Triumphs & Disasters

Book excerpt: Sir Thomas Grahams Netherlands Campaign of 18131814 has produced a surprisingly rich crop of memoirs and letters. This compelling new book brings together six of the shorter accounts, several of them never before seen in print, to help shed new light on the triumphs and disasters of these forgotten operations. Mixing formal reports with lively personal narratives, and contemporary letters and diaries with later reflections, this selection covers all the major actions of the campaign and the authors range from one of Grahams senior staff to an NCO in one of his infantry battalions. In addition to explanatory notes throughout, detailed appendices resolve some of the controversies arising from these and other eyewitness accounts, helping to increase our understanding of these little-known but important operations. Carefully researched and expertly compiled by historian Andrew Bamford, this is a valuable and absorbing new source, which will be of great interest to any student of the period.