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Issue 6: April 2007. Articles. The Duke of Wellington, the Peninsular War and the War of 1812. Part II: Reinforcements, Views of the War and Command in North America. By John R. Grodzinski. Despite the drama regarding grain, the War of 1812 continued to be of secondary concern to the British Government until Napoleon abdicated in 1814.
Nov 13, 2014 · Furious, Wellington wrote to the secretary of war, Lord Bathurst on 29 July 1813 that: “Our Vagabond Soldiers” had been “Totally knocked up”. A little later, 2 July 1813, he expanded on his theme: “It is quite impossible for me or any other man to command a British Army under the existing system. We have in the service the scum of the ...
Issue 5: December 2006. The Duke of Wellington, the Peninsular War and the War of 1812. Part I: North America and the Peninsular War -- Logistics. By John R. Grodzinski. To most British historians, the War of 1812, or the Second American War as it is sometimes known, is an obscure contest, a sideshow to the much larger conflict waged against ...
- Younger Son
- A Politician as Well as A Soldier
- A Career Crafted in India
- Short on Sleep
- Giving Up His Bed
- A Front-Line Commander
- A Grey View of His Troops
- Visiting St Helena
- A Believer in Flogging
- Dreaming of Reformed Officers
Wellington was a younger son of Anglo-Irish nobility. He was born on May 1, 1769, in Dublin. His older brother Richard helped his early career. Richard was a gifted politician who supported Arthur in his rise through the military ranks. As Governor-General of Bengal, Richard acted as patron while they were both serving in India.
Although best remembered as a general, Wellington was also a politician. He sat in the Irish parliament in the 1790s and later became British Prime Minister, twice.
Wellington first came to prominence as a commander while serving in India in the late 1790s and early 1800s. He defeated a series of local leaders in battle, consolidating and expanding British territory in the subcontinent. He played an important role for Britain obtaining control of the whole region.
When necessary, Wellington could keep going for a long time on very little sleep. In the four days in the lead-up to the Battle of Waterloo and the battle itself, he had only nine hours sleep. He often stayed up until three in the morning organizing his army.
At Waterloo, one of his staff officers was severely injured. Having had his leg amputated, there was no certainty he would survive. Wellington gave him his bed and slept on a couch instead. He was woken during the night with the sad news that his colleague had died.
Like many commanders of the era, Wellington led from the front. He frequently came close to death due to artillery or small arms fire. He had several horses shot out from under him and bullets regularly left holes in his clothes and equipment. At Waterloo, a cannonball narrowly missed both Wellington and his horse and instead hit the unfortunate ma...
Wellington expressed views on his soldiers that appear confusing. On the one hand, he repeatedly referred to British infantry as scum. On the other, he talked in admiring terms of their achievements and emphasized they were the tools he needed to win battles. Those apparently contradictory views show a sophisticated understanding of his soldiers. H...
The victory at Waterloo led to Napoleon’s banishment to the Island of St Helena. Wellington understood well what life on the Island was like. On his journey home from India in 1805, he had stopped off at the isolated Atlantic island and stayed in the same building to which Napoleon was later exiled.
The love many of Wellington’s men showed him was not inspired by kindness. Wellington was a harsh disciplinarian who believed that strict punishments were needed to keep soldiers in line. He did not think imprisonment in barracks deterred men from serious failures of discipline. Instead, he advocated the regular use of flogging; the infamous cat o’...
Although a member of Britain’s traditional aristocratic officer class, Wellington saw deep flaws in the arrangement. Having obtained their commissions through wealth and family connections, many of the officers were as undisciplined and neglectful of their duties as their soldiers. It caused problems for the general, who wrote several times about t...
Mar 8, 2015 · This Sunday evening had ended Napoleon Bonaparte’s last desperate attempt to defeat the Allied powers (Britain, Prussia, the German states, and the Dutch/Belgians). The dead, dying, and wounded lay far thicker on the field of Waterloo on the evening of 18 June 1815 than on the Somme on the evening of 1 July 1916 around 55,000 of them across ...
- Military History
Instead, the key to Wellington's military success was an exceptionally keen understanding of the relationship between politics and war. Drawing on extensive primary research, Davies discusses Wellington's military apprenticeship in India, where he learned through mistakes as well as successes how to plan campaigns, organize and use intelligence, and negotiate with allies.
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Jun 18, 2015 · 4. Wet weather caused a fatal delay by Napoleon. Heavy rain fell upon the region around Waterloo on the night before the battle. Napoleon’s artillery was among his greatest strengths, but the ...
