The Peninsular War 1807-1814 - A Concise Military History (Paperback, New ed)

The Peninsular War from 1807 - 1814 is often eclipsed by the spectacular individual battles by sea and land of the Napoleonic Wars. Yet it was the decisive struggle in which the Emperor's troops faced defeat for the first time.

Michael Glover's incisive history of the Peninsular War in Spain and Portugal draws on a wide range of sources - from the letters of Lord Wellington and King Joseph Bonaparte to accounts from private rifleman and sergeants of dragoons - to provide a fascinating insight into what it was like to march and fight, to eat and be wounded, to command and be commanded at the start of the nineteenth century. Stress is laid on the technological limitations of warfare during this period when all movement was limited to the pace of a heavily-laden infantryman moving across country.

Whether describing the struggle between the French and British armies or the sub-plot of the Spanish armed rising, the author brilliantly combines historical accuracy with a flair for bringing alive the people and events involved in this seven-year conflict.