"Favorite English Napoleonic Memoirs/Diaries?" Topic

Who are your favorite English speaking diarists and authors of memoirs from the Napoleoic period that you read and recommend? Why? Links if you have em!

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Harry Smith,young rifle officer in the peninsula and Waterloo,hope you haven't read it yet.

I haven't, and it looks wonderful!

I second Harry Smith. (Silly fact – the town of Ladysmith in South Africa is named after his wife)

There are a number of other memoirs of British Peninsular veterans – from memory there was a Kincaid that was OK?

What I want is a translated Prussian one.

The Memoirs of Baron Marbot are well worth the read if you can find a copy, a translated version of course. I found an 1891 copy at a Rare Book store years ago and it was worth the cost.

Are you looking for diaries written in or translated to English, or written exclusively by English diarists?

Several come to mind off the top of my head:

G. R. Gleig – good narrative descriptions of people & places, including skirmishes & battles. Published several diaries covering campaigns in Spain, France, Maryland and Louisiana; his The Subaltern is probably the most famous. It has a particularly vivid account of capturing a French NCO within minutes of having his backpack penetrated by a rocket.

Edward Costello – articulate & engaging account of the peninsular war from a rifleman's point of view.

John Le Couteur – Le Couteur was commander of the light company of the 104th New Brunswick Regiment. Good descriptions of skirmishes across the Canadian-US border and also of the winter march of the 104th from the coast to Uppper Canada.

For something really with a different perspective, try John Fredriksen's (ed.) The War of 1812 in Person: Fifteen Accounts by United States Army Regulars, Volunteers and Militiamen, which has a wealth of detail about units & tactics used in North America.

Also though not strictly a memoir, Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France is simultaneously partisan but eloquently well-written. (Napier commanded the 43rd Regiment.)

Rick

There's an exceptional list of memoirs and diarists, published as part of the book, Inside Wellington's Peninsular Army.

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npm

Have Marbot, thanks bkim- It's great-excellent stories.

Both, Big Red

Thanks npm, I forgot I had that-any particularly well written ones, or particularly good story telling that stand out?

Any good stuff available on Google Books anyone recommends?

Wheeler spins a good yarn.

"On The Road With Wellington: The Diary of a War Commissary in the Peninsular Campaigns" A Schaumann

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Excellent read and one that Bernard Cornwell used for background when writing the Sharpe books.

Kincaids books may be on Google Books.

William Grattan, Adventures With The Connaught Rangers, 1809-1814
Some of the best battle descriptions of all the Napoleonic Memoirs; very good account of the Siege of Badajoz, contains many amusing anecdotes; informative description of the disasterous retreat from Burgos.

Sir Benjamin D'Urban, The Reninsular Journal of Major General Sir Benjamin d'Urban
Dry as a nun's proverbial but an invaluable reference for day-to-day sitreps and troop movements away from the main British army.

S.A.C. Cassels (ed.) Peninsular Portrait 1811-1814: The Letters of Captain William Bragge
One of the few journals/diaries of a cavalry officer serving in the British army in the peninsula.

I would like to mentioned captain Mercer's Journal Of The Waterloo Campaign .It give you a experience of Waterloo as if you were there .

@ imrael,

If you are looking for an English translation of a Prussian memoir , you can read the Memoirs of Baron von Muffling, Greenhill Books, 1997.

The absolute very best, and I challenge anyone who says otherwise, is "Military Life Under Napoleon" by Capt. Elzear Blaze.

This is good.
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Its worth mentioning that Marbot and Reality were not always on speaking terms.

I would add to those mentioned:

Moyle Sherer – Recollections of the Peninsula

John Douglas – Tale of the Peninsula and Waterloo

Jonathan Leech – Captain of the 95th Rifles

Robert Batty – Campaign of the Left Wing of the Allied Army in The Western Pyrenees and South of France, in the years 1813-14; under Field Marshall the Marquess of Wellington (Also available as -With the Guards across the Pyrenees)

George Robert Gleig – The Subaltern – A Chronicle of the Peninsular War

Tomkinson (of 16th Light Dragoons) is an excellent British cavalry memoir, with much tactical detail of how cavalry actually operated.

Rod

About Blaze, here's a great, old, NYTimes review…

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@ Clay the Elitist
Very treasure , thanks .