Carole Divall Livres

Vivid, scholarly account of the Battle of Vitoria and the 1813 campaign of the Peninsular War.

Military histories of the struggle against the French armies of the Revolution and Napoleon often focus on the exploits of elite units and famous individuals, ignoring the essential contribution made by the ordinary soldiers – the bulk of the British army. Carole Divall, in this graphic and painstakingly researched account, tells the story of one such hitherto ignored group of fighting men, the 30th Regiment of the Line. She takes their story from one of the opening clashes of the long war, the Siege of Toulon in 1793, to the decisive Battle of Waterloo in 1815. She gives us a fresh perspective on key events the men took part in – Massena’s retreat from the Lines of Torres Vedras, the bloody storming of Badajoz, the retreat from Burgos, the ordeal of the troops holding the center of Wellington’s Waterloo position. The regiment’s history – which she describes using some hitherto unpublished and vivid memoirs left by the men themselves and those they fought alongside – offers a fascinating insight into the life of British soldiers two centuries ago.

An analysis and evaluation of the British army sent to Egypt in 1801 to eject the French Army of the Orient.

Graphic account of Britain's role in the French Revolutionary Wars.

The men of the Fifth Division ('The Pioneers') were among the workhorses of the British Peninsular army. Lacking both the kudos and the wealth of letters, journals and memoirs of divisions like the Third and the Light, it is easy to overlook the part they played in the struggle that finally drove the French out of Spain and Portugal. Yet they were the first troops into the streets of Badajoz. They, along with the Third Division, played a crucial part in the great victory at Salamanca. And they made up the bulk of the troops that finally took San Sebastian after a protracted and bloody siege. There is also a surprisingly wide range of material that records both their exploits and the experience of serving in the war, extending from the voices of men in the ranks to company and staff officers, brigade commanders, and the journal of the aide-de-camp of the general most associated with the division, James Leith. Looking at one division in detail also allows analysis of the divisional system as it functioned in Wellington's Peninsular Army.The purpose of this study, therefore, is to retell a familiar story from a less familiar perspective and thus demonstrate the strategic relationship between the parts and the whole while also emphasizing that wars are fought by individuals - and no two individuals react in the same way. Each man's experience is his own.