A GENTLEMAN VOLUNTEER: THE LETTERS OF GEORGE HENNELL FROM THE PENINSULAR WAR, 1812-1813

by Hennell, George. Edited by Michael Glover

Price: $25.00
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Heinemann, London, (1979), first edition.. 181 pp, large 8vo (9 1/2" H), hard cover in dust jacket. B&w reproductions, maps, battle plans. "George Hennell, born about 1785 the son of a Coventry ribbon manufacturer and tradesman, joined Wellington's army in the Peninsula as a Volunteer, was . commissioned in the field in the Forty-third Light Infantry, and served through the campaigns of 1812-13. Of his letters home twenty-six (all but two of them unpublished) survive, and these have been edited by the historian Michael Glover with a ge. neral introduction, summaries of the events in the campaign covered by the letters, notes and appendices. The discovery of the letters represents a considerable find. Hennell is particularly good at conveying the detail of everyday life in the . f i e ld and camp and from his vivid pen the reader can gain a first-hand impression of what it was like to be a young officer on active service more than a century and a half ago. He is exceptional as a reporter because he not only recounts events. a s th ey happen but tries to analyse his own reactions to the dangers and horrors through which he is passing. He sometimes illustrated his letters with diagrams and fluent sketches, several of which are reproduced in this book. Hennell's story . beg in s d ramatically in the thick of the action when as a raw recruit armed only with a letter of introduction to General Picton he joins the British camp just two days before the bloody storming of the citadel of Badajoz. It ends with the victor. ious ar my d escending the Pyrenees to invade the soil of France shortly before the fall of Napoleon." Previous owners small stamp and small bookstore label on front pastedown, light edge wear and wrinkling at top/bottom of spine, very light wear . at co rner s. D ust jacket has very light edge wear/wrinkling. VG/VG.

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