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The American Sharpe (ePub)

The Adventures of an American Officer of the 95th Rifles in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns

Military > Frontline eBooks > Frontline: Napoleonic

By Gareth Glover
Frontline Books
File Size: 7.1 MB (.epub)
Pages: 260
Illustrations: 16
ISBN: 9781473884175
Published: 20th October 2016

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Sharpe and his adventures has made the 95th Foot renowned again and the discovery of an unpublished diary by an American from Charleston South Carolina who served, despite his father’s objections, as an officer in this elite regiment has caused great excitement.

James Penman Gairdner was born in Charleston, South Carolina, but he was sent back to the ‘Old Country’ for his education, receiving his schooling at Harrow. After school, rather than joining his father’s merchant business he decided to become a soldier, receiving a commission in the famous 95th Rifles.

He subsequently served, without a break, from the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812 until the end of the war in 1814. He then fought in the Waterloo campaign and formed part of the Army of Occupation. He was wounded on three occasions.

Throughout his service he kept a journal, which he managed to maintain on almost a daily basis. This journal, along with a number of letters that he wrote to his family, have been edited by renowned historian Gareth Glover and are presented here to the public for the first time.

Readers will not find dramatic stories of great battles or adventurous escapades. Instead, Gairdner, details the everyday life of one of Wellington’s soldiers; one of marches and billets, of the weather, the places and the people of the Iberian Peninsula and of Paris and Occupied France – the real nature of soldering.

His diaries also highlight the very strange relationship between these newly independent Americans and the ‘Old Country’ they had so recently fought with; which even allowed for a true American boy to fight in the British Army, but not in America!

The transcription of the Gairdner papers kept at the National Army Museum in London became urgent because of the rapid deterioration of the ink which might soon make them completely illegible; it is therefore appropriate to welcome this editorial project which leaves an extremely interesting document out of oblivion.

Gloire and Empire, no.73

This chronicle of an American who fought for Britain gives a unique perspective on the Napoleonic Wars.

Military Heritage, May 2017 - reviewed by Chrisopher Miskimon

I'm pretty certain that the man described in this book about the "American Sharpe" is referring to Bernard Cornwell's best-selling series about a British Army officer - this real-life Sharpe is larger than life in every sense and his own story is absolutely amazing!

Books Monthly, December 2017 – reviewed by Paul Norman
 Gareth Glover

About Gareth Glover

Gareth Glover is a former Royal Navy officer and military historian who has made a special study of the Napoleonic Wars for the last thirty years. In addition to writing many articles on aspects of the subject in magazines and journals, his books include From Corunna to Waterloo, Eyewitness to the Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo, An Eloquent Soldier, fourteen volumes of The Waterloo Archive, Waterloo: Myth and Reality, The Forgotten War Against Napoleon: Conflict in the Mediterranean 1793-1815, The Two Battles of Copenhagen 1801 and 1807: Britain and Denmark in the Napoleonic Wars and Marching, Fighting, Dying: Experiences of Soldiers in the Peninsular War.

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