Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment in the American Revolution

414 Pages·2007·2.319 MB·English

by  Mark Urban

MARK
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The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment
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m the American Revolution
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WALKER
U.S. $27.95
A UNIQUE CHRONICLE OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION, AS SEEN
THROUGH THE EYES OF ONE
LEGENDARY 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,
and it sheds a new light on the war itself, while
offering surprising, at times unsettling, insights
into the way the war was conducted on both
sides.
Drawing on a wealth of previously unused
primary accounts, and with compelling narra­
tive flair, Mark Urban reveals the inner life of
the 23 rd Regiment, the Fusiliers—and through
it, of the British army as a whole—as it fought
one of the pivotal campaigns of world history.
Describing how British troops adopted new
tactics and promoted new leaders, Urban illu­
minates the battlegrounds of the Revolution,
and shows how their experience in America
laid the foundations for the redcoats’ heroic
performance against Napoleon some thirty
years later.
Fighting the climactic battles of the Revolu­
tion in the American south, the Fusiliers be­
came one of the crack regiments of the British
army, never believing themselves to have been
defeated. 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 kind­
ness and atrocity on both sides that have gone
unrecorded in other histories of the war. Their
( C O N T I N U E D O N B A C K F L A P )
( c o n t i n u e d f r o m f r o n t f l a p )
observations bring the conflict down to human
scale and provide a unique insight into soldier­
ing in the late eighteenth century. Fusiliers will
challenge the prevailing stereotypes of the
enemy redcoats and offer an invaluable new
perspective on a defining period in American
history.
MARK URBAN is diplomatic editor of the
BBC’s Newsnight and a former defense corre­
spondent for the Independent. He is the author
of The Man Who Broke Napoleon’s Codes and
Wellington’s Rifles, the story of the British sol­
diers fighting against Napoleon in Wellington’s
army. He lives in London.
jacket design by Amy C. King
Jacket art © Bettmann/CORBIS
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FUSILIERS
by the same author
THE MAN WHO BROKE NAPOLEON’S CODES
WELLINGTON’S RIFLES
Fusiliers
The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment
in the American Revolution
MARK URBAN
Walker & Company
New York
Copyright © 2007 by Mark Urban
Maps copyright © 2007 by Andras Bereznay
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief
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Published by Walker Publishing Company, Inc., New York
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR
ISBN-10: 0-8027-1647-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-8027-1647-7
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First U.S. Edition 2007
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To those who serve honourably
in unpopular wars