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Sickness, suffering, and the sword : the British regiment on campaign, 1808-1815

Title: Sickness, suffering, and the sword : the British regiment on campaign, 1808-1815 / Andrew Bamford ; foreword by Donald E. Graves.
Author: Bamford, Andrew, 1981-
Publication: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2013]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	JFE 16-13833	Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315

Details

Description

xxiii, 360 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"Although an army's success is often measured in battle outcomes, its victories depend on strengths that may be less obvious on the field. In Sickness, Suffering, and the Sword, military historian Andrew Bamford assesses the effectiveness of the British Army in sustained campaigning during the Napoleonic Wars. In the process, he offers a fresh and controversial look at Britains's military system, showing that success or failure on campaign rested on the day-to-day experiences of regimental units rather than the army as a whole. Bamford draws his title from the words of Captain Moyle Sherer, who during the winter of 1816-1817 wrote an account of his service during the Peninsular War: "My regiment has never been very roughly handled in the field ... But, alas! What between sickness, suffering, and the sword, few, very few of those men are now in existence." Bamford argues that those daily scourges of such often-ignored factors as noncombat deaths and equine strength and losses determined outcomes on the battlefield. In the nineteenth century, the British Army was a collection of regiments rather than a single unified body, and the regimental system bore the responsibility of supplying manpower on that field. Between 1808 and 1815, when Britain was fighting a global conflict far greater than its military capabilities, the system nearly collapsed. Only a few advantages narrowly outweighed the army's increasing inability to meet manpower requirements. This book examines those critical dynamics in Britain's major early-nineteenth-century campaigns: the Peninsular War (1808-1814), the Walcheren Expedition (1809), the American War (1812-1815), and the growing commitments in northern Europe from 1813 on. Drawn from primary documents, Bamford's statistical analysis compares the vast disparities between regiments and different theatres of war and complements recent studies of health and sickness in the British Army."--Publisher's website.

Series Statement

Campaigns and commanders ; volume 37

Uniform Title

Campaigns and commanders ; v. 37.

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-348) and index.

Contents

The British Army and its campaigns -- Regimental identity and leadership -- The regimental system in practice -- The limits of the system -- Beyond the regiment -- Strategic consumption -- Beasts of burden -- Conclusion : a system reassessed -- Appendix 1. Details of data sample -- Appendix 2. Men returned as sick after the Corunna campaign -- Appendix 3. Sample of returned deserters in the peninsula.

Call Number

JFE 16-13833

ISBN

9780806143439
0806143436

LCCN

2012044494
40022472195

OCLC

814707449

Author

Bamford, Andrew, 1981-

Title

Sickness, suffering, and the sword : the British regiment on campaign, 1808-1815 / Andrew Bamford ; foreword by Donald E. Graves.

Publisher

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2013]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Campaigns and commanders ; volume 37

Campaigns and commanders ; v. 37.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-348) and index.

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Other Standard Identifier

40022472195

Research Call Number

JFE 16-13833

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