- Paperback: 230 pages
- Publisher: Unknown (30 Dec 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1151446017
- ISBN-13: 978-1151446015
- Product Dimensions: 15.2 x 22.9 x 1.3 cm
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Product Description
Publisher: London E. Arnold Publication date: 1913 Subjects: Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852 Peninsular War, 1807-1814 Great Britain -- History, Military 1807-1814 Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A Companion Volume to Oman's great history of the Peninsular War
25 April 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
British historian Charles Oman spend thirty years writing "The History of the Peninsular War." Although now somewhat dated, Oman's seven volume study may still be the best English language narrative history of the Peninsular War. Oman chose to include a significant collection of supporting materials on the British Army in a companion volume: "Wellington's Army 1809-1814."
In "Wellington's Army," Oman sketches the leadership, organization, tactics, and details about the life of the long-serving British field army in the Iberian Peninsula. His topics include Wellington's use of his infantry and cavalry, his conduct of supply and of sieges, and the means by which he disciplined his force.
Oman's long immersion in the correspondence and memoirs of the Peninsular Army leads to many worthwhile insights, including why Wellington was respected but not loved by his troops and why his army was so successful for so long against superior numbers of French forces. One example is Wellington's insistance on campaigning from an established supply chain, which allowed his army to remain concentrated in the field far longer than his French adversaries. The French Army of the time depended on forage and pillage for supply, and when concentrated into a large mass, quickly exhausted the available local supplies and was forced to disperse.
Oman provides useful insight into the manning of Wellington's army through the rotation of first and second battalions under the regimental system. An appendix documents why Britain strained to field Wellington's relatively small army in the Peninsula, given the competing demands of the world wide British Empire.
Oman does not spare Wellington's Army its faults. The conduct of siege warfare was never its strong suite. Wellington's force lacked engineers and sometimes the artillery and the time to conduct proper sieges. It was successful at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz thanks to the bravery of its soldiers, not its technique, and failed at Burgos for want of serious preparation.
This book is highly recommended to students of the Peninsular War and of Wellington as a commander. The casual reader with some background in the British Army will also find this a worthwhile book. Oman's writing style is clear and readable. This Greenhill reprint is wonderfully priced and contains a small number of prints and all the excellent appendices of the original.
In "Wellington's Army," Oman sketches the leadership, organization, tactics, and details about the life of the long-serving British field army in the Iberian Peninsula. His topics include Wellington's use of his infantry and cavalry, his conduct of supply and of sieges, and the means by which he disciplined his force.
Oman's long immersion in the correspondence and memoirs of the Peninsular Army leads to many worthwhile insights, including why Wellington was respected but not loved by his troops and why his army was so successful for so long against superior numbers of French forces. One example is Wellington's insistance on campaigning from an established supply chain, which allowed his army to remain concentrated in the field far longer than his French adversaries. The French Army of the time depended on forage and pillage for supply, and when concentrated into a large mass, quickly exhausted the available local supplies and was forced to disperse.
Oman provides useful insight into the manning of Wellington's army through the rotation of first and second battalions under the regimental system. An appendix documents why Britain strained to field Wellington's relatively small army in the Peninsula, given the competing demands of the world wide British Empire.
Oman does not spare Wellington's Army its faults. The conduct of siege warfare was never its strong suite. Wellington's force lacked engineers and sometimes the artillery and the time to conduct proper sieges. It was successful at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz thanks to the bravery of its soldiers, not its technique, and failed at Burgos for want of serious preparation.
This book is highly recommended to students of the Peninsular War and of Wellington as a commander. The casual reader with some background in the British Army will also find this a worthwhile book. Oman's writing style is clear and readable. This Greenhill reprint is wonderfully priced and contains a small number of prints and all the excellent appendices of the original.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
"Wellington's Army", by Sir Charles Oman.
7 Jan 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is of a series with Oman's multi-volume "History of the Peninsula War". Sir Charles Oman (b. 1860, d. 1946) is the pre-eminent historian of the British army in this war. Between 1808 and 1814, led by the Duke of Wellington and allied with with Spanish and Portuguese troops, this British army forced Napoleon's armies out of Portugal and Spain and back into France. The British army as a whole was by no means an army of supermen, but Wellington and his veterans eventually became Napoleon's most formidable opponents on land. This volume is a companion to the "History", and answers many questions that a reader of these volumes would want to ask about the British army - who were the Generals, who were the ordinary soldiers, and what were the characteristics that made Wellington's army so formidable?
Oman wrote this volume in 1912, and although many researchers have since uncovered large amounts of detailed information that was simply not available at that time, any modern researcher into the subject ignores Oman's work at his peril. "Wellington's Army" is enjoyably written, well set-out, and full of anecdotes from officers and private soldiers who served under Wellington. Not only does it show how Wellington's army was recruited, trained, administered and led, it also opens a wide, clear window onto just what it was like to be a soldier on the march, in camp and in battle during the Napoleonic Wars.
Indispensable, not only to historians but also to anyone who regularly reads historical novels such as Cornwell's "Sharpe" series or classics from the time of Thackeray, the Bronte sisters, or even "War and Peace".
Oman wrote this volume in 1912, and although many researchers have since uncovered large amounts of detailed information that was simply not available at that time, any modern researcher into the subject ignores Oman's work at his peril. "Wellington's Army" is enjoyably written, well set-out, and full of anecdotes from officers and private soldiers who served under Wellington. Not only does it show how Wellington's army was recruited, trained, administered and led, it also opens a wide, clear window onto just what it was like to be a soldier on the march, in camp and in battle during the Napoleonic Wars.
Indispensable, not only to historians but also to anyone who regularly reads historical novels such as Cornwell's "Sharpe" series or classics from the time of Thackeray, the Bronte sisters, or even "War and Peace".
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