This authoritative military history chronicles the significant but overlooked colonial wars between the British and the Asante of West Africa.Throughout the nineteenth century, Britain fought three major wars, and two minor ones, with the Asante people of West Africa. Like the Zulus, the Asante were a warrior nation who offered a tough adversary for the British regulars. And yet these wars are rarely studied and little understood. In this insightful and vividly deta...

Field Marshal Lord Wolseley was an eminent Victorian, one of a handful of late nineteenth-century military men whose reputation transcends his age. He served the British empire in Burma, India, China, the Crimea, Canada, Asante, Egypt, South Africa and the Sudan. He excelled as a regimental soldier, staff officer, army commander and reformer and eventually commander-in-chief. Yet there has been no substantial work on Wolseley for a generation and a reassessment based upon a fresh look at t...

Britain's war against the Zulu people of southern Africa in the late nineteenth century is one of the most famous clashes in the history of the British empire, but her earlier wars against the Xhosa, also in southern Africa, are far less well known. And, although the role Lord Chelmsford played in the Anglo-Zulu War has been recounted in exhaustive detail, his earlier experience against the Xhosa has rarely been explored in the same intensive way. That is why Stephen Manning's absorbing st...

Given the increasing interest in the Victorian era an authoritative biography of Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood VC is long overdue. By any standards his career was remarkable and began with him in the Royal Navy in the Crimea before he transferred to the cavalry to see more action.

How advances in weapons technology transformed the British soldier's experience of war during the nineteenth century.How did technical advances in weaponry alter the battlefield during the reign of Queen Victoria? In 1845, in the first Anglo-Sikh War, the outcome was decided by the bayonet; just over fifty years later, in the second Boer War, the combatants were many miles apart. How did this transformation come about, and what impact did it have on the experience o...

It may come as some surprise that in such a popular area of military history there is no book that focuses on the experience of the Victorian soldier - from recruitment to embarkation, fighting and perhaps returning, perhaps dying - in his own words. Dr Manning's meticulous research in primary sources gives the lie to the received image of the disciplined, redcoated campaigner of Victorian art and literature: for one thing, by the time he arrived at his destination, the co...

The breech-loading, single-shot .458in Martini-Henry rifle has become a symbol of both the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and the numerous battles in Egypt and the Sudan in 1884–85, but continued to be used by both British and colonial troops well into the 20th century. Its invention and introduction into British service were in direct response to the success of the Prussian Dreyse needle gun, which demonstrated that the breech-loading rifle offered faster loading, improved accuracy and superior r...

The breech-loading, single-shot .458in Martini-Henry rifle has become a symbol of both the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and the numerous battles in Egypt and the Sudan in 1884–85, but continued to be used by both British and colonial troops well into the 20th century.Its invention and introduction into British service were in direct response to the success of the Prussian Dreyse needle gun, which demonstrated that the breech-loading rifle offered faster loading, improved...

The Lee-Enfield is one of the 20th century's most recognisable and longest-serving military rifles.It was adopted by the British Army in 1895 and only replaced by the L1A1 SLR in 1957. It saw combat from the Boer War onwards, and some are still in use in the 21st century; it is estimated that 17 million have been produced. Soldier's recollections of the rifle are overwhelmingly affectionate (it was known as the Smellie); today it remains a very popular target rifle...

This volume offers an insight into the iconic Mauser family of German bolt-action rifles.Drawing on first-hand accounts of the weapons in combat and primary sources regarding their mechanical performance, this fully illustrated study charts the Mauser's origins, combat record and lasting influence. It explores the full range of Mauser rifles, beginning with the hugely successful Gew 98, which entered service in the time of the Kaiser, provided the basis for the US ...

A technical outline of the history of the sniper rifle, from its introduction in warfare during the Napoleonic wars, through the US Civil War to its current apogee as the most frequently used combat rifle in Iraq and Afghanistan. This book details the development of ammunition, different weapons types including single shot, magazine loading and semi-automatic, as well as the introduction and use of optical sights. Martin Pegler, a leading expert on the history of sniping and former Senior ...

Redcoat is the brilliant story of the common British soldier from 1700 to 1900, based on the letters and diaries of the men who served and the women who followed them.Delving into the history of the period – charting events including Wolfe's victory and death at Quebec, Wellington's Peninsular War, Waterloo, the retreat from Kabul and the Sikh wars – celebrated military historian Richard Holmes provides a comprehensive portrait of a fallible but extraordinarily successful fighting ...