Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. Richard Holmes

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      Redcoat

      The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket

      Richard Holmes

       Copyright

      HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

      www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers2001

      Copyright © Richard Holmes 2001

      Richard Holmes asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      Maps by John Gilkes

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780006531524

      Ebook Edition © 2011 ISBN: 9780007374052

      Version 2016-08-11

      ‘Until yesterday I had not seen any British infantry under arms since the troops from America arrived, and, in the meantime, have constantly seen corps of foreign infantry. These are all uncommonly well dressed in new clothes, smartly made, setting the men off to great advantage – add to which the coiffure of high broad-topped shakos, or enormous caps of bearskin. Our infantry – indeed, our whole army – appeared at the review in the same clothes in which they had marched, slept and fought for months. The colour had faded to a dusky brick-red hue; their coats, originally not very smartly made, had acquired by constant wearing that loose easy set so characteristic of old clothes, comfortable to the wearer, but not calculated to add grace to his appearance. Pour surcroit de laideur, their cap is perhaps the meanest, ugliest thing invented. From all these causes it arose that our infantry appeared to the utmost disadvantage – dirty, shabby, mean, and very small. Some such impression was, I fear, made on the Sovereigns, for…they remarked to the Duke what very small men the English were. “Ay,” replied our noble chief “they are small; but your Majesties will find none who fight so well”.’

      Captain Cavalié Mercer, Royal Horse Artillery, describing a review of the British army by the Allied sovereigns.

      Paris 1815

      Table of Contents

       Cover Page

       Title Page

       Epigragh

       III BROTHERS OF THE BLADE

       SCUM OF THE EARTH

       EPAULETTE GENTRY

       IV HORSE, FOOT, GUNS – AND WOUNDS

       MARCHING REGIMENTS

       GALLOPING AT EVERYTHING

       THE NIMBLE GUNNER

       CURRENCY OF WAR

       V HOME FIRES

       MORE LIKE PRISONS

       DAUGHTERS OF THE REGIMENT

       CARROT AND STICK

       VI FOREIGN FIELDS

       CHAIN OF COMMAND

       THE TROOPER’S ON THE TIDE

      

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