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Having survived a posting to the disease ridden West Indies, the young ensign Steevens returned to Europe for further service with the XXth Regiment of Foot of the British Army, known as the “Old and Bold”. After some desultory fighting in the campaign in Holland, during which he was wounded and taken prisoner, Steevens had the good fortune to be exchanged for a Dutch officer and went back to active service. His adventures continued in Egypt and Sicily to Maida, where he was engaged with his regiment at the battle of the same name (1806). Posted to the Peninsular, Steevens was in the light company of his battalion which fought in the company of the 95th Rifles at Vimiero (1808), despite suffering from a severe illness. His command of the light company of his regiment in the 1809 campaign under Sir John Moore would be very trying for him as the army retreated to fight a rearguard action at the battle of Corunna. As part of the military policy of the British government an expedition to Holland was again sent whilst Napoleon was elsewhere engaged, Steevens had the misfortune to be one of its members, suffered depredations on the “Fever” island of Walcheren. Steevens would then be sent to the Peninsular once again to take part in the later part of the 1812 campaign doing some hard marching, until the battle of Vittoria in 1813, the debris and looting after which he gives a graphic description of. Present at the battle of Sauroren, and the siege of San Sebastian, he passes some touching anecdotes of some of his comrades who were not as lucky as he in avoiding harm during these hard-fought actions. After participating in further engagements that sent the French finally out of Spain, the later years of his soldiering were on garrison duty in Ireland. “Lieut.-Colonel Steevens received a gold medal for the actions on the Pyrenees (July 28th to August 2nd, 1813); and also the silver war medal, with seven clasps, for Egypt, Maida, Vimiera, Corunna, Vittoria, Nivelle, Nive.” A thoughtful memoir of a widely-respected soldier who saw much action during the Napoleonic Wars. Author – Charles Steevens – (1777-1861)
Excerpt from Reminiscences of My Military Life From 1795 to 1818 We remained at Lichfield only a short time, and about March, 1797, we marched to Liverpool, at which time I was made Lieutenant without purchase. We remained here till the summer of 1798, and then we received a route for Manchester. About this time I was sent on the recruiting service to Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. I was there a few weeks, and from thence I was sent to Bury, in the same county. I cannot forbear mentioning a circumstance that took place while I was recruiting at Bury; though it may appear of little consequence, it was not so to me. I had been in Bury about three weeks, without anyone to speak to, except the man and his wife where I lodged, who were very civil to me. Just picture to yourself a young recruiting-officer, in a small dull country town, wandering about, without any society, although daily meeting many gentlemen of the place at the reading room, only to be gazed at, (for at this time recruiting-officers always wore their uniform, ) and, perhaps, by some looked upon as a sc& for, by-the-by, the reason why I met with no civility was owing to the misconduct of the officer I relieved on the recruiting service; however, as good luck would have it, one fine morning the clergyman of the parish, who lived opposite to my lodgings and was a family man, called upon me and asked me to dine with him, an invitation I most readily and cheerfully accepted. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
In the theater of war, how important is costume? And in peacetime, what purpose does military spectacle serve? This book takes us behind the scenes of the British military at the height of its brilliance to show us how dress and discipline helped to mold the military man and attempted to seduce the hearts and minds of a nation while serving to intimidate civil rioters in peacetime. Often ridiculed for their constrictive splendor, British army uniforms of the early nineteenth century nonetheless played a powerful role in the troops' performance on campaign, in battle, and as dramatic entertainment in peacetime. Plumbing a wide variety of military sources, most tellingly the memoirs and letters of soldiers and civilians, Scott Hughes Myerly reveals how these ornate sartorial creations, combining symbols of solidarity and inspiration, vivid color, and physical restraint, enhanced the managerial effects of rigid discipline, drill, and torturous punishments, but also helped foster regimental esprit de corps. Encouraging recruitment, enforcing discipline within the military, and boosting morale were essential but not the only functions of martial dress. Myerly also explores the role of the resplendent uniform and its associated gaudy trappings and customs during civil peace and disorder--whether employed as public relations through spectacular free entertainment, or imitated by rioters and rebels opposing the status quo. Dress, drills, parades, inspections, pomp, and order: as this richly illustrated book conducts us through the details of the creation, design, functions, and meaning of these aspects of the martial image, it exposes the underpinnings of a mentality--and vision--that extends far beyond the military subculture into the civic and social order that we call modernity.
This book offers a wide-ranging exploration of the attitudes of various groups of British people to the conflicts which followed the French Revolution: the government, their supporters and their opponents inside and outside Parliament, women, churchmen, and the mass of British public opinion. It presents the debate in England and Scotland provoked by the war both as the sequel to the French Revolution and as a distinct debate in itself. The author argues that contemporaries saw this conflict as one of the first since the wars of religion to be significantly shaped by ideological hostility as well as by strategic interests.
An Irish officer in the British Army, Major General Robert Ross (1766–1814) was a charismatic leader widely admired for his bravery in battle. Despite a military career that included distinguished service in Europe and North Africa, Ross is better known for his actions than his name: his 1814 campaign in the Chesapeake Bay resulted in the burning of the White House and Capitol and the unsuccessful assault on Baltimore, immortalized in “The Star Spangled Banner.” The Man Who Captured Washington is the first in-depth biography of this important but largely forgotten historical figure. Drawing from a broad range of sources, both British and American, military historians John McCavitt and Christopher T. George provide new insight into Ross’s career prior to his famous exploits at Washington, D.C. Educated in Dublin, Ross joined the British Army in 1789, earning steady promotion as he gained combat experience. The authors portray him as an ambitious but humane commanding officer who fought bravely against Napoleon’s forces on battlefields in Holland, southern Italy, Egypt, and the Iberian Peninsula. Following the end of the war in Europe, while still recovering from a near-fatal wound, Ross was designated to lead an “enterprise” to America, and in August 1814 he led a small army to victory in the Battle of Bladensburg. From there his forces moved to the city of Washington, where they burned public buildings. In detailing this campaign, McCavitt and George clear up a number of misconceptions, including the claim that the British burned the entire city of Washington. Finally, the authors shed new light on the long-debated circumstances surrounding Ross’s death on the eve of the Battle of North Point at Baltimore. Ross’s campaign on the shores of the Chesapeake lasted less than a month, but its military and political impact was enormous. Considered an officer and a gentleman by many on both sides of the Atlantic, the general who captured Washington would in time fade in public memory. Yet, as McCavitt and George show, Ross’s strategies and achievements during the final days of his career would shape American defense policy for decades to come.