Officers & Gentlemen

Officer of Light Dragoons by Peter Hawker
Campaign in Portugal and Spain by William Graham
Two accounts of contrasting perspectives of the British Army in the field
This book is yet another Leonaur 'two for the price of one' volume bringing together two vital accounts of the experiences of British soldiers on campaign within a single great value edition. The first account is based on a journal kept by a captain of HM 14th Light Dragoons and takes the reader to war against Napoleon's Army in the company of the cavalry through the Talavera campaign of 1808 and 1809. William Graham was an officer in the Commissariat and he clearly relished his first opportunity to 'travel' as he gives us great detail of the doings of the army and the countryside through which it campaigned. Graham seems to have been prepared to move closer to the battlefield than his occupation might suggest making this an entertaining account of life in Wellington's Army as it pushed northwards to the Pyrenees and the South of France.