Recollections of Rifleman Harris
Benjamin Harris
A British rifleman's first-hand account of the Napoleonic Wars, dictated decades later from the memory of marches, breaches and the harrowing retreat to Corunna.
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Resources
Memoirs, modern histories, museums, archives, maps and podcasts: the archivist's further shelves.
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Primary Sources
- Benjamin Harris · Recollections of Rifleman Harris1848
Dictated memoir; the finest private-soldier view of the Peninsula.
- John Kincaid · Adventures in the Rifle Brigade1830
Droll, literate Kincaid of the 95th: indispensable, and very funny.
- George Robert Gleig · The Subaltern1825
An officer's view of the final Pyrenees and Nivelle campaigns.
- Armand de Caulaincourt · With Napoleon in Russia1825 (pub. 1933)
The Emperor's Grand Equerry on the 1812 catastrophe. A pitiless source.
- Adrien Bourgogne · Mémoires du sergent Bourgogne1835
The retreat from Moscow in the voice of a guardsman who survived it.
- Jean-Baptiste Marbot · Mémoires du Général Baron de Marbot1891
Theatrical, self-serving, marvellously readable: the ne plus ultra of cavalry memoirs.
- Cavalié Mercer · Journal of the Waterloo Campaign1870
A Royal Horse Artillery captain's day-by-day account of the Hundred Days. The Waterloo classic.
- William Napier · History of the War in the Peninsula (6 vols)1828–40
A participant's narrative that still defines Anglophone Peninsula historiography.
Modern Histories
- David Chandler · The Campaigns of Napoleon1966
The single-volume standard in English on the Napoleonic army and its operations.
- Charles Esdaile · Napoleon's Wars: An International History2007
The modern synthesis. Political, economic, military, all continents.
- Adam Zamoyski · 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow2004
Uses Polish and Russian sources; superb.
- Adam Zamoyski · Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna2007
The diplomats take over where the soldiers left off.
- Rory Muir · Wellington: The Path to Victory 1769–1814 / Wellington: Waterloo and the Fortunes of Peace 1814–18522013 / 2015
The definitive modern biography.
- Andrew Roberts · Napoleon: A Life2014
Sympathetic, thorough, based on the Correspondance Générale.
- Alessandro Barbero · The Battle: A New History of Waterloo2003
An elegant, multi-perspective day at Mont-Saint-Jean.
- Philip Haythornthwaite · The Armies of Wellington / Napoleon's Military Machine1994 / 1988
The order-of-battle reference shelves. Uniforms, weapons, organisation.
- Roger Knight · Britain Against Napoleon2013
The war from Whitehall and the dockyards. Logistics as drama.
- Dominic Lieven · Russia Against Napoleon2009
The other side of 1812: the Russian war from St Petersburg out.
Companion to Sharpe
- Bernard Cornwell · Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles2014
Cornwell's own non-fiction reckoning with his Waterloo novel.
- Bernard Cornwell · Sharpe's Skirmish / Sharpe's Ransom (the short stories)1999 / 1994
For the completist. Appended to many paperback reissues.
- Mark Adkin · The Sharpe Companion: The Early Years2003
Maps, orders of battle, uniform plates: the enthusiast's toolbox.
- Mark Adkin · The Waterloo Companion2001
Not a Sharpe book as such, but a field-by-field dissection of the battle of the last novel.
Available on Amazon
A handful of recommended editions, in print and easy to find. Each link opens at Amazon in a new tab.
Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies and Three Battles
Bernard Cornwell
Cornwell's gripping non-fiction reckoning with the four days that ended Napoleon's Empire on the muddy ridge of Mont-Saint-Jean.
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The Campaigns of Napoleon
David G. Chandler
The single-volume standard in English on Napoleon as a soldier: every campaign, every battle, every gambit, in one monumental study.
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Wellington: A Personal History
Christopher Hibbert
Hibbert's intimate biography of the Iron Duke: politician, husband, soldier, and the only general to beat Napoleon in a pitched battle.
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The Sharpe Companion
Mark Adkin
An illustrated reader's guide to Cornwell's Sharpe novels with maps, orders of battle and historical commentary for every book in the series.
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An Illustrated Encyclopedia: Uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars
Digby Smith
An illustrated reference to every army of the period: facings, shakos, sabretaches and standards from Lisbon to Moscow.
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Museums & Battlefields
Chelsea, London
Peninsular and Waterloo galleries; Wellington's funeral uniform; Sharpe-era weapons and kit.
Winchester
The Rifles' descendant museum: Baker rifles, jackets, the best 95th collection in the world.
Hôtel des Invalides, Paris
The Napoleonic rooms are unparalleled; the Emperor's tomb is in the dome above.
Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium
The Waterloo battlefield visitor centre and the restored farm of Hougoumont.
Lisbon
Portuguese perspective; Torres Vedras diorama and Peninsular artillery.
Mozhaysky District, Russia
The battlefield preserved: the Raevsky redoubt, the Bagration flèches.
Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Battle of Vitoria 1813 section with uniforms and a vast miniature diorama of the field.
Online Archives
Online
A vast, volunteer-curated archive of orders, OOBs, uniform essays, book reviews.
Online
The French national library's digitised holdings: memoirs, Moniteurs, lithographs.
Podcasts
Podcast · Everett Rummage
Deep, lucid narrative of Napoleon's life campaign by campaign.
Podcast · Stevenson, Mikaberidze, White, Andress
A scholarly, multi-expert panel on the period; a worthy pairing to the above.
Podcast
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook on the period. Accessible and sharp.
Maps
Online · free
Still the best quick-reference maps of every major campaign.
Print / online
Modern topography laid over Wellington's maps.
Belgium
The field itself, road-walkable, cornfield by cornfield.
The Archive is a labour of love, not an academic register. Corrections and suggestions are always welcome; the bibliography above is a starting point, not a last word.