I am Soldier War stories, from the Ancient World to the 20th Century

by O'Neill, Robert; Holmes, Richard

• ISBN13: 9781846035159
• ISBN10: 1846035155
• Edition: Original
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-11-17
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Summary

Beginning with Julius Caesar, who is still considered to be the best solider-writer of all time, history has witnessed a strong tradition of warriors mixing the pen with the sword. InI Am SoldierJohn Keegan has compiled over 50 stories of soldiers on campaign, from Biblical times through the war in Yugoslavia. I Am Soldiercovers all the famous wars and many of the most-famous types of warriors throughout time. There's the Roman Centurion, the Spartan hoplite, the Greek Satrap, the Byzantine Horseman, the Serban Jannisary, the Christian Crusader, and the American Revolutionary. In the modern period there's the Confederate soldier, the French Poilu of the First World War, the American Paratrooper of WWII, and the US Marine of the Korean War. Each chapter describes what life was like from the point of view of an actual soldier. In the ancient period, where the written record is sketchy, the chapters draw on archaeology and the surviving chronicles from the time. Beginning with the medieval period, where it began to be possible for common soldiers to also be literate, chapters draw on combatants' memoirs. A particularly poignant story recounted inI Am Soldieris that of Marie Magdelaine Mouran. In the 17th Century, few avenues were open to a woman bent on adventure. A hard home life and the threat of life of menial peasant labor--or worse--caused Marie to don a soldier's cloth and sign-up to serve a company commanded by Captain Destone of the Royal Walloon Regiment in France. Marie soldiered as 'Picard' for a year and a half, ending up in the garrison at Sisteron, a fortress guarding the Durance river in Provence. After a serious wounding in battle, her secret was discovered. A captain pressed charges against her and had her imprisoned--not because of her deceit, but because she had deserted his regiment for one with higher pay. Although the record is unclear, it appears that Marie never emerged from her prison cell. The picture that emerges fromI Am Soldieris not of the differences between fighters of different periods, but of the principles that unite them: discipline, valor, the importance of good leadership, and human limit to which soldiers on campaign are pushed in every age. 'Down in the Delta is where the dying began. ... Now we met real enemy units, in company and battalion size, got into day-long fights, and lost people in serious numbers. By late spring more than two-thirds of our original men had gone ... There is no training that prepares a solider for all of this.' -John Young, The Vietnam War, 1956-1975

Author Biography

A range of contributors, including Michael Whitby, Anne Curry, David Nicolle, Richard Bonney, Daniel Marston, Carter Malkesian, John Sweetman, Peter Simkins, Michael Hickey and others.

Richard Holme, who wrote the introduction to this title, is a British military historian and former soldier, as well as a prolific author and well-known television presenter. He has published over twenty titles, including The Oxford Companion to Military History. He is a professor of Military & Security Studies at Cranfield University and the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 8
The Ancient World
Pekah, son of Remaliah	p. 12
Aristodemos the Spartan	p. 15
Two generals and a satrap	p. 19
P. Sextus Baculus, Roman centurion	p. 23
Abbinaeus, Aiaric, Theoderic and Narses	p. 25
War in the East
Theodore, cavalry trooper	p. 30
Subadai Ba'adur, Mongol general	p. 34
Konstantin Mihailovic, Serbian janissary	p. 37
Kato Kiyomasa, one of the Seven Spears of Shizugatake	p. 42
Part 3
Two crusaders and two Fursan	p. 48
Viking legend, English patriot, and two Norman earls	p. 50
Bertrand du Guesciin, Andrew Trollope and Osbern Mundeford, Companions at arms	p. 53
Nicholas Harpsfield, Yorkist	p. 57
16th and 17th Centuries
Two soldier-writers and a Huguenot captain	p. 62
Colonel Robert Monro, Scots mercenary	p. 65
Nehemiah Wharton, Parliamentarian and Richard Atkyns, Royalist	p. 67
Marie Magdelaine Mouron, deserter	p. 70
18th Century
A soldier of the British 68th foot Regiment	p. 76
Benjamin Gould, Massachusetts professional	p. 78
Thomas Brown, Rogers' Ranger	p. 80
Midshipman William Henry Dillon, RN	p. 83
War in the Americas
Juan Almonte, soldier and diplomat	p. 90
Ulysses S. Grant, soldier and US President	p. 93
Black Hawk, Sauk war chief	p. 96
John Beatty, Union soldier	p. 100
McHenry Howard, Confederate soldier	p. 104
Survivors of the battle of Little Bighorn	p. 107
Wars of Empire
Private Edward Costello, 95th Rifles	p. 114
Barclay de Tolly, Russian commander and Jacob Walter, Napoleonic soldier	p. 117
Captain Cavalié Mercer, Royal Horse Artillery	p. 123
Captain Lewis Edward Nolan, cavalry officer	p. 128
Captain Léonce Patry, 6th Infantry Regiment of the Line	p. 131
Piracy, Risings and Mutiny
Commodore Stephen Decatur, US Navy	p. 136
Brevet-Major O. H. S. G. Anson, 9th Lancers	p. 138
Captain William Cochrane, 32nd (Duke of Cornwall's) Light Infantry	p. 142
Deneys Reitz, Boer commando	p. 146
Civil War in the 20th Century
David Neligan, Irish revolutionary	p. 152
Major-Ceneral James Emmet Dalton MC	p. 155
José Durán, Antonio Izu, Saturnine Carod and Jason Gurney	p. 158
The World Wars
Private Frederick 'Fen' Noakes, 3rd Coldstream Guards	p. 164
Cecil Harold and Noel Wright, Brothers in arms	p. 166
A Trooper, an Ensign and a Sergeant	p. 171
Private Donald Edgar, East Surrey Regiment and prisoner of war	p. 175
Soldiers of the German and Russian Eastern Fronts	p. 179
Lieutenant Thomas Currie Derrick VC, Australian soldier	p. 182
Caotam Charles Hazlitt Upham VC and Bar, Hew Zealand soldier	p. 185
Donald Burqett, 506th PIR	p. 190
Modern Warfare
Corporal Martin Russ, US Marines	p. 196
John Young, infantry Squad leader, 9th Infantry	p. 199
Ahmed and Samir, Iranian boy soldiers	p. 202
Comrades and conscripts	p. 205
Lieutenant Alex Vernon, 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized)	p. 208
Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Stewart, UN warrior	p. 212
Index	p. 217
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