Recollections of Rifleman Harris - A British Soldier in the Napoleonic Wars (Harris Benjamin)(Paperback / softback)

Diaries, memoirs, and letters by officers of the Napoleonic era abound, but there are few reminiscences by common foot soldiers. This extraordinarily vivid and entirely authentic report by British rifleman Benjamin Harris offers rare glimpses of life among the enlisted men. Harris's personal anecdotes, brimming with ready wit and memorable descriptions, tell of military life from the bottom up: the soldiers' camaraderie amid physical hardships and inadequate supplies and equipment, their endemic drunkenness and frequent hunger, the terrible punishments meted out for even small infractions, and the narrow margin between death and survival.
In the mid-1830s, Harris was working as a London cobbler when he met a former British Army officer who asked him to recount his wartime experiences. A natural storyteller with a remarkable tale to tell, Harris recalled his years of active service,
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