Redcoats Against Napoleon: The 30th Regiment During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

 
Independent review:
The 30th Regiment was already a unit with more than a hundred years of history behind it before the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, having been founded in 1689 by Sir George Sounderson, Bart., from Saxby in Lincolnshire. The author of this book focuses in particular on the action seen by the 2nd battalion of the Regiment from the start of the revolutionary wars until the final defeat of Napoleon. As readers will be aware, the British Regiment had two battalions, one of which was sent to fight in the Indies, while the second was to face the young Captain Napoleon Bonaparte at the Siege of Toulon in 1793, to fight his army in Egypt, at the Battle of Alexandria, to take part in the Spanish campaign, at Torres Vendras and Badajoz, and to come face to face with the Emperor himself – one last time – in the centre of the British formation at Waterloo. The author also follows the career of the Regiment's Lieutenant-Colonel, Alexander Hamilton, up until the Battle of Quatre-Bras on 16 June 1815, where he was wounded. She also offers a concise account of the action seen by the 1/30 battalion in the Indies. In general terms, Carolle Dival provides a well documented picture of a typical British regiment at the time of the Napoleonic Wars – its structure, activities and history. Units of this kind were to form the core of a professional British army, which would go on to inflict the final defeat on Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. The Regiment changed commanders no fewer than four times on the day of the battle – the third in command, Captain Thomas Walker Chambers, being fatally wounded at the end of the battle. The esprit de corps of the old Regiment has survived in its present incarnation, the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment. Readers wishing to learn more about the history of a unit that played such a significant part in the final defeat of Napoleon will find Ms. Divall's first book extremely interesting.
 
T. Zacharis