Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #11069 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The battlefield museum of Waterloo, Richard Holmes comments in Redcoat, tells us much about Napoleon, Wellington and their senior commanders but far less about the men they led. Holmes aims, in this massively researched history, to redress the balance. He does so by piling up facts, information and anecdotes, many of them culled from memoirs of the period, to illustrate the everyday life of British soldiers in the 18th and 19th centuries, from the Battle of Blenheim to the Crimean War. In the hands of a less gifted historian this might have made for a dry, daunting and overpowering text. Holmes, however, has a sharp eye for the telling details and the memorable stories that bring the past to life. He pays as much attention to the small-scale as to the larger picture: a soldier is promoted because "his beautiful black eyes and whiskers had attracted the notice of his colonel's lady"; Crimea-bound infantrymen play cricket in "what the scorebook calls Sultan's Valley, Asia Minor"; black musician-soldiers enrich the repertoire of a regimental band; a respected military surgeon is revealed, after death, to have been a woman dressed as a man. Yet Holmes is always aware of that larger picture and of the hardships and dangers of the military life. His chapters on the floggings and punishments inflicted on the common soldier and on the terrible wounds that battle could bring--which again make vivid use of period memoirs--are often very moving. Anyone wanting to find out how the ordinary soldier of the 18th and 19th centuries was recruited, how he was drilled, how he fought, how he lived and (often) how he died, need look no further than this impressive work of popular history. --Nick Rennison

Review
In this book, Richard Holmes, one of the UK's foremost military historians, focuses on a neglected subject: the day-to-day lives of ordinary soldiers in the 18th and 19th centuries. The broad picture of the politics and strategy of empire-building has been well documented - but what were the battles like for the non-commissioned officers who fought in them? These foot-soldiers, the redcoats, were often recruited while drunk and pumped up with notions of glory and, importantly, a decent living wage. Those who took the King's shilling found themselves pitched into a contradictory world. Glamorous and disciplined in a certain light, these were mostly lice-ridden and diseased men, spending much of their time in alcoholic stupor. Holmes's account is organised thematically rather than chronologically, ranging from details of how the army was financed, through to the varieties of uniforms, the cavalry horses, the food rations, and the draconian punishments issued for breaches of discipline. Holmes is particularly good on the practicalities of the dangerously unreliable weaponry. This was the age of the Brown Bess, the flintlock musket famous for its short range and inaccuracy, flaws which necessitated close fighting using blocks of men marching in strict discipline. Battles were bloody and terrifying, and Holmes does justice to the 'murderous contest of musketry' where, enveloped in powder-smoke, it wasn't even possible to see. The author has woven together a dense fabric created from the letters sent home from this massive army: at its height, in 1815, Britain had a force of 233,852 soldiers. Writing with judgement and panache, Holmes celebrates the achievements of these men - and the women who travelled with them - whilst accepting the problems. A significant proportion, Wellington said, were the 'scum of the earth'; they were drawn from a restless, downtrodden working-class where violence was endemic. Nevertheless, from the Seven Years War, through the Napoleonic Wars, until Crimea - the scope of this book - few battles were lost. Copiously illustrated in colour, using paintings from the period, this is a thoroughly referenced and indexed account, invaluable to both general reader and academic historian. (Kirkus UK)

Evening Standard
Richard Holmes obviously has a deep love of his subject, and writes of it with an infectious enthusiasm...

Customer Reviews

Very Good
After a shaky start, this book rewards perseverence. It leaves no stone unturned in its exploration of army life in the 18th and 19th centuries (with an emphasis on the latter). I got mine in a second hand bookshop but won't be getting rid of it like the original owner did.

Delightful
For anyone even remotely interested in one of the most glorious periods of the British army and/or lovers of historical novels (think of Sharpe for one) this should be a real treat! Richard Holmes is not only an expert but knows how to write a compelling book, and in 'Redcoat' he's outdone himself.

Virtually every aspect of army life 'in the age of horse and musket' is treated in detail and often comes with eyewitness accounts or comments from contemporaries. Thoroughly enjoyable, I wish there were more of the kind!

Hard going
First things first. Richard Holmes is a meticulous researcher who obviously loves his subject, and full marks for him to that. Having put so much work into this book, he hardly deserves criticism from amateurs such as myself.
Yet, sadly, I found my love of History of Empire started to falter as I ploughed through page after page of exhaustive (and exhausting) detail.
The guy who wrote the "Turgid" review had it spot on.