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All for the king's shilling : the British soldier under Wellington, 1808-1814
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All for the king's shilling : the British soldier under Wellington, 1808-1814

Author: Edward J Coss
Publisher: Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, 2010.
Series: Campaigns and commanders, v. 24.
Edition/Format:   Book : State or province government publication : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
These men depended on the king's shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army.
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Details

Named Person: Arthur Wellesley Wellington, Duke of
Material Type: Government publication, State or province government publication
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Edward J Coss
ISBN: 9780806141053 0806141050
OCLC Number: 436311226
Description: xxi, 374 p. : ill., ; 23 cm.
Contents: An unjust reputation: the genesis of the "scum of the earth" myth --
Gone for a soldier: the realities of enlistment --
Over the hills and far away: surviving on campaign --
A stick without a carrot: leadership and the soldiery --
Ordeal by fire: the British soldier in combat --
Banded brothers: combat motivation and the British ranker --
Into hell before daylight: Peninsular War sieges.
Series Title: Campaigns and commanders, v. 24.
Responsibility: Edward J. Coss ; Foreword by John F. Guilmartin, Jr.

Abstract:

These men depended on the king's shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army.

Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon's battle-hardened troops."--pub. desc.

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Linked Data


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schema:description"An unjust reputation: the genesis of the "scum of the earth" myth -- Gone for a soldier: the realities of enlistment -- Over the hills and far away: surviving on campaign -- A stick without a carrot: leadership and the soldiery -- Ordeal by fire: the British soldier in combat -- Banded brothers: combat motivation and the British ranker -- Into hell before daylight: Peninsular War sieges."
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