On 16 May 1811, the small town of Albuera was the setting for one of the Peninsular War’s most bloody and desperate battles. A combined Spanish, British and Portuguese force of more than 30,000 men, under the command of Lord Beresford, stubbornly blocked the march of the French field marshal Soult, who was trying to reach the fortress of Badajoz, 12 miles north.Beresford, who defended himself with his bare hands against a Polish lancer, was victorious, but at the cost of 6,000 Alli...

This superb and comprehensive book details the foreign units which formed such an important part of Napoleon's forces. It examines each non-French unit in turn, giving an overview of the unit's origins, its organizational and combat history, its uniforms and standards, and details of the unit's eventual fate. Colourful accounts, taken from contemporary reports and memoirs, emphasize the qualities of the unit and throw light on what life was like for many of the foreign soldiers recruited i...

On 16 May 1811, the small town of Albuera was the setting for one of the Peninsular War's most bloody and desperate battles. A combined Spanish, British and Portuguese force of more than 30,000 men, under the command of Lord Beresford, stubbornly blocked the march of the French field marshal Soult, who was trying to reach the fortress of Badajoz, twelve miles to the north. However, after suffering losses of up to 7,000 men during the fighting, Wellington declared that, 'Another such battle...

The author of Wellington at Waterloo delivers an in-depth history of the military commander's tactics and strategy in the Peninsular War.After gaining strategic and tactical experience in Colonial India, Arthur Wellesley went to battle against French forces in the Peninsular War. With his decisive victories there, he ascended to the peerage of the United Kingdom as the 1st Duke of Wellington. In this volume, historian Jac Weller delivers a complete account ...

The struggle between Rome and Carthage in the Punic Wars was arguably the greatest and most desperate conflict of antiquity. The forces involved and the casualties suffered by both sides were far greater than in any wars fought before the modern era, while the eventual outcome had far-reaching consequences for the history of the Western World, namely the ascendancy of Rome. An epic of war and battle, this is also the story of famous generals and leaders: Hannibal, Fabius Maximus, Scipio Af...

Compelling fictional scenarios exploring how the Napoleonic Wars could have gone very differently.This compelling alternate history, brilliantly written by fourteen leading international authors, presents the great maybes of the Napoleonic Wars. It focuses on some of the pivotal episodes of these catastrophic wars, giving them a resounding twist, and explores in detail an alternative sequence of historical events.Rooted firmly in reality, and projected from...

At the heart of David Butterys third book on the Peninsular War lies the comparison between two great commanders of enormous experience and reputation Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington, and Jean de Dieu Soult. In Soult, Wellesley met one of his most formidable opponents and they confronted each other during one of the most remarkable, and neglected, of the Peninsular campaigns. Soults invasion of Portugal is rarely studied in great depth and, likewise, the offensive Wellesley laun...

By the spring of 1814 the Peninsular War was nearing its climax. The British army under Wellington was invading southern France, but they were faced by a larage French army under the cunning French Marshal Soult. Wellington's attack on Toulouse was to prove to be one of his hardest fought actions.The British, Portuguese and Spanish armies of Lord Wellington had defeated the French in Spain and were now invading France itself. They mustered about 40,000 men, but sheltering behind th...

Until now there has not been a serious study of the rifle-armed regiments of the British Army that earned such renown in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. Compiled by a former rifleman, Ray Cusick, who has written extensively on the subject, Wellington’s Rifles examines the new rifle regiments, how they came about, their development, and their actions.The author also investigates the introduction of rifled muskets into the British Army in the French and Indian wars of...

A portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington, and the fateful clash of their armies in 1815 from "a remarkably good writer" ( The New York Times). It was the greatest of battles—the defining military engagement of the nineteenth century that forever ended one man's dreams of a European empire unified under his rule. This epoch-defining conflict would ultimately be remembered for the showdown between two of history's most legendary com...

The New York Times–bestselling historian's "masterly . . . concise, pacy, and well-argued account" of Napoleon's final defeat ( The Sunday Telegraph).June 18, 1815, was one of the most momentous days in world history, marking the end of twenty-two years of French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. On the bloody battlefield of Waterloo, the Emperor Napoleon and his hastily formed legions clashed with the Anglo-Allied armies led by the Duke of Wellin...

This, the fourth volume in Andrew Field's highly praised study of the Waterloo campaign from the French perspective, depicts in vivid detail the often neglected final phase the rout and retreat of Napoleon's army. The text is based exclusively on French eyewitness accounts which give an inside view of the immediate aftermath of the battle and carry the story through to the army's disbandment in late 1815. Many French officers and soldiers wrote more about the retreat than they did about th...