8.75 x 5.5 in.  480 pages.
Greenhill Books Napoleonic Library

The men of the 95th Rifles (as the Rifle Brigade was originally known) produced some of the finest first-hand accounts written about the Napoleonic Wars. William Surtees' Twenty-Five Years in the Rifle Brigade is one of these, keeping company with other famous memoirs such as those by John Kincaid and George Simmons. All the esprit de corps, the initiative, the pluck and the glamour of the Rifles shine forth in these pages.

Sharing the perils of many a battlefield, Surtees provides valuable eyewitness descriptions of fighting in the Peninsular War. He relates episodes as dramatic as those featuring Richard Sharpe, Bernard Cornwell's fictional hero of the 95th - and the feats Surtees describes are all the more compelling for being true. His fellow soldiers include crack shots like Tom Plunkett, who helped drive back an enemy advance by getting close enough to shoot dead the French General Colbert. In another incident, a sergeant and a few followers one night creep past a French sentry to seize and break dozens of muskets piled in front of a house, before returning to their own lines unharmed. And amongst the many instances of bravery in action there is the unforgettable tale of Daniel Cadoux's stand against overwhelming odds on the bridge over the river Bidassoa at Vera.

As well as his experiences in the Peninsular War, Surtees vividly describes his baptism of fire with the 56th Regiment in the Netherlands under the Duke of York in 1799. He was also involved in an abortive expedition to northern Germany in autumn 1805, and a successful one with Sir Arthur Wellesley against the Danes to Copenhagen in 1807. After the conclusion of the Peninsular War, Surtees crossed the Atlantic to fight in the last stages of the 1812-14 war against America, and it is impossible not to sense his deep frustration at the mismanagement of these operations. He makes some penetrating comments on the conduct of the British commanders in America and contrasts their ineptness with Wellington's professionalism in the Peninsula.

In peace time, Surtees served in Ireland and Nova Scotia. He left the army in 1826 due to declining health, and died in 1830 at the age of forty-eight.

Twenty-five Years in the Rifle Brigade is essential reading for all enthusiasts in the Napoleonic Wars.

Ian Fletcher, who has written a new introduction for this edition, is one of the leading modern authorities on the Peninsular War, and his books include In Hell Before Daylight, Gentlemen's Sons, and For King and Country. He is also the director of Midas Battlefield Tours, and regularly leads tours of the Iberian Peninsula battlefields.

Greenhill Books  ISBN 1-85367-230-0

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