The Waterloo Archive: Volume III: The British Sources

 
From the publishers:
The British archives of the Napoleonic wars are unique, brimming as they are with personal letters to family and friends or journals that record their innermost thoughts. The human aspect of war comes to the fore, the humour and exhilaration; the fears and miseries; the starvation and exhaustion; the horror and the joy.
 
It is usually accepted that very few common soldiers of this period could read or write and that the few letters and journals that do exist emanate from more senior officers, who were required to be able to write to perform their duties. Volume I proved this to be a fallacy, and this volume continues with a further three accounts, showing how the ordinary soldier saw things, and thereby giving a different aspect to our studies.
 
Volume III features poignant final letters, accounts of daily life (including visits to brothels and civilian post-battle descriptions) and military narratives.