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Letters of Private Wheeler, 1809 - 1828 Paperback – January 1, 1994

by B. H. Liddell Hart (Author)

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These are the letters - in the form of a frank and amusing diary - written by a private in Wellington's army who fought throughout the Napoleonic wars and it includes a colourful eye-witness account of the Battle of Waterloo. Private Wheeler's record covers the Peninsular Campaign, keeping order during the coronation of Louis XVIII whom he called "an old bloated poltroon" and his later posting to Corfu where he enjoyed reporting on the barbarous habits of the natives with obvious enjoyment. Wheeler wrote his accounts before the muskets of battle had cooled, and he was a master of lively anecdote and mischievous characterisation. Nothing escapes his sharp eyes, whether it is the local landscape or the looks of the local girls. Sir Basil Liddell Hart, the editor, joined the Army and served in the same regiment as Private Wheeler during the First World War. In 1937 he became personal advisor to the War Minister and was military correspondent to The Daily Telegraph from 1925-35 and to The Times until the outbreak of the Second World War. He lectured on strategy and tactics at staff colleges in numerous countries and wrote more than thirty books. He died in 1970.

Language

English
Publisher

Interlink Pub Group Inc
Publication date

January 1, 1994
Dimensions

5.35 x 0.59 x 8.46 inches
ISBN-10

0900075589
ISBN-13

978-0900075582
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Interlink Pub Group Inc; New Edition (January 1, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0900075589
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0900075582
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.35 x 0.59 x 8.46 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,090,335 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews:
19 ratings

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4.7 out of 5

19 global ratings

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4 star		11%
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ec78

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 16, 2014

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Written by an intelligent and articulate man, he understood the events and times of his day.

One person found this helpful

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democrat

It must be OK

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 4, 2013

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I can't rate this because I never received it. It was recommended in the Wall Street Journal, so it must be interesting.

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Douglas Sun

A Revealing Look at a Soldier's Life

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 3, 2000

Whomever the Duke of Wellington had in mind when he fulminated that his soldiers were "the very scum of the earth," he could not have been thinking of Private William Wheeler. Steady, good-natured and unaffected, Wheeler was rather the sort of man who formed the backbone of the Peninsular Army- as indeed he would have in any army in any age.
Wheeler served with the 51st Foot- a storied regiment in its time, as it had once been led by Sir John Moore, the hero of Corunna- from early in the Peninsular War to well after Waterloo. After he retired from active service, he collected and edited many of his letters home into an engaging and highly readable volume. Together, they offer insights into a British soldier's life that are indispensible to anyone interested in the Napoleonic Wars.
Tellingly, few bullets fly in Wheeler's letters. Devotees of Waterloo memoirs may be disappointed that he has little to say about the campaign. The 51st was not at Quatre Bras and stood mostly away from the main action at Waterloo, and Wheeler attests to little beyond his immediate angle of vision. Instead, he gives us much about what went on behind the lines- barracks life, mustering for overseas duty, palling around with friends of the moment, military and civilian alike.
One of the most affecting narrative threads from these letter begins late in the Peninsular War, when Wheeler befriends a French POW while recuperating from a nasty wound to his foot. No fanatical Bonapartiste, the Frenchman is actually the son of an Anglophile father and an English mother, and joined the army only to efface the anguish of an unhappy love affair. Two years later, Wheeler looks up his old friend when English troops occupy Paris after Waterloo, and they have a fine old time trolling about the city. This is a revealing look at war in fine detail, a useful reminder that even the greatest historical events are woven from threads of individual experiences.
As a stylist, Wheeler has his moments of plainspoken eloquence, and both Elizabeth Longford and Jac Weller have quoted him to fine effect in their books on Wellington. My own favorite moment is his definitive judgement on his old Commander-in-Chief, and stands, I think, as the last word in the debate over the merits of the greatest of the generals who labored in Napoleon's shadow: "If England should require the service of her army again, and I should be with it, let me have 'Old Nosey' to command.... There are two things we should be certain of. First, we should always be as well supplied with rations as the nature of the service would admit. The second is that we should be sure to give the enemy a d----d good thrashing. What can a soldier desire more."

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Don Gallagher

Diary

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 18, 2014

A great record of the movements of the 51st Regiment of Foot.
My great grandfather was there.
So brings to life his time as a soldier.

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A. Woodley

Personal and immediate

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 7, 2000

As accounts of the Peninsular War and Waterloo go, this is one of the most personal and immediate. It is a collection of letters which Private Wheeler sent to his family. They are goodnatured and peppered with incidents and moving references to life in the Peninsular.
There has clearly been a great deal of editing to these letters before the first publication in 1828 on which later volumes were based, for the letters are solely about life on the Peninsular and all family references have been removed. I point this out because they stand in stark contrast to Major George Simmons book on the Peninsular War, "A British Rifleman" - in which his letters are reproduced in their entirety, including all his questions and somewhat moralistic advice to his family.
Perhaps the descriptions of the Peninsular lose nothing from the removal of this information, but they would have been a lovely addition in order to get a better look at the character of Private Wheeler - as a more fully rounded person rather than an observer - but I digress.
His account is a vivid depiction of the nature of Napoleonic Warfare. He is not too keen on long descriptions of battles - a bit like Peninsular War veteran Harry Smith in that way - but his descriptions of life and detail leading up to events is lovely. I particularly like his account of walking down the road to Waterloo. For some reason I always imagine orderly rows of soldiers but he talks of 'roads literally choked with baggage' - and his regiment becoming so intermixed with cavalry, guns and sores as they marched on. That night it rained, "being close to the enemy we could not use our blankets, the ground was too wet to lie down, we sat on our knapsakcs until daylight without fires, there was no shelter against the weather; The water ran in streams from the cuffs of our Jackets..."
It is not surprising to know that Wheeler is used by many novellists writing about the Peninsular War and Waterloo - Wheelers his eye for detail is good and his writing is pleasant and sympathetic.

8 people found this helpful

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R. CRAWFORD

astoundingly interesting book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 6, 2013

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Although I have been for years interested in military history, I was astounded by the quality of the observational prose in this collection of memoirs. For the student of warfare, Wheeler's account of napoleonic warfare was a huge eye opener for me, assuming as I did that warfare in that age was all a matter of huge ranks of men wheeling in great formations. When I read an account of Wheeler relieving his comrade who was occupying a listening post, within metres of the enemy, how he crawled in and crawled out to avoid observation, how the listening posts were withdrawn at daylight and reestablished at night, I might have been reading an account of modern warfare. So little has really changed. Wheeler was clearly a humourous, intelligent and warm-hearted man, with an eye for detail and a real skill as a storyteller.
The most interesting part of the book, to my mind, are the letters written during his regiments stay outside Paris in the summer following Waterloo. Wheeler was able to get day passes to the city and spent some time as a tourist. The parachuting female balloonist has already been mentioned (and Wheeler didn't seem to think this anything out of the ordinary!) but also when he and his friend went to a restaurant, fitted with booths with cushioned benches and marble tables and mirrored ends, where a waiter took their order etc etc. TOTALLY threw my ideas about Napoleonic france into the air.
Perhaps most remarkable of all is the respect that the ordinary British soldier had for Napoleon and his ideas of equality. This comes out strongly (but subtly) in Wheeler's writing.
Waxing lyrical now, I would dearly love to have spent an hour or two with this man over some brandy, listening to his stories. Reading this book is perhaps the next best thing.

One person found this helpful

Mayhawk

Superb!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 31, 2011

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This book is absolutely superb. I've read Rifleman Harris and a few other memoirs of the Peninsular War but this outshines them all and they set a pretty high standard. The book is a series of letters written home rather than recollection put down on paper many years later. What comes through on every page is the humanity, compassion, humility and unpretentious wisdom of the writer. I thoroughly recommend it to all fans of military history. Didn't quite understand the cover illustration which seems to show French Curaisseurs chatting to British infantry.

2 people found this helpful

Roger C. Chartres

A rare insight into a Foot Soldier's Life around the time of Waterloo

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 27, 2020

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I have yet to read this book. However, It arrived promptly and in the condition (used) I had expected. Thanks.

Martyn Barnwell

A journey to the past

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 14, 2016

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Only just started reading it but it's an excellent book so far, reading it is rather like being transported back 200 years.

One person found this helpful

Andrew of Knapdale

An insight into what the Peninsular War was really like for the common soldier by a truly remarkable man

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 21, 2014

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A real gem. An insight into what the Peninsular War was really like for the common soldier by a truly remarkable man.

One person found this helpful

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