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Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolutionx$9.74
  (8 reviews)
Best Price: $9.74
A unique perspective on the American Revolution, seen through the eyes of a redcoat regiment. From Lexington Green in 1775 to Yorktown in 1781, one British regiment marched thousands of miles and fought a dozen battles to uphold British rule in America: the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Their story, and that of all the soldiers England sent across the Atlantic, is one of the few untold sagas of the American Revolution, one that sheds light on the war itself and offers surprising, at times unsettling, insights into the way the conflict was conducted on both sides. Drawing on a wealth of previously unused primary accounts, Mark Urban describes how British troops adopted new tactics and promoted new leaders, showing how the foundations were laid for the redcoats’ subsequent heroic performance against Napoleon. But the letters from members of the 23rd and other archival accounts reveal much more than battle details. Living the revolution day-to-day, the Fusiliers witnessed acts of kindness and atrocity on both sides unrecorded in histories of the war. Their observations bring the conflict down to human scale and provide a unique insight into the inner life of the soldier in the late eighteenth century.
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Customer Reviews
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Truly Brilliant, and new stuff on every page
By A2B1GZIRD6W646 on 2008-01-01
I have, over the years, read a lot of stuff on the American Revolution. The vast majority of the scholarship on the subject is from the American point of view. There have been a few exceptions, over the years, but most of the books have had little new to say about the war from the British point of view. This book then is almost unique, and adds a lot to what we know about the American Revolution.
Rather than study the British war effort in general, the author chooses to follow a particular British infantry regiment, the 23rd "Royal Welch Fusiliers". He explains everything in considerable detail, from the fact that the "Welch" part of their name is derived from the Prince of Wales, not from the unit being raised in Wales itself, around to the revelation that the term "Fusiliers", which had originally meant light infantry, was largely an honorific by the time of the American revolution. The Royal Welch Fusiliers actually had a company of grenadiers, which if you know your military parlance is contradictory. Regardless, the RWF fought in almost every major battle and campaign of the war, except Saratoga, starting out in Massachusetts at the march back from Concord, and concluding 8 years later at Yorktown.
The author works very hard to follow the regiment through each of the battles and campaigns that they fought in, and dissects everything from the way the Redcoats were recruited and equipped to how they were trained, and how they fought the war. The result is a detailed, intelligent overview of the British Army during the American Revolution which produces some surprises and a considerable amount of information. It turns out, for instance, that the British Army wasn't as competent as some historians would have you believe when the war started. The author thinks that poor fire discipline among the British soldiers may have touched the war off at Lexington, and gives as his opinion that William Howe's tactical reforms of the British army were much more important than anyone has since acknowledged. While he faults both Howe and later Cornwallis as strategists, he insists that as tacticians they were very skilled, and that their ideas led to the army that defeated Napoleon at Waterloo a little more than 30 years after the end of the Revolution.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. It's very well-written, and it includes a wealth of information that other books on the American Revolution only touch on briefly if at all. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in warfare during the era, and especially to those interested in either the American Revolution or the Wars against Napoleon.
An interesting but critically flawed work
By A1USKD6FWY7BHP on 2008-06-10
As others have mentioned a look at the American War of Independence written exclusively from the point of view of the British soldiers and line officers seemed to be a unique and welcome addition to the historical record of this conflict. The author cites a number of first-hand accounts from letters and diaries from the men of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and weaves these quotations into a general narrative of the conflict. Unfortunately a number of obvious factual errors and a stronger than necessary bias within the narrative detracted greatly from what would otherwise have been an interesting work.
My first concern came in the preface of the book in which the author said that even the better U.S. historians "stick to the enemy-image of the redcoat as a brutalized robot, marching on inept orders, " and that American writers only find "inventive leadership, enthusiasm and bravery" in the ranks of Washington's army. These pointed comments which I totally disagree with, were a good indication of what was coming. The book was filled with numerous minor unnecessary slights to Americans. For instance, 315 prisoners from the Battle of Brandywine are called "American deserters". Regarding the American army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1776 the author described their motivation for being there as "booze, food and clothing, as well as affording the prospect of adventure". What?!! These and countless other admittedly minor, but still tough to swallow "opinions" not backed up by any primary source materials made this an irritating and sometimes infuriating book to read.
While my complaint of bias might be argued by some as simply a matter of national perspective the factual errors mentioned above are not. Any history book hoping to be taken seriously cannot claim that the British sailed up the Delaware river in the summer of 1777 to take Philadelphia, when every high-school history student knows that Howe sailed up the Chesapeake Bay and landed his troops at the "Head Of Elk" near Elkton, Maryland. The first mission of a history text should be not to get the obvious things wrong.
Criticisms aside, this book does shed light on the day-to-day combat soldier's life and the unique system of advancement within the British army, but requires extreme detachment on the part of the American reader to get through it. A far, far better alternative of the war through British eyes is "Those Damned Rebels" by Michael Pearson which I would place very highly in the annals of the histories of the American War of Independence.
From the firing line!!
By A62AVEJPLDKEZ on 2008-02-25
Mark Urban's Fusiliers is a classic example of the value of first hand accounts in the hands of a master craftsman. Urban is every bit the story teller as Thomas Fleming.
As the earlier very fair review noted, the author retells the battles of the American Revolutionary War from the point of view of the officers and enlisted men of a single British Regiment - the oddly named Royal Welch Fusiliers. Anyone interested in a more rounded picture of the Revolutionary War would not go wrong by fighting their way from Boston to Long Island to Brandywine to Charleston to Camden to Guildford Courthouse and ultimately to defeat at Yorktown with the indefatigible Sergeant Lamb, the maturing Lieutenant Calvert and the capable Col Balfour. The recounting of the initial combat at Lexington and Concord is truly masterful in combining the details of the fight with the drama of sitting on a powder keg. The Battle of Breeds Hill/Bunker Hill is told with equal attention to both detail and drama. It is also a much more accurate view of the war in the Carolina's than Mel Gibson's energetic but extremely inaccurate Patriot.
The author interweaves the battles with the mini-tragedies of the lives and deaths of the officers and soldiers, with the emergence of new infantry tactics and with both British Army politics and British politics in general. What emerged for me besides how tough soldiers of this period had to be was the both the tactical skill of Cornwallis and the strategic incompetence of almost the entire general staff of the British Army - but perhaps there was no winning strategy.
This is a well produced book with informative and clear maps of the geography and individual battlefields. The color illustrations are well chosen though military portraits of American leaders such as Washington, Gates, Greene and Marion would have rounded things out. Altogether it is a great read.
Rascals Are Skulking About The Whole Country!
By A2EF1MYSVRU2YM on 2008-03-05
"Many of the Marylanders were now running back into the trees, trying to escape the completion of the British encirclement. Cornwallis unleashed Tarleton's cavalry to seal their fate. Some of the Marylanders continued to fight on in groups in the woods, including one that formed around their general, Baron de Kalb. The redcoats put the bayonet to those who would not surrender, and the cornered general received several such thrusts, crumpling to the ground bleeding profusely. He was captured but would die shortly after the battle. In little more than an hour Gate's army, around twice the size of Cornwallis's had been completely defeated, with its remnants dispersed." The battle of Camden would prove to be the Royal Welsh Fusiliers Regiment's finest hour.
Mark Urban's "Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Regiment in the American Revolution" is a unique history of one British Regiment's heavy involvement throughout the American Revolution based on fresh material from never before published sources. "Fusiliers" covers the 23rd Regiment's participation in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, and Virginia colonies.
Mr. Urban elected to chronicle the Royal Welsh Fusiliers (23rd) Regiment because they were one of the few units engaged from the beginning at Lexington in 1775 through the battle of Yorktown in 1781. By laborious research, Mr. Urban uncovered personal writings that add color to the otherwise monochrome picture of life in the British Light Infantry.
Through personal letters penned by Royal Fusiliers, we share in the everyday activities of 23rd Regiment soldiers. Mr. Urban introduces us to officers such as Thomas Mecan and Frederick Mackenzie. Like most of the older officers in the regiment, they have not been promoted beyond Captain in many years -- they had neither enough money or the proper connections. The author follows the career of Nisbet Balfour sharing his writings as he advances from Captain to Major General, becoming a man of great influence. Gleaned from a recently discovered journal and autobiography, Mr. Urban reveals to us the written thoughts of Fusilier Harry Calvert as he advances from subaltern of the 23rd Regiment all the way to Adjutant General of the Army.
In describing his work, Mr. Urban says, "The result of this research is an account that I hope readers will find quite different from any published before, providing depth in getting under the skin of one regiment as well as breadth in consulting a great range of testimony."
Mr. Urban continues his story of the Fusiliers beyond the formal surrender at Yorktown to include harrowing stories of how the prisoners traveled through hostile lands to New York where they patiently awaited passage out. Surprisingly, many chose to remain in America. Most accepted land grants in Canada. Others began new careers outside the military.
Later, as England becomes involved in European wars once more, Mr. Urban relates how tactics began to evolve away from the costly lessons learned in fighting the Americans. In Europe, British officers had been impressed by precision of Prussian tactics but the army was not prepared to fight the French.
Mr. Urban points out, "The tragic irony for Cornwallis and his comrades who had campaigned on the other side of the Atlantic was that the system of swift, open movement that had overwhelmed American light troops at Brandywine or Camden might just as easily be used against the French." It took years for the reforms to be implemented that would bring the English up to pare with the tactics of French.
Perhaps Mr. Urban's most important goal was overcoming the stereotypes that historians promoted about the "brutalized robot" British soldiers versus the "inventive leadership, enthusiasm and bravery" of the rebels.
Bolstered by new material, and presented from the British point of view, students of the Revolutionary War will enjoy reading this well written, informative book.
Mr. Urban's "Fusiliers" contains a section of 17 illustrations and 10 handy, uncluttered, maps.
On Campaign With the 23rd
By A2OWA3HZ2UEUI5 on 2008-06-24
Mark Urban's "Fusiliers" is a valuable contribution to the litany of regimental histories which dot the landscape of military history. Whereas the vast majority of Revolutionary War books available in the United States are written from an unabashedly American perspective, "Fusiliers" makes for a refreshing change in tempo as the author states from the beginning his intention to break from the American point of view. With this in mind, the narrative follows the day-to-day existence of the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers immediately prior to the outbreak of hostilities in 1775 through the years immediately following the end of the American Revolution. Urban draws in no small part from the existing memoirs and writings of members of the regiment, and paints a vivid picture of life within the regiment during the war. While the constant shifts in leadership and composition are covered, the author does not neglect to explain the background details of the Fusiliers' movements and even manages to provide an insightful window into the development of light infantry warfare during the war and its impact upon post-war British infantry doctrine. Readers do not have to fret about reading a constant stream of derisive remarks for the rebel side: Urban is equally critical of both the Americans and the British. There are minor errors sprinkled throughout the book, mostly publisher's mistakes rather than discrepancies in accuracy, but it does not detract from the overall quality of the book. As it is written in very readable prose, it is recommended to anyone looking for a view of British military affairs at the regimental level during the Revolution, and for the advanced enthusiast of the time period.
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