RIFLEMEN OF WELLINGTON’S LIGHT DIVISION IN THE PENINSULAR WAR

Gareth Glover and Robert Burnham Frontline Books (2023) £25.00 236 pages (hardback) ISBN:9781399087421 frontline-books.com

This is the third of three volumes edited by Gareth Glover covering the regiments of the famous Light Division in the Peninsular War. The first was devoted to the 43rd Foot; the second to the 52nd Foot. Its subtitle, Previously Unpublished & Rare Accounts from the 95th Rifles 1808-14, is a fair summary of this book’s contents, but some pieces by officers who were not actually in the 95th themselves have been included, as noted below.

After a short, five-page account of the service of the 95th Rifles in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, the remainder of the book is devoted to the personal accounts, most arranged by the rank of the writer, from Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Barnard to Sergeant John Lowe, the majority by First Lieutenants. The only piece by a private soldier, a letter by Robert Howarth to his father, dated September 1807, which describes the expedition to Denmark, is included despite falling outside the remit of this volume.

The accounts are of varying length and interest. Here are but three examples:

Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Amos Norcott’s Observations on powder horns and magazines (by which he means the large cow horn powder flask) and suggested Improvements was dated 1816 but explains the various deficiencies of the riflemen’s equipment used in the Peninsular War.

Four letters by Brevet Major Jonathan Leach describe the actions at Rolica, Vimeiro, and the Coa, and the battle of Bussaco in some detail.

The Address of Sergeant John Lowe of the 2/95th to the Duke of Wellington in 1827 describes his service at Vimeiro, Walcheren, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz and Waterloo, and his situation after the reduction of the battalion, working as a cordwainer with a wife and four children to support, having served eleven years and suffering the effects of several wounds, suggesting that ‘his country might possibly have thought him not undeserving of something more than his Waterloo medal and a pension of sixpence a day.’

These are followed by a brief memoir by William Sankey, an army surgeon attached to the Rifle Brigade; letters of Brigadier General Robert Craufurd, commander of the Light Brigade, later the Light Division, from May 1809 to his death at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812; and the journal of Lieutenant James Shaw, 43rd Foot, ADC to Craufurd from November 1809 until his death, and then extra ADC to Major General Charles Alten, the later commander of the Light Division, from November 1812 until November 1813.

A four-page Addendum, containing extracts from five letters by Lieutenant Colonel Charles Macleod, 43rd Foot, discovered after the first volume in the series was produced, concludes the book. Eight pages of illustrations include quarter page reproductions of contemporary portraits of six of the writers; later photographs of John Molloy and Dr William Sankey; a photograph of a Baker rifle; and a reproduction of James Prinsep Beadle’s famous painting, The Rearguard, showing General Craufurd and a detachment of the 95th Rifles on the retreat to Vigo. Two other reproductions of Richard Simkin’s depictions of the Rifles at Cacabelos in 1809, and Tarbes in 1814, show them – incorrectly – wearing the ‘Belgic’ cap.

Those whose main interest is tabletop battles may not find much that is immediately applicable to their wargames, but collectors of memoirs will appreciate this book.

Arthur Harman