Customer Reviews

Wellington's Army (Napoleonic Wars)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While the book is well written and very informative, it is sorely lacking in color plates. Color plates are essential in a book dealing with uniforms. Black and white pictures just don't cut it for uniform descriptions. There are only about 5 or six color plates in the entire thing.

Amin

Ian Fletcher is a renowned scholar of Napoleonic Wars history and in this volune published in the Brassey's series, attempts to outline the likely uniforms worn during the Napoleonic Wars by Wellington's army.

He points out the problems right from the start - the lack of real pictorial evidence of what was worn, the fact that uniforms altered markedly, the documentary evidence available, including contemporary references to the 'rag tag' army which marched down the Champs Elysee following Waterloo - a short campaign and already they looked bedraggled. He makes the valid comparison to the Peninsular War where one contemporary notes the horror expressed by 'martinets' who came out to the Peninsular from London expecting all to be dressed uniformly to find everyone had done what they could to stay dressed.

Fletcher rightly points out that in modern recreations of single charges of cavalry the uniforms suffered wear including lost buttons - imagine that over a series of battles, weeks and months. In short, it is difficult to know just what was worn in battle over a series of months and years given that uniforms were essentially peripatetic due ot their hard use.

However using contemporary sources he illustrates and describes in great detail just what was worn. Illustrated in colour and b/w it is a reasonable reference work but not ideal - there would be no way to recreate a uniform in complete detail, but it would give you the fundamental detail to do the basics.

A nice addition to the Napoleonic wars library, and has good references to other books to assist.