Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket

Extremely well written. While not for perhaps the casual reader, this work has a depth that I have never found before. It moves back and forth among the private soldier, the non-commissioned offer and the officer castes with significant detail. I would rank this as a must have for any fiction author's shelf who writes of the era.

"Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket" is a well written survey by Richard Holmes of the British Army in the period from roughly the Seven Years War to the Crimean War. As Holmes points out, this is the period of time in which the British Army, although never the size of its European counterparts, managed to play a key role in the conflicts of Europe, especially the Napoleonic Wars, and in the establishment of a worldwide Empire. How the British Army was equal to this challenge is the subtle theme of this book."Redcoat" is not a battle history, although Holmes makes frequent references to the Army in battle and on campaign. Instead, Holmes focuses on the organization, equipment, and life of the Army during this period. We find that the British Army ranked behind the Royal Navy in terms of funding and prestige, and was saddled with a complicated, even Byzantine organizational and support structure designed, perhaps, to keep it from being too efficient and therefore a threat to the state it served.Holmes suggests that the British Army fashioned its success out of a unique set of circumstances that involved the integration of a more or less volunteer soldier into regiments with generally well-established traditions, armed with basically reliable weapons, and led by officers and NCO's who, if often more enthusiastic than professional, was also often surprisingly good. Out of these combinations came an infantry that was as professional, and as successful in battle, as that of any nation in the period; the British cavalry and artillery also often performed well.That the British Army suffered from all the shortcomings of any armed force in that age (or any age) is also thoroughly explored by Holmes. Particular attention is paid to a draconian system of discipline and to what now seems like incredibly harsh and unhealthy living conditions."Redcoat" covers over a century of conflict and numerous changes in organization, equipment, and national policy. This is perhaps too much material to handle in a single volume; the narrative ocassionally wanders and sometimes jumps from topic to topic. Richard Holmes is an exceptional capable writer who is obviously very familiar with his subject. Readers who can persist through the long text will be rewarded by his combination of factual narrative and vivid vignettes that provide a human scale to the story. Holmes has included a nice set of illustrations.This book is highly recommended to the reader looking for a survey level treatment of the British Army for the period. This book is also a solid foundation for those intending a more detailed study of the role of the British Army in, for example, the Napoleonic Wars.

Perhaps the single most identifiable soldier in History, the British Redcoat, gets Author Holmes' undivided attention in this delightful volume, and it's about time. As an avid reader of 18th and 19th Century British military history, I thought myself thoroughly familiar with the lives and times of the common soldier, loved or reviled by the same sobriquet, "Redcoat", but I couldn't resist ordering this volume just in case, and I'm very glad I did. In reading it, one realizes that the numerous works recounting major battles, etc., although necessarily touching on the lives of those who fought them, seldom take the time (or make the effort) to dwell on them. Using the technique so skillfully and more expansively employed by Lyn MacDonald in her wonderful World War I books, that is, the recollections of actual soldies as an integral part of the narrative, Holmes weaves a rich and unique tapestry of every facet of the British soldier's life during the period (c. 1755-1860) with discussions of military actions limited to setting the stage for the "real" central players, the men who took the orders rather than gave them. If this concentration on rank-and-file British combatants of the era is not unique to this book, it is certainly rare in my experience, and I recommend this fine work to anyone interested in the period and its soldiers.

The book is well-written and engaging. It is especially nice to see the wide array of sources consulted, most of all those of the men themselves. An overview, even thought it is not a short book, but a very good one.

So well researched and presented. Mr. Holmes evidently cares about his subject and left me with the feeling that I should also care about these long dead Redcoats.

Mostly about european and India wars, wel written but a bit dry

This book tells the history of the British Soldiers from about 1760 to the beginning of World War I.. It is history written at it best, and reads more like a novel than a history book. It is well worth a read even if you are not a history buff.

a thorough and readable account of the Brits attempt to subject and exploit the weaker races of the world

A first class and fully comprehensive account of what it was like to be a common soldier in the British army spanning more than a hundred years. Redcoat gives you all the stuff you'd expect about uniforms, orders of battle, discipline and arms. It covers the changes that happened in the span between the Seven Years War up to the Crimea. It covers the variations by regiment, the culture changes that the various high heid yins brought about (naturally, particularly Wellington). But it also gives the a real, very real feel for what it was like. How officers and men interacted. How Highlanders were viewed compared to, say, the Welsh or the Irish. The careraderie and the 'brothers in arms' spirit. The esprit de corps, and the suffering - there was a lot of suffering. It also has my favourite thing, gossip and funny stories and the kind of fascinating little factoids that you remember.In fact, I only have one grip with this book, and it's the type face. I still buy all my research books in good old-fashioned print - I like to have them on the shelves. The print in this one is so tiny I couldn't read it without extra light. Now, I know, I probably do need reading glasses, and I shouldn't cling to having had 20/20 vision all my life when I probably don't now, and yes, my eyes get very tired after a day at the screen but really - not even 20 years ago could I have read this easily.However, don't let that put you off. This is a book I'll go back to again and again. In fact, I'm using it right now. Highly recommended, though not exactly a light read!

I am almost, but not quite, a nerd on Wellington and Marlborough. So found this a very interesting book. My own view is that even if you're a long way from being a nerd on either this book will be of interest. Many of us, whether we know it or not, will have ancestors that fought in the UK Army and this is a book that deals with the many.

This book creates a great panorama of life for the soldier of any rank serving in the British army during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It made me think about the lives and experiences of the thousands and thousands of men who drank, drilled, fought and died in campaigns in Continental Europe and all over the growing Empire (and the women who went with them). It is full of fascinating details and highly informative. I learned a lot about the national make-up of the army, uniform, hardships, weapons, drill, attitudes to discipline, bravery and battle formation (I now understand better why the change of direction manoeuvres performed at Trooping the Colour were once so important in battle). But - and this is why I gave four stars to a book that is more accomplished than books to which I would give five - the way the material is organised seems rather vague, with different sections covering separate topics, which I found difficult to follow. I haven't read anything else yet by Richard Holmes, so I'll have to read more to see if this really is a fault or the just way he puts his material togther. That said, I found the Introduction robust and clear, and the Epilogue a moving epitaph.

Richard Holmes presents an account not of military history, but of a history of the military over almost two centuries.The ordinary soldier, the " old snotty " is at last given his deserved mention in our military annals.This book lists in chapters the ways of life for soldier and officer over many conflicts, in some aspects there seemed little change in the armys administrative policy, with shameful conditions expected to be endured by the lads. Officers often ( but not always ) fared better, depending on where the action took place and the demands of local terrain, obviously the climate also played a large part in affairs.The section on disease and medicine, Doctors and Surgeons, and wounds recieved,i found very significant, particularly the appalling conditions of ' field hospitals '.This book is a must for anyone who wishes to understand soldiering,the American war of independence, the Napolionic wars , the Indian mutiny, the Crimea are all covered with letters, memoirs and official correspondence from the periods. I found it difficult to put this one down, ' Holmesie ' does'nt leave much out.A good book at a very fair price. Redcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and MusketRedcoat: The British Soldier in the Age of Horse and Musket

A thoroughly researched and detailed account , enlivened by the use of archive and eye witness materials. The author's command of the subject is masterful but his real affection and admiration for the man in red show through and win our hearts.