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This series includes accounts of sea and land campaigns by eye-witnesses and contemporaries, as well as landmark studies of their social, political and economic impacts. The series focuses mainly on the period from the Renaissance to the end of the Victorian era. It includes major concentrations of material on the American and French revolutions, the British campaigns in South Asia and nineteenth-century conflicts in Europe, such as the Peninsular and Crimean Wars. Although many of the accounts are semi-official narratives by senior officers and their relatives, the series also includes alternative viewpoints from dissenting leaders, servicemen in the lower ranks and military wives and civilians caught up in the theatre of war.

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172 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Naval and Military History

Page 3 of 9

Military Memoir of Lieut.-Col. James Skinner, C.B.
  • For Many Years a Distinguished Officer Commanding a Corps of Irregular Cavalry in the Service of the H. E. I. C.
  • Volume 1
  • James Baillie Fraser
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1851
  • Born to a Scottish father and an Indian mother, the military adventurer James Skinner (1778–1841) acquired wealth and fame in India for raising and leading regiments of irregular cavalry, aiding the British in their wars against the Marathas and Pindaris. Distinguished in battle and generous as a host and patron, Skinner was also fluent in Persian and highly regarded by his men and his superiors. Based on first-hand acquaintance and Skinner's own journal, this two-volume work, published in 1851 by the Scottish traveller and artist James Baillie Fraser (1783–1856), who aimed to represent Skinner 'such as he was in truth, a gallant soldier, a zealous officer, a steady friend, a worthy noble-minded man; and spite of his dark complexion, a true and loyal Briton'. Volume 1 sketches the historical background to Skinner's exploits, and includes his account of his activities up to 1804 and the Second Anglo-Maratha War.

Military Service and Adventures in the Far East
  • Including Sketches of the Campaigns against the Afghans in 1839, and the Sikhs in 1845–6
  • Volume 1
  • Daniel Henry Mackinnon
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    24 May 2012
    First published in:
    1847
  • This two-volume work, published in 1847 by cavalry officer Daniel Henry Mackinnon (1813–84) describes his military service in India, in the campaigns against the Afghans in 1839 and the Sikhs in 1845–6. In the first edition, reissued here, the author is referred to only as 'a cavalry officer', but in the second edition of 1849, Mackinnon, a career soldier and writer, abandons his anonymity. Volume 1 begins with a lively account of the Andaman Islands, before 'arrival in India' at Calcutta and a long march past the foothills of the Himalayas to the North-West Frontier province. Mackinnon fought at the decisive battle of Ghuzni in the First Anglo-Afghan War, and provides an eye-witness account of the storming of the city, though his description of the political and diplomatic conflicts which preceded the outbreak of the wars is somewhat simplistic, and inevitably Anglophile.

The Cruise of HMS Calliope in China, Australian and East African Waters, 1887–1890
  • Arthur Cornwallis Evans
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    26 April 2012
    First published in:
    1890
  • Arthur Cornwallis Evans (1860–1935) was chaplain on the steamship HMS Calliope on a three-year voyage to Asia and Australia (January 1887 to April 1890) that covered 76,814 nautical miles (88,395 miles), with more than 500 days spent at sea. He compiled this lively account of the voyage at the request of his shipmates, drawing information from several of their journals, and published it in Portsmouth in 1890 before the crew dispersed. It contains both brief factual entries about the progress of the voyage and more sustained descriptions of life on board ship and in port, including some naval culinary 'delicacies', an encounter with a robber in Hong Kong, the Russian fortifications at Vladivostok, fireworks in Sydney celebrating the centenary of New South Wales, the opening of Calliope Dock in Auckland (still in use today), visits to several Pacific islands, cricket matches and regattas, and an eclipse of the sun.

History of the War in France and Belgium, in 1815
  • Containing Minute Details of the Battles of Quatre-Bras, Ligny, Wavre, and Waterloo
  • Volume 1
  • William Siborne
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    16 August 2012
    First published in:
    1844
  • Originally published in 1844, this two-volume work by William Siborne (1797–1830) represented the first major history of the Waterloo Campaign that was based on eyewitness accounts. Although Siborne, an infantry officer, had not served in the campaign himself, he did write to scores of officers who had, and their replies provided him with information he later used to construct the famous but controversial model of the field at Waterloo, which earned him the enmity of the Duke of Wellington (largely because Siborne's view of events conflicted with the Duke's). Siborne used much of the material for this book, which covers the entire campaign from Napoleon's escape from Elba in February 1815, through the battles of Ligny, Quatre Bras and Waterloo, right up to the Allies' entry into Paris in July. The maps published in a third volume can be viewed online. Volume 1 takes the story up to the opening stages of Waterloo.

The Conquest of Scinde
  • With Some Introductory Passages in the Life of Major-General Sir Charles James Napier
  • W. F. P. Napier
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1845
  • Written by military historian Major-General William Napier (1785–1860), and published in 1845, this book describes the conquest of the Indian territory of Scinde (Sindh), and includes a biographical sketch of Major-General Sir Charles Napier (1782–1853), the British Army's Commander-in-Chief in India, and the author's brother. Napier, whose History of War in the Peninsula and the South of France is also reissued in this series, describes in detail how Scinde became inextricably drawn into the sphere of influence of the government of British India, and the events (including the First Anglo-Afghan War and its consequences) leading to its conquest. Napier's interpretation of events was almost immediately challenged by Sir James Outram in Conquest of Scinde: A Commentary (1846; also reissued in this series). The Appendices include extracts from the private correspondence of Sir Charles Napier, revealing his personal concerns during the course of the campaign alongside the historical narrative.

Rough Notes of the Campaign in Sinde and Affghanistan, in 1838–9
  • Being Extracts from a Personal Journal Kept While on the Staff of the Army of the Indus
  • James Outram
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    10 May 2012
    First published in:
    1840
  • These extracts from the personal journal of Sir James Outram (1803–63), which he kept while serving with the 23rd Regiment in the British Army of the Indus, describe the British campaigns in Sindh and Afghanistan in 1838–9. In the preface to the book, originally published in 1840, the author explains that his 'rough notes' are not attempting a narrative of the military operations but have been printed 'for the perusal of valued friends'. The work begins in Sindh, where the author joins the campaign that aims to restore Shah Shuja to the throne of Kabul, the ultimately disastrous First Anglo-Afghan War. It is dedicated to Sir William Macnaghten, who was later killed during negotiations with an Afghan chief. Outram himself later clashed with the Napier family over Sir William Napier's account of the Conquest of Scinde, and both books are also reissued in this series.

Military Service and Adventures in the Far East
  • Including Sketches of the Campaigns against the Afghans in 1839, and the Sikhs in 1845–6
  • Volume 2
  • Daniel Henry Mackinnon
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    24 May 2012
    First published in:
    1847
  • This two-volume work, published in 1847 by cavalry officer Daniel Henry Mackinnon (1813–84) describes his military service in India, in the campaigns against the Afghans in 1839 and the Sikhs in 1845–6. In the first edition, reissued here, the author is referred to only as 'a cavalry officer', but in the second edition of 1849, Mackinnon, a career soldier and writer, abandons his anonymity. Volume 2 continues the account of the First Anglo-Afghan War, and the eventual withdrawal of British troops, after which Mackinnon travelled to Delhi and Agra before returning home. He went back east in 1845, when the apparent peace of Northern India was about to be disturbed by the Anglo-Sikh War. Again, his description of the events leading to conflict are somewhat partisan, but his eye-witness accounts of the battles in which he fought (in one of which his horse was shot underneath him) are gripping.

Military Memoir of Lieut.-Col. James Skinner, C.B.
  • For Many Years a Distinguished Officer Commanding a Corps of Irregular Cavalry in the Service of the H. E. I. C.
  • Volume 2
  • James Baillie Fraser
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1851
  • Born to a Scottish father and an Indian mother, the military adventurer James Skinner (1778–1841) acquired wealth and fame in India for raising and leading regiments of irregular cavalry, aiding the British in their wars against the Marathas and Pindaris. Distinguished in battle and generous as a host and patron, Skinner was also fluent in Persian and highly regarded by his men and his superiors. Based on first-hand acquaintance and Skinner's own journal, this two-volume work, published in 1851 by the Scottish traveller and artist James Baillie Fraser (1783–1856), who aimed to represent Skinner 'such as he was in truth, a gallant soldier, a zealous officer, a steady friend, a worthy noble-minded man; and spite of his dark complexion, a true and loyal Briton'. Volume 2 resumes the narrative during the Second Anglo-Maratha War, revealing Skinner's military assessments and accomplishments, as well as his personal qualities.

Royal Naval Biography
  • Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired-Captains, Post-Captains, and Commanders
  • Volume 1, Part 2
  • John Marshall
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    18 November 2010
    First published in:
    1823
  • John Marshall (c.1784–1837) was a naval officer and biographer. He first went to sea at the age of nine, and by the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 had reached the rank of lieutenant. After the war, he started to research the lives of contemporary high-ranking naval officers, some of whose service reached as far back as 1760. These volumes, first published between 1823 and 1830, contain the results of this monumental research, and demonstrate the new 'cult' of the navy in the early nineteenth century. Some of the biographies were contributed by the officers themselves, with others containing private or official letters and other records. Organised according to seniority in rank, these volumes contain a wealth of fascinating information on the careers of naval officers and battles and wars in which they took part. Volume 1, Part 2, continues the biographies of flag officers.

The Direction of War
  • A Study and Illustration of Strategy
  • Wilkinson Dent Bird
  • Published online:
    05 April 2013
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1925
  • Major General Sir Wilkinson Dent Bird (1869–1943) saw active service in campaigns from the Niger Campaign in 1897 to the opening of the First World War, when he served in France. In 1923 he was appointed head of a committee to analyse wartime experiences and propose changes intended to modernise the British army. First published in 1920 and issued in an enlarged second edition in 1925, this book provides a comprehensive study of military strategy current at the time of publication, using historical examples to illustrate key concepts. Bird focuses primarily on land battles, with a chapter for naval battles and a small section for aerial combat. Originally intended as a guide to current strategic thinking, his book provides valuable analyses of historical battles with insights into the development of British military strategy after the First World War. This reissue is of the 1925 edition.

A New Universal Dictionary of the Marine
  • Illustrated with a Variety of Modern Designs of Shipping, etc.
  • William Falconer
  • Edited by William Burney
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    02 February 2012
    First published in:
    1815
  • First published in 1813, this comprehensive dictionary of maritime terminology in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was designed as a reference work for shipbuilders and navigators. Compiled by the naval historian William Burney, it is a revised and expanded version of the classic Universal Marine Dictionary originally published in 1769 by the poet and lexicographer William Falconer (1732–89). It provides over 800 pages of technical data on shipbuilding, navigation, the operation of ships, weaponry and provisions, as well as historical, legal and medical information, and even French vocabulary lists. It contains extensive tables and illustrations, and longer articles including, for instance, lists of clothing, books and equipment required by a young midshipman. Both Burney and Falconer were leaders in their field, and the book remains a key historical source on seafaring during the age of Nelson and the French wars, for scholars and enthusiasts alike.

The Great War with Russia
  • The Invasion of the Crimea; a Personal Retrospect of the Battles of the Alma, Balaclava, and Inkerman, and of the Winter of 1854-55
  • William Howard Russell
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 March 2012
    First published in:
    1895
  • The journalist William Howard Russell (1820–1907) is sometimes regarded as being the first war correspondent, and his reports from the conflict in the Crimea are also credited with being a cause of reforms in the British military system. This account of his time there, first published in 1858 and expanded in this 1895 edition, explains how Russell was sent by The Times of London in 1854 to join British troops stationed in Malta. He spent the next two years witnessing some of the key moments of the war, including the battle of Balaclava and the ill-fated Charge of the Light Brigade. His newspaper reports of the fighting and of the living conditions for the troops were widely read and very influential. In this retrospective work, Russell gives a more personal narrative of his experiences, making this an important account of one the most brutal wars of the nineteenth century.

The History of the Indian Navy (1613–1863)
  • Volume 2
  • Charles Rathbone Low
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    28 March 2012
    First published in:
    1877
  • Charles Rathbone Low (1837–1918) was a lieutenant in the Indian Navy and author of popular books on military history and nautical exploration, including Soldiers of the Victorian Age and Maritime Discovery. This two-volume work, first published in 1877, comprehensively covers the history of the British Indian Navy, from its origins as the Bombay Marine to its abolition in 1863. It is an exceptionally detailed historical source, containing indexes of the ships and officers of the Indian Navy, and as such, it is a work of great importance to those interested in the history of the Indian Navy or the people that came into contact with it. Volume 2 begins in 1831 and includes chapters on both the Burmese and Persian Wars. The final chapters detail the Navy's involvement in the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and the events that led to its abolition.

The Mutiny and Piratical Seizure of HMS Bounty
  • John Barrow
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 December 2011
    First published in:
    1875
  • First published in 1831, this account of a notorious event in the history of the navy makes extensive use of letters, papers and the testimony of those involved. Sir John Barrow (1764–1848) was Second Secretary to the Admiralty, and so had unrivalled access to official documents. He begins with a chapter detailing the first visit to Tahiti by Captain Cook. The mutiny, Bligh's 4,000-mile voyage in an open boat, the capture and court martial of some of the mutineers and the fate of the remainder who settled on Pitcairn Island are described with clarity and even-handedness. Whilst acknowledging that Bligh was 'a man of coarse habits' with 'mistaken notions with regard to discipline', Barrow is unequivocal that the episode 'ought to operate as a warning … to our brave seamen, not to be led astray … either by order or persuasion of some hot-brained, thoughtless, or designing person'.

Journal of the Disasters in Affghanistan, 1841–2
  • Florentia Wynch Sale
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1843
  • Lady Sale (née Florentia Wynch, 1790–1853) became an instant heroine when her journal of the disastrous events in Afghanistan in 1841–2 was published in 1843. The wife of Sir Robert Sale, second-in-command of the British forces, she was taken hostage, along with her daughter and baby grand-daughter, after the massacre of over 4,500 British troops at Kabul, while her husband commanded a besieged garrison at Jalalabad. The small group of hostages was moved from place to place, with only the clothes they stood up in, to evade attempts at rescue over a period of nine months. Eventually, they were able to bribe a tribal leader to release them, and they met up with a British rescue party just before Afghani pursuers overtook them. Lady Sale's diary, carried in a cloth bag at her waist, was published almost unedited, and is an extraordinary account of her ordeal.

The War, from the Landing at Gallipoli to the Death of Lord Raglan
  • William Howard Russell
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    22 March 2012
    First published in:
    1855
  • The journalist William Howard Russell (1820–1907) is sometimes regarded as being the first war correspondent, and his reports from the conflict in the Crimea are also credited with being a cause of reforms made to the British military system. Published in 1855, during the late stages of the conflict, this is a collection of eye-witness reports originally printed in The Times newspaper, including the famous account, from 25 October 1854, of the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Battle of Balaclava, and the other engagement on the same day which gave rise to the phrase 'the thin red line'. Russell's accounts are unflinching in their dramatic descriptions of the appalling and insanitary conditions endured by the ill-provisioned troops, and his criticism of those in command, particularly Lord Raglan, had a dramatic impact on the British people and government. Reading these letters today, it is easy to understand why.

Reminiscences of the Burmese War in 1824–5–6
  • F. B. Doveton
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1852
  • This first-hand account of the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–6) was written by Captain Frederick Doveton of the Royal Madras Fusiliers and published in 1852. Intending to feed the contemporary British fascination with tales of Burma and its people, Doveton gives a brief history of the conflict, placing it into the context of the events leading up to the outbreak of the Second War (1852–3). He then offers a 'personal narrative' of his experiences, aimed at a popular rather than professional readership. His descriptions of Burmese life, landscape, and customs are full of anecdotes. These include his surprise at the natives playing chess, and his experience of having a tattoo; but he also shows respect for a people with an ancient history and culture, and conveys vividly the complexities and hardships of warfare and army life in an inhospitable terrain.

The History of the Indian Navy (1613–1863)
  • Volume 1
  • Charles Rathbone Low
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    28 March 2012
    First published in:
    1877
  • Charles Rathbone Low (1837–1918) was a lieutenant in the Indian Navy and author of popular books on military history and nautical exploration, including Soldiers of the Victorian Age and Maritime Discovery. This two-volume work, first published in 1877, comprehensively covers the history of the British Indian Navy, from its origins as the Bombay Marine to its abolition in 1863. It is an exceptionally detailed historical source, containing indexes of the ships and officers of the Indian Navy, and as such, it is a work of great importance to those interested in the history of the Indian Navy or the people that came into contact with it. Volume 1 begins with the early voyages of the East India Company's ships and includes a chapter on the relationship between the Bombay Marine and the Joasmi pirates. It concludes with the Bombay Marine becoming the Indian Navy in 1830.

Memoir of the Life of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington
  • Volume 1
  • Edward Codrington
  • Edited by Jane Bourchier
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    08 March 2012
    First published in:
    1873
  • Edward Codrington (1770–1851) joined the navy at the age of thirteen. Having narrowly avoided freezing to death in Nova Scotia three years later, he went on to serve during some of the most important naval conflicts of his time. This two-volume biography was first published in 1873, and combines his own accounts with the research of his daughter Lady Bourchier. Volume 1 introduces his friend Bowen, noted for his pink umbrella, the shy and awkward commander of the fleet, Lord Howe, and the sheer terror of the 1793 third battle of Ushant, the British fleet's first major encounter with that of the new French Republic. Included are Codrington's private and public letters, which give anecdotes of his own adventures and hint at the uneasy inner politics of the Admiralty, making this both an entertaining read and a useful resource for students of naval history.

Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma
  • Anne Thackeray Ritchie, Richardson Evans
  • Published online:
    05 May 2012
    Print publication:
    16 February 2012
    First published in:
    1894
  • In 1823, after relatively undistinguished diplomatic missions to Sicily and China, Lord Amherst (1773–1857) was appointed Governor-general of Bengal, a compromise candidate following Canning's sudden withdrawal to become foreign secretary. Arriving in India, he found the country on the brink of war with Burma, which he was unable to prevent or quickly to resolve, resulting in an expensive and demoralising two-year campaign, and the death of his eldest son. This 1894 biography, written by Anne Thackeray Ritchie (1837–1919), elder daughter of the novelist, and journalist Richardson Evans (1846–1923), was part of a series established by Sir William Wilson Hunter (1840–1900), a former Administrator in the subcontinent. Decidedly flattering in tone and glossing the War as 'a glorious enterprise of arms', this book, which quotes extensively from Lady Amherst's diary and other contemporary sources, is a fascinating example of the late-Victorian presentation of earlier colonial administration.

Page 3 of 9