Richard Holmes

Redcoat

A rich, anecdotal history of the British soldier from the American Revolution through the Indian Mutiny.

Redcoat is the story of the British soldier—those noncommissioned men whom Kipling called "the backbone of the army"—from roughly 1760 to 1860. Based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them, this book is rich in the history of a fascinating era. Among the highlights are Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul, the Crimean War, and the Indian Mutiny.

The focus of Redcoat, however, is on the individual recollections and experiences of the ordinary soldiers in the wars of Georgian and early Victorian England. Through their stories and anecdotes—of uniforms, equipment, floggings, wounds, food, barrack life, courage, comradeship, death, love, and loss—Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of an extraordinarily successful fighting force.

"Richard Holmes's Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket is a lively and engrossing example of what is best in military history, directed at a broad audience. His book imaginatively weaves together the day-to-day struggles and joys of British soldiers with such sensual descriptions of the coarse texture and pungent odour of battle that readers may feel catapulted into the military environment of 1760 to 1860." —The Guardian

"An indispensable companion." —The Evening Standard

"Anyone who likes history will want to own [Redcoat] and anyone who cherishes good writing will read Redcoat with pleasure." —Daily Mail

"Holmes's book is a most scholarly, and yet most entertaining, description of the lives of these men and their officers, and the conditions in which they lived and died. The story is told largely through the letters and journals of the soldiers themselves. Where those primary sources are lacking, he searches accounts by earlier military historians. The result is a book packed with anecdote, and a most colourful picture of the army at the time." —Literary Review