Books in the From Reason to Revolution series

A gripping memoir of a Swedish soldier's journey through the Napoleonic Wars, offering vivid tales of camaraderie, battles, and historic events.A Swedish Soldier in the Napoleonic Wars is an important and rare memoir by a low-ranking officer. It contains lively anecdotes and stories of soldiers, commanders, and life on campaign from 1808 to 1814 in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and North Germany. Available for the first time in English, it provides a new perspective of little-known actions, small by the standards of continental Europe, but vital to our understanding of Sweden's part in the war.In 1808, at the age of 18 and whilst a student at Linköping High School, Carl Magnus Hultin enlisted as a junior officer in the militia, answering the call-to-arms in the nation's efforts to stem the Russian tide before Finland was lost. He then transferred to the regular army as an ensign in the Jönköping Regiment. He took part in the ill-fated Västerbotten expedition against the Russians on Swedish soil in 1809 and witnessed the 1809 coup d'etat to remove the unpopular King Gustav IV Adolf. Following the 'phoney' war with Britain 1811-1812, he served in Mecklenberg, Holstein and Belgium against France and Denmark in the 1813-1814 campaign under Napoleon's former Maréchal Bernadotte, who had been elected as Sweden's Crown Prince. Finally, he participated in the 1814 Norwegian campaign that saw the Union of Norway and Sweden, which lasted until 1905. He remained in the army after the war, retiring as a captain in 1842.Very late in life, he was persuaded to set down his memoirs, which were published in 1872. Two separate editions of the book were reprinted in Sweden in 1954 and 1955 with minimal editing after the expiry of the copyright 70 years after the author's death. The editor's preface to the 1954 edition noted, 'The present volume is ... unique to the extent that it may constitute the only document of literary value from our history of war', whilst the 1955 editor noted 'the account ... was greatly acclaimed' and that Hultin's friends were 'much entertained by his lively, sometimes rather burlesque tales about military life both on and off campaign.'This translation, by a descendent of Captain Hultin, includes extensive explanatory notes together with maps and illustrations to support the narrative.

This book details the campaigns of Louis-Gabriel Suchet in the Peninsular War. The only one of Napoleon's marshals to earn his baton in Spain, Suchet conquered Aragon, Lower Catalonia, and Valencia in a string of brilliant sieges and battles against both Spanish regular and guerrilla forces.

Studies of the campaigns of the 1775-1783 American War for Independence often suffer from a lack of understanding of the operational aspects of the armies involved. This collection of essays looks at many facets of military operations in America, showing how the armies (British, French, Spanish, German auxiliaries, and the nascent Continental Army) involved adapted their recruitment, training, tactics, and logistics to the specific challenges of this war. The European forces adapted - much more readily than they are given credit for - to the needs of this particular conflict. The British Army adopted a doctrine of open-order light infantry tactics and raised large numbers of Loyalist troops in the theater of war. The British government obtained the assistance of regiments from several German states, established military organizations that relied heavily on specialized skirmishing troops - jäger - and chasseur companies composed of picked men after the fashion of the British light infantry. The French government sent an expeditionary force from its regular army, while Spain largely employed colonial troops from its North American holdings; each of these armies faced significant logistical challenges while mounting major campaigns. Not least, of course, the American colonies rose to the monumental task of recruiting, training, and supplying an army created specifically for the conflict.This collection of essays examines various aspects of the problems faced by each of these forces, and the solutions that they achieved - British training of regulars and raising of Loyalist militia, German adaptation of tactics, French and Spanish logistics and campaigning, and American recruiting and conscription. The authors featured have distinguished themselves by their use of primary sources to re-examine aspects of the period's armies long obscured by assumptions or inaccurate generalizations. Throughout their writings conventional wisdom is challenged, and established assumptions are dispelled by well-documented evidence, showing the real strengths and weaknesses of wide array of professional and part-time military organizations involved in this world-changing war.

Discover the gripping tale of the longest siege of the American Revolution, the Siege of Pensacola, as historian Joshua Provan intricately weaves together the military significance and sacrifices of this pivotal event in shaping the character of the United States.The Siege of Pensacola was the longest siege of the war in North America. It was the final act of Bernardo de Gálvez's remarkable Gulf Coast Campaign and stands out as a classic tale of warfare and sacrifice.In the final years of the American Revolution, the military situation was changing from a dogged stalemate to a crisis that the British or the Americans could turn to their advantage. France's entry as an active participant had highlighted the difficulties of the rebels' new alliance, not its strengths. The successful British defense of Savannah in 1779 drew British eyes southwards, and in 1780, Charleston fell, and Gates' southern army was crushed at Camden.It was a perilous moment for the rebellious colonies. British dominance in the south would give them a strong strategic position from which to prosecute the war. A ray of hope came from Spain, which had entered the war as a French ally in 1779. From then until 1780, British possessions from the Mississippi and along the Gulf of Mexico suddenly came under threat from the daredevil Governor of Louisiana, Don Bernardo de Galvez. By 1781, Pensacola was the last British-held post in West Florida.The British garrison in Pensacola was strong, and its commander, Major General John Campbell, was determined to defend his fort. If Gálvez's campaign was typical of those undertaken by the likes of Amherst and Montcalm more than 15 years before, then the siege itself was also a model of eighteenth-century grit, fieldcraft and chivalry.It was grim work, and both sides endured hardship and fatigue as the siege progressed. As Spanish reinforcements were slowly released from Havana, the British depended more and more on the assistance of loyalists and an auxiliary force of Creeks and Choctaws collected by their Indian Agents to oppose the Spaniards.The story of the siege of Pensacola and the Spanish and Spanish-American part in the Revolutionary War represents a different side to the struggle; far removed from Redcoats and Patriots, it is also a story of great drama, color and sacrifice that helped shape the character of the United States.Historian René Chartrand says that Joshua Provan is 'the first historian to really mix all the elements together and suggest the true military consequences of the siege on the War of American Independence. It has been mooted, but never this well demonstrated.

A reference work detailing the biographies of over 900 British field officers and 50 regiments, covering career histories, achievements in battle, lineage, recruitment sources, and more.King George's Army: British Regiments and the Men who Led Them 1793-1815 will contain five volumes, with coverage given to cavalry regiments (Volume 1), infantry regiments (Volumes 2-4), and Ordnance and other regiments (Volume 5). It is the natural extension to the web series of the same name by the same author which existed one Napoleon Series from 2009 until 2019, but greatly expanded to include substantially more biographical information including biographies of leading political gures concerned with the administration of the army as well as commanders in chief of all major commands.Volume 1 covers in great detail the cavalry regiments that comprised the army of King George III for the period of the Great War with France, and the men who commanded them. Regimental data provided includes shortform regimental lineages, service locations and dispositions for the era, battle honors won, tables of authorized establishments, demographics of the field officer cohorts and of the men. But the book is essentially concerned with the field officers, the lieutenant colonels and majors who commanded the regiments, and Volume 1 alone contains over 1,000 mini-biographies of men who commanded the regiments, including their dates of birth and death, parentage, education, career (including political), awards and honors, and places of residence. Volumes 2 to 5 will extend the coverage to ultimately record over 4,500 biographies across more than 200 regiments.These biographies will show the regimental system in action, officers routinely transferring between regiments for advancement or opportunity, captains who were also (brevet) colonels, many who retired early, some who stayed the distance to become major generals and beyond. Where it has been possible to accurately ascertain, advancement by purchase, exchange or promotion has also been noted.Readers with military ancestors will no doubt find much of interest within, and the author hopes that the work will allow readers to break down a few 'brick walls'; either through connecting to the officers recorded, or through an understanding of the movements of the regiments around the world, or from the volunteering patterns of the militia regiments into the regular army.Encyclopedic in scope, and aimed to be a lasting source of reference material for the British army that fought the French Revolution and Napoleon between 1793 and 1815, King George's Army: British Regiments and the Men who Led Them will be a necessary addition to every military and family history library for years to come.

Covers the full scope of the French East India Company's military prowess and colonial influence, from its global trade dominance to its strategic triumphs in India and Africa.From the early seventeenth century a multitude of French East or West India companies holding overseas trade monopolies and privileges were active in various parts of the world, especially in Africa and Asia. From 1719, they were united into a single vast Compagnie des Indes (Company of the Indies) known to the anglophone world as the French East India Company. In reality it was far more than that, for its trade privileges also covered Africa, other places in Asia from Arabia to China, and North America. Besides a multitude of usually modestly fortified trade lodges and factories, these companies were the actual government representing the Kingdom of France over substantial parts of Africa, India and the Indian Ocean islands as well as Louisiana in America from 1716 to 1731. The profits were expected to cover government operations. The companies had the power to make war where they operated, and thus, private-sector military conflicts often occurred. They, therefore, maintained their own private armies and navies that were totally independent from those of the King of France. These private troops were usually very modest until the formation of the Compagnie des Indes in 1719. Thereafter, as the French company expanded and became involved in the politics of the crumbling Mughal Empire in India, especially during the rule of the imperial visionary Dupleix, the fairly modest number of European soldiers was greatly expanded by enlisting many thousands of Indian soldiers who were given European training, weapons and sometimes uniforms. It was at the 1746 Battle of Aydar that Compagnie des Indes' French soldiers and sepoys utterly defeated a far larger Indian princely army so that dominance of a European nation in India was assured. After a hard fight, though, that nation would be Great Britain thanks to the good and effective support of its government compared to the French disinterest in overseas matters by the late 1750s. Pondicherry fell in 1761, as Senegal in Africa had three years earlier. The Compagnie des Indes, however, went on for another decade until it closed its books in 1770.The monopoly companies had quite a variety of troops posted in many places. The port of Lorient in France was, from the later seventeenth century, the European troops' depot and training center. Some served as marines on the company ships, others in a multitude of forts and trading lodges on three continents. Their recruitment and command are described. In India, their tactical role multiplied and led to the creation of units of gunners, horse grenadiers, dragoons, hussars, and grenadiers, all with very distinct uniforms. There were sepoy, topas and caffre units as well as auxiliary allied princely armies in India, and trained auxiliary soldiers in Africa. The few royal army soldiers sent to India in the late 1750s are also considered. All Indian, African and metropolitan army troops are covered and described in this fully illustrated study.

The only publicly available translation into English of Mikhailovsky-Danilevsky's official history of the Russian Forces involvement fighting against Napoleon and his allies in 1806-07, during the War of the Fourth Coalition.

Just three months after Napoleon had expelled the British from Spain in January 1809, a second expeditionary force, under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, set sail for Lisbon to re-establish a British presence on the Iberian Peninsula.

Scharnhorst: The Formative Years is the first comprehensive study of Gerhard Scharnhorst. It focuses on his service in Hanover, corrects the inaccuracies of previous German editions, and presents many unpublished discoveries.

This is the story of how, in 1808, the Royal Navy used its dominance in the Baltic to rescue the Spanish Army of the Marques de La Romana.

This book provides details of the recruitment, organisation, equipment, logistics, and command of the Army of King George II from 1727 to 1760.

The proceedings of the 2019 From Reason to Revolution conference, addressing the British soldier 1721-1815.

The Napoleonic Services of John Burgoyne RE who was present at many battles and sieges in the Peninsular War.

From Across the Sea: North American's in Nelson's Navy explores the life and service of North American-born sailors and officers who served in the Royal Navy during the Wars with France.

Details the uniforms and service of infantry and specialist troops in the declining years of the Dutch Republic.

The letters written by George Ulrich Barlow to his father George Hilario Barlow, Governor of Madras, whilst serving with Wellington's army in the Peninsula and at Waterloo.

A diary of a young British officer during the campaigns of the Duke of York against the French between 1793 and 1795.

Lavishly illustrated by Franco Saudelli, the volume shows the elegance of the Saxon Army, misjudged by Frederick II of Prussia as "weak".

The Jacobite Rising of 1745 could not have taken place without French support. French ships carried Charles Edward Stuart to Scotland, French gold financed his campaign, and French weapons equipped many of his troops. Yet the actual French military contribution to the campaign was small, and its role is frequently neglected.This book seeks to redress this balance by looking in detail at the French military contribution to the Jacobite ¿45: the first detachment of troops to sail with the Prince ¿ who instead of landing in Scotland found themselves caught up in an intense naval battle; the staff officers and professionals who helped Charles organise his army on modern European lines; and the Irish and Scots regulars who fought with distinction at Inverurie, Falkrik, and Culloden.As with many aspects of the ¿45, myths and misconceptions aplenty have arisen about the nature and significance of the French contribution. New archival research enables a better picture to be obtained than ever before of the men who made up the rank and file of this contingent, and of the background and fates of those who led them. New analysis is offered, too, as to details of the uniforms worn by the detachments serving in Scotland, re-considering existing sources and also bringing out new information.Taken together, the result is to fill an important gap in our understanding of these dramatic events, one of the last occasions that foreign troops fought on British soil.

Lavishly illustrated by Franco Saudelli, the volume shows the elegance of the Saxon Army, misjudged by Friedrich II of Prussia as "weak".

The 1779 American Revolutionary War campaign leading up to the American assault and capture of Stony Point, New York, led by General Anthony Wayne.

From Napoleon's invasion of 1812 to the Wars of Liberation and beyond, seen from the common Russian soldier's perspective.