Wellington's Right Hand

Download or read book Wellington's Right Hand written by Joanna Hill and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill of Almarez was imaginative, brave – and perhaps more surprisingly for the period in which he lived an d fought – compassionate towards those under his command. He was a man who frequently led from the front in some of the deadliest battles ofthe Napoleonic Wars. Hill was given his own ‘detached’ corps and fought his way through Spain, Portugal and France, winning battles against the odds – such at St Pierre, where he defeated the redoubtable Maréchal Soult when outnumbered two to one. When ministers at home asked that Hill be allowed to leave the Peninsula and lead an army elsewhere, Wellington dismissed the idea with ‘Would you cut off my right hand?’ Hill fought at Roliça, Corunna, Talavera, Bussaco, Almarez, Vitoria and Waterloo. He succeeded the Duke in 1828 as Commander-in-Chief. Based upon theHill papers made available to Joanna Hill – the General’s great, great, great niece – and a wide range of other primary sources, Wellington’s Right Hand is an important addition to the literature of the Napoleonic age and in particular to that of the Peninsular War.