"Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade" by William Surtees is a captivating memoir that chronicles the author's extensive military career. Surtees, a soldier in the Rifle Brigade, provides a vivid account of his experiences, detailing the challenges and triumphs faced during his service. The narrative is rich with personal anecdotes, offering readers a glimpse into the life of a soldier in the 19th century. Surtees' reflections on camaraderie, bravery, and the harsh realities of war creat...

Napoleonic Wars in History & Memories assembles a richly variegated archive of conflict, empire, and remembrance. Military analysis, campaign narrative, memoir, biography, political history, and literary re-creation illuminate the wars from the councils of power to the privations of the marching soldier. Accounts of Austerlitz, the Peninsular conflict, the Russian campaign, Waterloo, and exile coexist with reflections on strategy, leadership, national identity, and the human costs of conti...

The Bloody Reign of Napoleon assembles a capacious archive of Napoleonic war, empire, and memory, juxtaposing military analysis, diplomatic chronicle, memoir, biography, and battlefield testimony. Its range extends from strategic reflections on campaigns and command to intimate accounts of marching, privation, captivity, and the human cost of imperial ambition. Major episodes—including the Peninsular conflict, the Russian campaign, and Waterloo—emerge not as settled legends but as conteste...

The Rise and Fall of Napoleon assembles a capacious documentary and literary portrait of the Napoleonic age, tracing the transformation of revolutionary general into imperial ruler and defeated exile. Military analysis, memoir, biography, eyewitness recollection, political history, and romance-inflected narrative coexist here, illuminating battlefield strategy alongside courtly ceremony, private ambition, and the human costs of continental war. Vivid campaign narratives and reflections on ...

Napoleon vs. Great Britain – History of the Conflict assembles a capacious record of the Napoleonic era, tracing the struggle between imperial ambition and British military, naval, and political resistance. Its materials range from campaign narrative and eyewitness recollection to retrospective history, memoir, and literary reflection. Accounts of the Peninsular campaigns, battlefield endurance, command, and the wider European crisis give the volume both documentary immediacy and interpret...

A thoughtful account from the ranks of the Rifle Brigade, by a former enlisted man who raised himself to the rank of quarter-master and served throughout the Peninsular War and the expedition to America which met with a disastrous end at New Orleans. Surtees' account of his service with the famed 95th rifles is littered with vivid descriptions of the battles and actions that he was engaged including, the battles of Barossa (perhaps the best first-hand account of the battle in which the Bri...