Wellington's Rifles: Six Years to Waterloo with ...

Great Read -- Suspense, Color, Regimental Life, and the Hard Facts of History:
I may be late in writing this review, but I picked up this book recently to understand more about the circumstances endured by Wellington's troops on the Penisula and their campaign. I was not disappointed! Author Urban covers only the 95th Rifle Regiment, but to attempt more would have seriously detracted from his story. The Regiment performed brilliantly, with warts and all, proving that open, skirmisher formations were the wave of the future, something that had to be learned again by American Generals in the Civil War. Urban's focus on individuals to tell his story produced excellent readability and allowed the reader to become involved with the book's leading characters. One almost sees the hardships, leadership problems, bravery and emotions of the riflemen. Few authors can achieve this degree of connection with his readers in an historical work -- Urban's counterpart in writing about a later war might be Stephen Ambrose. This would be an excellent primer on life in a Napoleonic army, except that the riflemen were relatively unique for their time. They stressed marksmanship, and even as light troops could withstand attacks by line troops. They were tactical descendents from the American riflemen in the Revolutionary War who are normally denigrated today by historians. Apparently contemporary historians have misunderstood riflemen -- there usefulness was not limited by their slow rate of fire but by a lack of training and discipline. The 95th did not suffer from a lack of training and discipline, and there is much to learn here that can be applied elsewhere. My only criticism concerns the maps. They were of limited usefulness, and I found myself using the maps contained in a little book, "Napoleon's Campaigns" by Bruce Quarrie to understand the troop deployments and movements in the various battles. The prose is sometimes difficult to follow for an individual desiring to maintain an image of the battles in his head while reading, and better maps would be a plus. All in all, if you're interested in the Napoleonic era, its armies, soldiers' lives and how warfare was conducted, then buy this book.

A Rifleman's View of the Peninsular War:
Mark Urban's excellent "Wellington's Rifles" is an innovative history of the 95th Rifle Regiment and especially of its first battalion duirng 1809-1814 in the Peninsular War. Urban's comprehensive research into the memoires, diaries, and letters of members of the regiment during its time in Portugal and Spain has produced an account told from the point of view of the riflemen themselves. This account is very much analogous to Stephen Ambrose's "Band of Brothers" in exploring not only the battle history of the unit but also its internal chemistry and why it was consistently such an effective unit. Urban paints an honest, warts and all picture of the First Battalion of the 95th. We meet its officers and soldiers under the best and worst of conditions, and find that the Rifles were composed of very normal human beings made into a nearly unbreakable unit by tough but effective training, good leadership, and a well-founded sense that they were special. At the same time, they were prone to the same challenges and temptations as other units. The 95th suffered hunger and cold at the distant end of supply lines, endured incredible marches over the primitive roads of Iberia, survived sometimes horrific wounds on the battlefield, and participated in less than honorable events such as the pillaging that followed the storming of Badajoz in 1812. Urban focuses on several individuals who served for extended periods in the Peninsular War, providing a thread of continuity through the account. The 95th represented a departure from the standard tactics of the era, of units maneuvering and firing in mass. The Rifles were trained to fight in extended order as light infantry and were issued the Baker Rifle, which made them deadly effective individual sharpshooters at much greater range than their infantry counterparts. As Urban makes clear in his epilogue, the Rifles were the precusor to the modern infantry units of the British and American armies. This book is very highly recommended to students of the history of the British Army and to students of the military art.

The Real Riflemen:
Having read just about every Sharpe book by Bernard Cornwell, I wanted to learn about the real 95th Rifles. Mark Urban wrote a readable history of the Rifles, and throughout the book also focused on several individual Riflemem. I do wish, however, that he had drawn some maps of the battles rather than use unreadable copies of old maps.

Almost as Exiting as a Richard Sharpe Novel!:
This is a pacey history of the 95th Rifle Battalion from the commencement of their Peninsular Campaign through to the final climatic Battle of Waterloo. The Author draws on Letters etc from a number of Officers & other ranks to add a personal feel for the times. Great battle descriptions & some very enlightening information on "Black Bob" the commander of the Light Division. I would recommend this book to all history fans of the Napoleonic War & of the Sharpe TV & Book series.

Wellington's Rifles:
This is a really good read! Granted I'm a Napoleonic buff, but this is the second book I've read by Mark Urban (The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes). I'm really impressed by the readability and detail of his work, and that does not always go together in non-fiction.