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The Compleat Rifleman Harris: The Adventures of a Soldier of the 95th (Rifles) During the Peninsular Campaign of the Napoleonic Wars | 
 enlarge | Author: Benjamin Harris
Publisher: Leonaur Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £5.42
You Save: £2.57 (32%)
New (11) Used (4) from £5.42
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 65960
Media: Paperback
Pages: 188
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6
ISBN: 1846770475
Dewey Decimal Number: 900
EAN: 9781846770470
ASIN: 1846770475
Publication Date: March 30, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New book. Due to problems with Standard Airmail delivery times from the USA, we have switched to using PRIORITY AIRMAIL ONLY. UK & European delivery is 7-10 days.
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| Customer Reviews:
Gruelling Napoleonic soldiering from a Dorsetshire Sheppard. August 18, 2008
Sean (Northumberland, UK)
Numerous editions of this classic memoir exist; mostly all abridged. The publishers have done an excellent job here by provided Recollections of Rifleman Harris completely unabridged and unedited. The only liberty taken with the text is the establishment of chapters for clarity and ease. Also included is a 1928 introduction by Sir John Fortescue which neatly summarises the history of the 95th Rifles.
Rifleman Harris was not long in the Peninsular War and most of his days of soldiering were occupied in lengthy marching and sickness. He was present at only two set-piece battles (Rolica and Vimeiro) and was involved in Moore's Retreat to Corunna and the disastrous Walcheren Expedition. In the final chapter Harris recounts how he ended up convalescing in a veteran's battalion being finally discharged in 1814. Despite his absence from bouts of fighting he seems to have stayed in firm contact with the trials and tribulations of the 'Old 95'; anecdotes of certain solders at later battle are recounted for example.
Harris is indispensable for those wanting to understand the social-history of army-life: recruiting, sickness, desertion, regimental-women etc etc. He is also prone to the amusing battle anecdote. We find Harris, regimental-cobbler, with seemingly the entire 95th's shoes during the opening salvo at the Battle of Vimeiro! He is particularly famous for his eulogies of Robert Craufurd, the firm disciplinarian of the Rifle-Brigade, who maintained their discipline during the infamous retreat. The retreat is usually named after Corunna where Moore fought his fatal battle and allowed the army to disembark for England. In actual fact Craufurd's Brigade split from the main body in order to disembark at Vigo. Nevertheless, their plight was the same as their comrades heading for the former port and Harris is essential for discovering the horrors encountered their. Harris in fact barely made it.
Recollections was first published in 1848, a whole thirty-nine years after Harris arrived back from Walcheren stricken with fever. He was illiterate; his account being transcribed to a half-pay officer, Captain Henry Curling of the 52nd Foot, in a rather un-chronological fashion. In a way this adds to the charm of the piece: his recollections have not turned into a literary masterpiece aka Kincaid and Leech. Despite its ominous birth this is the most honest and authenticated voice of the British Napoleonic foot-soldier. The only memoir which can possibly compete for that accolade is the Letters of Private Wheeler.
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