Overview

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.

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9780393052114

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Reviews

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)

Author Information

Richard Holmes is a celebrated military historian. He lives in England.

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