Customer Reviews

Wellington's Rifles: Six Years to Waterloo with England's Legendary Sharpshooters

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm a serious devotee of the Peninsular Campaign of the Duke of Wellington and, as such, read widely on the period and have travelled to Spain, Portugal, France and Belgium on a number of battlefield tours. So, it's always refreshing to pick up a new book in the field and find you've got an outstandingly entertaining read.

Mark Urban's history of the 1st Battalion of the 95th Regiment of Rifles is the first modern work to be published and his copious and in-depth research shines through. However, his scholarship is lightly worn; drawing on previous research, some newly unearthed materials and original sources - particularly the diaries of serving Riflemen in the 95th - he makes his subject come to life. You feel you are marching alongside those wonderful characters like Pte Joseph Almond, Maj Alexander Cameron, Cpl Robert Fairford and many others.

His battlefield descriptions, explanations of deployment, discussions of sieges and strategic thinking are excellent but thoroughly entertaining. Interspersed with chapters devoted to individual battles like Barba del Puerco, Fuentes d'Onoro or the Nive, are chapters more of a social historical nature covering topics like Gentlemen Volunteers, the Wounded or the Regimental Mess.

I found this an excellent and thoroughly entertaining book and recommend it highly to readers of social and military history.

Most readers will be familiar with the famous greenjackets of the 95th Rifle Regiment through Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe's Rifles" series. This is ironic because, while Sharpe and his core followers are soldiers of the 95th Rifles, the 95th itself appears only in the very first novel and then the Waterloo installment. Therefore, this profile of the regiment should have an instant audience among fans of the popular Cornwell serial who are curious about the famed, hard-fighting outfit that lends Sharpe so much mystique, but appears very rarely in his adventures.

Mark Urban has not strayed very far from his previous work, "The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes," a profile of the Duke of Wellington's intelligence chief. In his history of the 95th, Urban details their participation in the campaigns of the Peninsular War of 1809-14, and then at the climactic battle of Waterloo. However, the 95th built its reputation in numerous engagements with the French stemming from outpost duty, vanguard and rearguard actions, raids, and the storming of fortresses. As an elite light infantry unit, they participated in most of the major battles of the Napoleonic British Army, but were never at the center of such set piece action. Paradoxically then, the Rifles saw considerable action without being front and center at any famous battle.

That considerable action makes the book exciting to read, and Urban ably weaves a story of Napoleonic soldiering through the personal experiences of a wide cast of characters, ranging from lowly privates to the Light Brigade's (later Division's) founder and first commander Brigadier "Black Bob" Craufurd. Heroism, chivalry, and honor stand side-by-side with privation, shirking and floggings in Urban's honest storytelling.

In an afterword, Urban outlines the rise of several officers of the 95th (and the larger Light Division) into the ranks of the general officers, how they came to dominate the mid-19th Century Royal Army, and how the Rifles tactics lived on to permeate the tactics and methods of that Army. The 95th Rifle Regiment itself lives on in the Royal Army (along with the sharpshooters of the 60th Royal Americans) as HM's Greenjackets, and their adventures live and breath in the pages of Urban's excellent book.

I may be late in writing this review, but I picked up this book recently to understand more about the circumstances endured by Wellington's troops on the Penisula and their campaign. I was not disappointed!

Author Urban covers only the 95th Rifle Regiment, but to attempt more would have seriously detracted from his story. The Regiment performed brilliantly, with warts and all, proving that open, skirmisher formations were the wave of the future, something that had to be learned again by American Generals in the Civil War.

Urban's focus on individuals to tell his story produced excellent readability and allowed the reader to become involved with the book's leading characters. One almost sees the hardships, leadership problems, bravery and emotions of the riflemen. Few authors can achieve this degree of connection with his readers in an historical work -- Urban's counterpart in writing about a later war might be Stephen Ambrose.

This would be an excellent primer on life in a Napoleonic army, except that the riflemen were relatively unique for their time. They stressed marksmanship, and even as light troops could withstand attacks by line troops. They were tactical descendents from the American riflemen in the Revolutionary War who are normally denigrated today by historians. Apparently contemporary historians have misunderstood riflemen -- there usefulness was not limited by their slow rate of fire but by a lack of training and discipline. The 95th did not suffer from a lack of training and discipline, and there is much to learn here that can be applied elsewhere.

My only criticism concerns the maps. They were of limited usefulness, and I found myself using the maps contained in a little book, "Napoleon's Campaigns" by Bruce Quarrie to understand the troop deployments and movements in the various battles. The prose is sometimes difficult to follow for an individual desiring to maintain an image of the battles in his head while reading, and better maps would be a plus.

All in all, if you're interested in the Napoleonic era, its armies, soldiers' lives and how warfare was conducted, then buy this book.

The Rifle brigade is one of the most extraodinary of the British Napoleonic War regiments. Only put together in around 1800 by Sir John Moore - it played a pivotal role in the Peninsular War, and later at Waterloo. They were the first of the Rifle brigades based on the Austrian and French regiments such as the Voltigeurs and Tiralleurs - they were to the be first in and last out of most encounters.

Mark Urban's book is at one an intelligent and academic account of each of the battles of the Peninsular War, as well as a personal and readable style of writing. His efficiency in text allows the book to flow nicely.

As always with these types of history books (and no doubt because the reading audience are likely to be limited) there are never enoughillustrations - I thinkanyway. But there are enough to show the point, I just wish there could be more because this books begs for more illustrations and I know they are available.

It is lucky that there are so many accounts from all walks of life in the Rifle brigade, funny and articulate men who Urban has made good use of. I especially enjoyed his use of Jonathon Leach's books - some of the harder accounts to get hold of, and some of the most interesting ones.

The book is divided into chapters by major incident starting with Talavera - I was disappointed that the major incident prior to this, that is the retreat to Corunna isn't covered in here - although this subject has been dealt with efficiently in other accounts recently such as Summerville's March of Death - this is a slightly different angle - this is on the Rifle Brigade and they played a significant role in that retreat. This is dealt with in passing in the very first chapter.

I was interested in the depth of detail Urban got into. From how the personalities in the army got on such as the problems of 'Black bob' Crauford and Beckwith's different styles down to the minor details of how the regiment marched, made camp, even dug their ablution trenches

This really has become the standard work on the 95th during the Peninsular campaign and one I really enjoyed. It is highly recommended.

Urban has also written another exceptionally readable Napoleonic Wars history on George Scovell called the Man who Broke Napoleon's codes, I would also recommend this in the highest

Urban is an author I will watch out for and buy - his books are academically researched and well written and highly enjoyable.

I freely admit that I'm not some Napoleonic expert who keeps a sabre next to my desk & a shako on my mantle. I've been a fan of Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series for years. I kept meaning to start reading books on the actual Peninsula Campaign and it just so happens this is the first book. That was great luck because this book is wonderful.
Mark Urban keeps the focus extremely narrow. He talks about the Rifle's involvement in the Peninsula and Waterloo and not much else. Huge battles and huge sections of battles are ignored because the 95th just wasn't there. This almost obessive focus results in undiluted information. You get a sense of what it was really like to serve & fight based on great research and fantastic writing. The way he tracked certain personalities across the years gave the book a "story" to hang it's information from. It all worked out to be an enjoyable read that was just dripping with good information.
The reality of the 95th's existence was as interesting, if not more so, than Cornwell's Sharpe. If you're a fan, you need to read this.

Urban does fine work here.

Like many other reviewers, I have come to this work by way of several different fiction series' about the Napoleonic period. My particular interests in the famed Riflemen of the 95th comes directly from my exposure to Cornwell's "Richard Sharpe" novels.

My wife gave this book to me as a Christmas gift, and amply demonstrated just one of the many reasons I love her so much.

This book was a great read! Plain and simple. It has it all... cowardice, humor, bravery under fire, soldierly comradeship, human failings, honorable (and despicable) behavior, and plenty of action. Best of all, it's all true!

If you have an interst in the period, particularly about the penninsular campaign, you will be doing yourself a favor by reading this book.

Mark Urban's excellent "Wellington's Rifles" is an innovative history of the 95th Rifle Regiment and especially of its first battalion duirng 1809-1814 in the Peninsular War. Urban's comprehensive research into the memoires, diaries, and letters of members of the regiment during its time in Portugal and Spain has produced an account told from the point of view of the riflemen themselves. This account is very much analogous to Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" in exploring not only the battle history of the unit but also its internal chemistry and why it was consistently such an effective unit.

Urban paints an honest, warts and all picture of the First Battalion of the 95th. We meet its officers and soldiers under the best and worst of conditions, and find that the Rifles were composed of very normal human beings made into a nearly unbreakable unit by tough but effective training, good leadership, and a well-founded sense that they were special. At the same time, they were prone to the same challenges and temptations as other units. The 95th suffered hunger and cold at the distant end of supply lines, endured incredible marches over the primitive roads of Iberia, survived sometimes horrific wounds on the battlefield, and participated in less than honorable events such as the pillaging that followed the storming of Badajoz in 1812. Urban focuses on several individuals who served for extended periods in the Peninsular War, providing a thread of continuity through the account.

The 95th represented a departure from the standard tactics of the era, of units maneuvering and firing in mass. The Rifles were trained to fight in extended order as light infantry and were issued the Baker Rifle, which made them deadly effective individual sharpshooters at much greater range than their infantry counterparts. As Urban makes clear in his epilogue, the Rifles were the precusor to the modern infantry units of the British and American armies.

This book is very highly recommended to students of the history of the British Army and to students of the military art.

Having read just about every Sharpe book by Bernard Cornwell, I wanted to learn about the real 95th Rifles. Mark Urban wrote a readable history of the Rifles, and throughout the book also focused on several individual Riflemem. I do wish, however, that he had drawn some maps of the battles rather than use unreadable copies of old maps.

I'll get right to the point, I own about 200 Napoleonic volumnes, and this "Band of Brothers" of the period is as good a read as any in the lot. And it's informative, giving me a better idea of the British army and its methods in the first 100 pages then several other books in their entirety.

This is a pacey history of the 95th Rifle Battalion from the commencement of their Peninsular Campaign through to the final climatic Battle of Waterloo. The Author draws on Letters etc from a number of Officers & other ranks to add a personal feel for the times.
Great battle descriptions & some very enlightening information on "Black Bob" the commander of the Light Division.
I would recommend this book to all history fans of the Napoleonic War & of the Sharpe TV & Book series.