"The Military Memoirs of an Infantry Officer 1809-1816" Topic

Of possible interest?

Free to read

link

Armand

Thank you, Ive only had a quick look but have saved the link.

Ive noticed that quite a few people who wrote their memoirs tend to try to tell the history of the campaign to the extent that their personal stories get a bit obscured.
WW2 memoirs are quite different.

It only gradually becomes apparent that the author of "The Military Memoirs of an Infantry Officer 1809-1816," James Hope (1786-1871), was a subaltern in the 92nd Highlanders when he began his service as part of Chathams's disastrous Walcheren expedition of 1809. His service alternates between the 2nd Bn.and 1st Bn. of the 92nd. From Essex he proceeds to Ireland, then to the Pensinsula and ultimately to the fields of Quatre Bras and Waterloo

Given the author's curious choice not to identify clearly his regiment and lacking the immediacy and personal detail of a Journal, this memoir, recollected in tranquility and first published in 1833, is a little colourless in its earlier chapters, involving long periods of service away from the action, but it becomes more vivid in its account of the Waterloo campaign.

Memoirs from the period often went weak criticism of comrades seeming due to fear of legal retribution. Anything bad gets whitewashed into the unknown.
That's what I often see in these.

Thanks

Armand

Memoirs from the period often went weak criticism of comrades seeming due to fear of legal retribution. Anything bad gets whitewashed into the unknown.
That's what I often see in these.

Are you referring to British memoirs?