e-Book Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket download

by Richard Holmes

ISBN: 0393052117
ISBN13: 978-0393052114
Language: English
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (October 14, 2002)
Pages: 466
Category: Military
Subategory: History

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ePub size: 1702 kb
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Rating: 4.6
Votes: 282
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Magnificent history of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900 by one. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Start by marking Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket as Want to Read: Want to Read savin. ant to Read.

Read unlimited books and audiobooks on the web, iPad, iPhone and Android. Redcoat is the brilliant story of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900, based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them. Delving into the history of the period – charting events including Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul and the Sikh wars – celebrated military historian Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of a fallible but extraordinarily successful fighting force.

The redcoat and his family were never appreciated, but Richard Holmes has written them a marvellous memorial. Redcoat is a wonderful book, full of anecdote and good sense

The redcoat and his family were never appreciated, but Richard Holmes has written them a marvellous memorial. Redcoat is a wonderful book, full of anecdote and good sense. BERNARD CORNWELL, Daily Mail. Richard Holmes was one of Britain's most distinguished and eminent military historians and broadcasters.

Redcoat is the brilliant story of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900, based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them. To read this book, upload an EPUB or FB2 file to Bookmate

Redcoat is a wonderful book. It is not just a work of history - but one of enthusiasm and unparalleled knowledge

Redcoat is a wonderful book. It is not just a work of history - but one of enthusiasm and unparalleled knowledge. BERNARD CORNWELL Redcoat is the story of the British soldier from . 760 until . 860 - surely one of the most enduring and magnetic subjects of the British past. Solidly based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them, the book is rich in the history of the period. Magnificent history of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900 by one of Britain's best-known and accomplished military writers and broadcasters. Red Coat is non-fiction Sharpe, filled with anecdote and humour as well as historical analysis.

Joanna Bourke on an age of redcoats, whirligigs and invasions into Afghanistan in Richard Holmes's The British Soldier .

Joanna Bourke on an age of redcoats, whirligigs and invasions into Afghanistan in Richard Holmes's The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. The soldiers in this book drank too much, looted too often and swore too colourfully, but they are portrayed in all their complexity as fighting men and women, doggedly insisting on the contradictory conceptions of honour and self-preservation in war. One of the truisms of war is that old soldiers are not treated well.

Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket. Wellington: The Iron Duke. Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front. In the Footsteps of Churchill. Dusty Warriors: Modern Soldiers at War. Marlborough: England’s Fragile Genius. Shots from the Front: The British Soldier 1914–18. Sahib: The British Soldier in India 1750–1914.

Электронная книга "Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket", Richard Holmes. Эту книгу можно прочитать в Google Play Книгах на компьютере, а также на устройствах Android и iOS. Выделяйте текст, добавляйте закладки и делайте заметки, скачав книгу "Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket" для чтения в офлайн-режиме.

A rich, anecdotal history of the British soldier from the American Revolution through the Indian Mutiny.

Redcoat is the story of the British soldier―those noncommissioned men whom Kipling called "the backbone of the army"―from roughly 1760 to 1860. Based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them, this book is rich in the history of a fascinating era. Among the highlights are Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul, the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny. The focus of Redcoat, however, is on the individual recollections and experiences of the ordinary soldiers in the wars of Georgian and early Victorian England. Through their stories and anecdotes―of uniforms, equipment, floggings, wounds, food, barrack life, courage, comradeship, death, love, and loss―Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of an extraordinarily successful fighting force. 32 pages of plates, map, portraits, some in color

Comments:

Oso

Perhaps the single most identifiable soldier in History, the British Redcoat, gets Author Holmes' undivided attention in this delightful volume, and it's about time. As an avid reader of 18th and 19th Century British military history, I thought myself thoroughly familiar with the lives and times of the common soldier, loved or reviled by the same sobriquet, "Redcoat", but I couldn't resist ordering this volume just in case, and I'm very glad I did. In reading it, one realizes that the numerous works recounting major battles, etc., although necessarily touching on the lives of those who fought them, seldom take the time (or make the effort) to dwell on them. Using the technique so skillfully and more expansively employed by Lyn MacDonald in her wonderful World War I books, that is, the recollections of actual soldies as an integral part of the narrative, Holmes weaves a rich and unique tapestry of every facet of the British soldier's life during the period (c. 1755-1860) with discussions of military actions limited to setting the stage for the "real" central players, the men who took the orders rather than gave them. If this concentration on rank-and-file British combatants of the era is not unique to this book, it is certainly rare in my experience, and I recommend this fine work to anyone interested in the period and its soldiers.

Narim

a thorough and readable account of the Brits attempt to subject and exploit the weaker races of the world

Dorilune

I have a massive collection of history books. Some that I have never yet had time to read. And you know why I do not have time to read them? Because I often pickup this book at least twice a year to reread, that is how good it is. I have never enjoyed a book as much as I do with Redcoat. The descriptions are fantastic and make you feel like you are there on the field with Wellington high atop his proud white horse while the French advance on you singing La Marseillaise. It is gritty, bold and highly descriptive. If you love history, you'll love this book.

Moonworm

i bought this one for my research library, and would recommend it for any re-enactor or author writing about the British military of the 18th century. Wonderfully researched and highly readable!

Sarin

Brought for reference material for a story I was writing. Lots of interesting info.

Vozuru

Highly enjoyed it. Very comprehensive and well-written description of the lifestyle of the British soldier, the tactics they used, and the men that led them. I recommend this is to anyone interested in this time period.

Matty

"All gentlemen that have a mind
to serve the queen that's good and kind
come 'list and enter into pay..."

The Duke of Wellington called them "The scum of the earth". Although he on occasion added as an afterword "But what very fine fellows we have made of them...", he was not far off the mark. They were uneducated, generally illiterate, frequently drunk, poverty-stricken, disease-ridden, itinerant looters, vagabonds and thieves. They were the redcoats and they were, for the better part of a century, the finest infantry in the world.

Richard Holmes excellent history is entitled Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket, and within its pages the redcoat has never been more vividly portrayed. How did the British Army, playing perpetual second-fiddle to the British Navy in both public respect and budget, rise to become Kipling's legendary "thin red line"?

Holmes touches on every aspect of the life of the Redcoat from the expense of the uniforms (and the recruiters' treachery at charging it against new recruits pay and recruitment bounties), the purchase system for buying officer's promotion, to the weapons (the famed Brown Bess musket - .75 inch muzzle-loading flintlock musket or as Kipling termed it "out-spoken, flinty-lipped brazen-faced jade") the redcoats typically carried.

One of the common problems in a book of this type is that for the average reader, the terminology lends itself to obscure references (particularly the endless reams of regimental names, colors etc.) that can be confusing and tiresome. To be honest, I don't care if the 11th Foot wore buff or yellow facings and to his credit Holmes doesn't dwell overlong on these trivialities. Instead he delves deep into how the British Army functioned in the era of Horse and Musket, the tactics and strategies it used, the sounds and experience of battle (for men of the line as well as the officers), how regimental society (at home and abroad) functioned, the unique position of wives and camp-followers, the soldier's entertainments, food, dueling, the roles of the cavalry, gunners, surgeons, the army bureaucracy (which was notable even then for obtuse behavior. One unit, stationed in the Caribbean was scheduled to return to Britain. The administrators very kindly stopped the unit's pay, clothing and food allowances on their scheduled departure date - six months prior to the actual departure), and the soldier's copious appetite for alcohol and liquor.

Holmes goes to the original sources - the unvarnished, unwashed commentary of the men and officers who stood in the Line, bringing a real voice to the facelessness of the era. From the wry observations of Edward Costello, Rifleman ranker of the 95th on the practice of looting, to the irritated commentary of the Duke of Wellington disparaging British cavalry, the book covers the gamut of viewpoints on every related subject.

Well-written, well-illustrated, with clear prose and solid detail, Redcoat is, hands-down, one of the most enjoyable and readable military histories I have ever encountered on this subject area.

All ranks - CLOSE UP!

For a quick outline of the life of the Iron Duke, click here. If you are interested in a good bio on Wellington, I recommend Wellington: The Years of the Sword by Elizabeth Longford.

“Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket” is another fine work by British historian Richard Holmes. Holmes presents life in the King’s army from the time of John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, through the Indian Mutiny. He covers all aspects from recruitment, camp life, pay, uniforms, weapons, tactics, women, rations and -- not to be neglected – drink, which was copious. Much as in his admirable “Sahib: The British Soldier in India, 1750-1914,” Holmes relies heavily on first-hand accounts which give his work authority, atmosphere, and perspective.

Two interesting tidbits I picked up: The spearhead of an assault on a breach in the defenses of a besieged fortress is known as the “Forlorn Hope.” A position in this deadliest of military operations was much sought after. Soldiers of a Forlorn Hope, the few who survived, were virtually guaranteed promotion, as well as the acclaim of their peers and superiors. Secondly, rations of grog or wine were very important to officers and men in those days. The term “Dutch courage” stems from the heavy use of genever (Holland gin) by British soldiers fighting in the Low Countries in the seventeenth century.

Any reader with an interest in military history and martial life in, as the subtitle states, the age of horse and musket should make time to read Holmes’ book. It deserves a solid Four Stars.

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e-Book Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket download

by Richard Holmes