"History of the Sikh Wars" Topic

I wandered into the local bookstore on my lunch hour and bought Washington's Crossing.

But for you colonial gamers, I saw a trade paperback reprint of the British Army History of the First & Second Sikh Wars, with OB info and maps for $18.95. I was looking at a nice map of Chillianwallah. I resisted the urge and bought my AWI book.

Ohhhh! I wannit! I wannit!

Who was the author?

What store? I can find it on Amazon UK but not Amazon.com.

Ray: It's Reginald Burton's history, written while he was on staff at Simla about 1910 or so. It's not a bad history; he also did one of Wellington's Indian wars and the Maratha and Pindari War (the last Maratha war).

Amazon US has Burton's First and Second Sikh Wars-I bought a copy to replace my photocopied version. You can find it here:

link

And for anyone interested in this period, Patrick Wilson at the Virtual Armchair General has access to quite a bit of information on the Sikh, Mysore and Maratha Wars that isn't otherwise available-for example, he has pdf file copies of half a dozen 18th Century books on the war with Typoo Sultan (for example, "A View of the Origin and Conduct of the War With Tippoo Sultan." Pub. 1800). I've suggested to Patrick that there might be a market for CD copies of public domain books on the subject. Anyone who is interested might express that interest to Patrick.

He also has available Andrew Preziosi's OBs for the various British wars in India. Andrew did a booklet on the First Sikh War a few years ago and has obtained much information since then (e.g., Sikh Army muster records) and has started a revised version of his book to cover, I believe, both Sikh Wars. A little encouragement through emails to Patrick might get Andrew to finish the project.

Dennis

All hail Dennis!

Thanks Dennis. I don't think I've read Burton. I was hoping it was Cook's tome, but that might have been too optimistic of me.

I'd picked up Preziosi's booklet when it came out. I revised my Volley and Bayonet (Hi Rich!) order of battle based on that data. We gamed Ferozeshah with the revised data – its a tough fight that almost always drags out into the second day of battle.

Ray: I played in your V&B Sikh Wars games 5 or 6 times (Ferozeshahshur 2 or 3 times)-that's what got me interested in the period. I wish you were still running them at Advance the Colors.

If you still want Cook, I know where there is a copy available for about $50. USD They come on the market periodically, generally more expensive-sometimes a bit cheaper. I think $30 USD or so is about the cheapest I've seen it. Even if you don't want the $50-copy I'll keep an eye out for a cheaper one.

Is there anything else on the Sikh Wars you are looking for? We haven't found a copy of the Zafarnama yet (actually I have, but my contacts in Lahore are not too good), but have most other primary and secondary sources.

Oh, and Tim Tilson has written a scenario book for TSATF for the period-including some Sikh v. Afgan and Sikh v. Sikh (Multan) stuff-I helped find him some maps, but am not sure when it will be published.

Dennis

I saw the Burton reprint at Barnes & Noble.