode off to attack a mounted Sikh.
A third good passage
‘Won’t Colonel Lygon accept it?’ asked Wellington. ‘Well then, give it to Colonel Somebody-else, who will.’182