All for the King's Shilling

All for the King's Shilling
Author :
Publisher : University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages : 400
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780806185453
ISBN-13 : 0806185457
Rating : 4/5 (53 Downloads)

Book Synopsis All for the King's Shilling by : Edward J Coss

Download or read book All for the King's Shilling written by Edward J Coss and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’s own words—“scum of the earth”—and assumed to have been society’s ne’er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke’s derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain’s industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain These men depended on the king’s shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army. Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon’s battle-hardened troops. The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington’s rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King’s Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.


All for the King's Shilling Related Books

All for the King's Shilling
Language: en
Pages: 400
Authors: Edward J Coss
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-10-11 - Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke’
British Soldiers, American War
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Don N. Hagist
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2014 - Publisher: Westholme Publishing

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Nine Rare and Fascinating First-Person Profiles of Soldiers Who Fought for the British Crown Much has been written about the colonists who took up arms during t
Redcoat
Language: en
Pages: 542
Authors: Richard Holmes
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2002 - Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Based on the letters and diaries of the British soldiers who served as the backbone of the army from 1760 to 1860, this illuminating book is rich in the history
Sahib
Language: en
Pages: 0
Authors: Richard Holmes
Categories: British
Type: BOOK - Published: 2006 - Publisher: HarperPerennial

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

From the author of Tommy and Redcoat, the history of the British soldier in India from Clive to the end of empire considered to be the jewel in Britain's imperi
The British Soldier in America
Language: en
Pages: 224
Authors: Sylvia R. Frey
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2012-11-15 - Publisher: University of Texas Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This social history of the common British soldier in the American Revolution dispels myths and sheds new light on who fought for the Crown—and why. In this ex