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Campaigns and Commanders
All for the King's Shilling (Campaigns and Commanders Series)
Possibly the most important book ever to have been written about the British army of the Napoleonic Wars . --Charles Esdaile, author of The Peninsular War: A New History
The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke's own words--"scum of the earth"--and assumed to have been society's ne'er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke's derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain's industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain
These men depended on the king's shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army.
Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon's battle-hardened troops.
The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington's rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King's Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.
The British troops who fought so successfully under the Duke of Wellington during his Peninsular Campaign against Napoleon have long been branded by the duke's own words--"scum of the earth"--and assumed to have been society's ne'er-do-wells or criminals who enlisted to escape justice. Now Edward J. Coss shows to the contrary that most of these redcoats were respectable laborers and tradesmen and that it was mainly their working-class status that prompted the duke's derision. Driven into the army by unemployment in the wake of Britain's industrial revolution, they confronted wartime hardship with ethical values and became formidable soldiers in the bargain
These men depended on the king's shilling for survival, yet pay was erratic and provisions were scant. Fed worse even than sixteenth-century Spanish galley slaves, they often marched for days without adequate food; and if during the campaign they did steal from Portuguese and Spanish civilians, the theft was attributable not to any criminal leanings but to hunger and the paltry rations provided by the army.
Coss draws on a comprehensive database on British soldiers as well as first-person accounts of Peninsular War participants to offer a better understanding of their backgrounds and daily lives. He describes how these neglected and abused soldiers came to rely increasingly on the emotional and physical support of comrades and developed their own moral and behavioral code. Their cohesiveness, Coss argues, was a major factor in their legendary triumphs over Napoleon's battle-hardened troops.
The first work to closely examine the social composition of Wellington's rank and file through the lens of military psychology, All for the King's Shilling transcends the Napoleonic battlefield to help explain the motivation and behavior of all soldiers under the stress of combat.
- GenresHistoryMilitary History
398 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 22, 2017
I have just finished reading Edward Coss’ excellent book on the British Redcoat of the Napoleonic period; “All for the King's Shilling: The British Soldier under Wellington, 1808–1814”. I have had this book sitting in my library for a few years and I am kicking myself for not picking it up and reading it earlier. I suppose I was a bit worried it was going to be a dry academic account full of facts and figures, well how mistaken was I!
Don’t get me wrong, its full of facts and figures (over 100 pages of appendixes and notes along with 79 charts) but presented in such an accessible and delightful manner that it was a joy to read and at times I found it hard to put the book down.
The author has made extensive use of numerous first-hand accounts to support his statements. Anyone who has read a few Napoleonic titles will recognise many of the names of these participants; Lawrence, Harris, Kincaid, Wheeler, Cooper, Donaldson, Surtees and Larpent (Judge Advocate at Wellington's HQ). He also references many of those historians whose books we have in our libraries.
The book contains seven chapters discussing various aspects of the British soldier during this period:
1. An Unjust Reputation: The Genesis of the “Scum of the Earth” Myth.
2. Gone for a Soldier: The Realities of Enlistment.
3. Over the Hills and Far Away: Surviving on Campaign.
4. A Stick without a Carrot: Leadership and the Soldiery.
5. Ordeal by Fire: The British Soldier in Combat.
6. Banded Brothers: Combat Motivation and the British Ranker.
7. Into Hell before Daylight: Peninsular War Sieges.
Conclusion
Epilogue
I found much of the information of great interest, such as: “... Some boys of sufficient height, however, were listed as full recruits in the description books, with 11 being the youngest age in the army sample. A.W. Cockerill estimates that in 1811, at the peak of the Peninsula campaign, there may have been as many as 3,600 boys in the army under age 16. Cockerill observes that the Militia Amending Act of 1811 allowed one-quarter of all militia recruits to be 14 to 16 years old. The total number of men raised that year exceeded 21,000, meaning that perhaps as many as 5,000 boys entered the militia over one year. How many of these boys transferred to line units is unknown. John Fortescue's numbers from general army returns, however, show that no fewer than 1,497 boys joined the army each year, with a high of 3,806 in 1807."
Or this on fatality rate during this period: "Still, despite the financial lure of the bounty and all the machinations of recruiting parties, recruitment remained a problem. The demand for men nearly always exceeded supply. Losses due to disease, battle, and desertion never fell below 16,000 men a year, reaching a peak of over 25,000 soldiers in 1812. British army and navy fatalities during the Napoleonic Wars totalled approximately 225,000 soldiers, when the army as a whole averaged about 144,000 men and the navy about 64,000. The total of nearly a quarter-million deaths makes a higher ration of fatalities per number serving than in World War I."
The author highlighted the substandard British system of caring for their disabled and retired soldiers. The accounts and examples provided left a lot to be desired for when compared to the French system:
"After Napoleon was sent to Elba, Harris was released from duty. For his eleven years of service he was granted a pension of six pence a day. But before he received even one day's payment, he was called up to serve again when Napoleon escaped to France. Still sick with fever contracted on campaign, he was unable to answer roll call and was informed that his pension was forfeit." Or:
"British officers injured in the line of duty were not so ill-treated, as Michael Glover has shown. Officers without limbs and even some who were totally blind were allowed to continue serving on full pay. If men of rank were unable to endure campaigning, they could count on substantial pensions: a lieutenant who lost an eye or limb was entitled to £70 a year, a far cry from the ranker's top rate of one shilling a day."
In fact the final example provided by the author really hit home about how the British soldier was dealt with in death:
"The army was anything but kind to these men, treating them as expandable commodities. British redcoats were accorded neither honor nor respect by the citizenry and the government they served, fate treated them no better, as this paragraph from the 18 November 1822 edition of the London Observer illustrates:
It is estimated that more than a million bushels of human and inhuman bones were imported last year from the continent of Europe into the port of Hull. The neighborhood of Leipzig, Austerlitz, Waterloo, and of all the places where, during the late bloody war, the principal battles were fought, have been swept alike of the bones of the hero and the horse which he rode. Thus collected from every quarter, they have been shipped to the port of Hull and thence forwarded to the Yorkshire bone grinders who have erected steam-engines and powerful machinery for the purpose of reducing them to a granularly state. In this condition they are sent chiefly to Doncaster, one of the largest agricultural markets in that part of the country, and are there sold to the farmers to manure their lands."
I did a search and found the full quote from the London Observer which continues thus:
" ... The oily substance gradually evolving as the base calcines, makes a more substantial manure than any other substance, particularly [when extracted from] human bones. It is now ascertained beyond a doubt, by actual experiment on an extensive scale, that a dead soldier is a most valuable article of commerce; and, for ought known to the contrary, the good farmers of Yorkshire are, in a great measure, indebted to the bones of their children for their daily bread. It is certainly a singular fact, that Great Britain should have sent out such multitudes of soldiers to fight the battles of this country upon the continent of Europe, and should then import their bones as an article of commerce to fatten her soil."
I really enjoyed this book, I found it an informative and exciting account which has fired up a passion to read similar books on the subject on both the British and French armies in this period. In fact I may even go as far as to say if you only want to read one book on the British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars then this is the book for you. It should be in every serious Napoleonic library!
Don’t get me wrong, its full of facts and figures (over 100 pages of appendixes and notes along with 79 charts) but presented in such an accessible and delightful manner that it was a joy to read and at times I found it hard to put the book down.
The author has made extensive use of numerous first-hand accounts to support his statements. Anyone who has read a few Napoleonic titles will recognise many of the names of these participants; Lawrence, Harris, Kincaid, Wheeler, Cooper, Donaldson, Surtees and Larpent (Judge Advocate at Wellington's HQ). He also references many of those historians whose books we have in our libraries.
The book contains seven chapters discussing various aspects of the British soldier during this period:
1. An Unjust Reputation: The Genesis of the “Scum of the Earth” Myth.
2. Gone for a Soldier: The Realities of Enlistment.
3. Over the Hills and Far Away: Surviving on Campaign.
4. A Stick without a Carrot: Leadership and the Soldiery.
5. Ordeal by Fire: The British Soldier in Combat.
6. Banded Brothers: Combat Motivation and the British Ranker.
7. Into Hell before Daylight: Peninsular War Sieges.
Conclusion
Epilogue
I found much of the information of great interest, such as: “... Some boys of sufficient height, however, were listed as full recruits in the description books, with 11 being the youngest age in the army sample. A.W. Cockerill estimates that in 1811, at the peak of the Peninsula campaign, there may have been as many as 3,600 boys in the army under age 16. Cockerill observes that the Militia Amending Act of 1811 allowed one-quarter of all militia recruits to be 14 to 16 years old. The total number of men raised that year exceeded 21,000, meaning that perhaps as many as 5,000 boys entered the militia over one year. How many of these boys transferred to line units is unknown. John Fortescue's numbers from general army returns, however, show that no fewer than 1,497 boys joined the army each year, with a high of 3,806 in 1807."
Or this on fatality rate during this period: "Still, despite the financial lure of the bounty and all the machinations of recruiting parties, recruitment remained a problem. The demand for men nearly always exceeded supply. Losses due to disease, battle, and desertion never fell below 16,000 men a year, reaching a peak of over 25,000 soldiers in 1812. British army and navy fatalities during the Napoleonic Wars totalled approximately 225,000 soldiers, when the army as a whole averaged about 144,000 men and the navy about 64,000. The total of nearly a quarter-million deaths makes a higher ration of fatalities per number serving than in World War I."
The author highlighted the substandard British system of caring for their disabled and retired soldiers. The accounts and examples provided left a lot to be desired for when compared to the French system:
"After Napoleon was sent to Elba, Harris was released from duty. For his eleven years of service he was granted a pension of six pence a day. But before he received even one day's payment, he was called up to serve again when Napoleon escaped to France. Still sick with fever contracted on campaign, he was unable to answer roll call and was informed that his pension was forfeit." Or:
"British officers injured in the line of duty were not so ill-treated, as Michael Glover has shown. Officers without limbs and even some who were totally blind were allowed to continue serving on full pay. If men of rank were unable to endure campaigning, they could count on substantial pensions: a lieutenant who lost an eye or limb was entitled to £70 a year, a far cry from the ranker's top rate of one shilling a day."
In fact the final example provided by the author really hit home about how the British soldier was dealt with in death:
"The army was anything but kind to these men, treating them as expandable commodities. British redcoats were accorded neither honor nor respect by the citizenry and the government they served, fate treated them no better, as this paragraph from the 18 November 1822 edition of the London Observer illustrates:
It is estimated that more than a million bushels of human and inhuman bones were imported last year from the continent of Europe into the port of Hull. The neighborhood of Leipzig, Austerlitz, Waterloo, and of all the places where, during the late bloody war, the principal battles were fought, have been swept alike of the bones of the hero and the horse which he rode. Thus collected from every quarter, they have been shipped to the port of Hull and thence forwarded to the Yorkshire bone grinders who have erected steam-engines and powerful machinery for the purpose of reducing them to a granularly state. In this condition they are sent chiefly to Doncaster, one of the largest agricultural markets in that part of the country, and are there sold to the farmers to manure their lands."
I did a search and found the full quote from the London Observer which continues thus:
" ... The oily substance gradually evolving as the base calcines, makes a more substantial manure than any other substance, particularly [when extracted from] human bones. It is now ascertained beyond a doubt, by actual experiment on an extensive scale, that a dead soldier is a most valuable article of commerce; and, for ought known to the contrary, the good farmers of Yorkshire are, in a great measure, indebted to the bones of their children for their daily bread. It is certainly a singular fact, that Great Britain should have sent out such multitudes of soldiers to fight the battles of this country upon the continent of Europe, and should then import their bones as an article of commerce to fatten her soil."
I really enjoyed this book, I found it an informative and exciting account which has fired up a passion to read similar books on the subject on both the British and French armies in this period. In fact I may even go as far as to say if you only want to read one book on the British soldier in the Napoleonic Wars then this is the book for you. It should be in every serious Napoleonic library!
February 14, 2011
For this book, Coss looked at Wellington's well-known statement that the Napoleonic War British rankers were "the scum of the Earth".
Because of this statement, which historians over the years have taken at face value, many books/movies/articles of the period portray the rankers as criminals and psychopaths--many of whom chose the army over prison.
Coss looks at Wellington's statement in light of class issues (Wellington and many officers were, if not peers of the realm, then merchants and the like with personal means); the economic issues of the time; the British army's inability to pay or feed its peninsular troops the pay and rations promised; the "families" created by messmates to mutually support each other; and the siege attacks of the time.
In a fascinating and well-analyzed way (with tables and regression analysis explanation in appendices), Coss examines the effects of the first decade of the Industrial Revolution on the textile industry, the French blockade on imports, and repeated crop failures on bread prices. He then compares these different factors to the the trades listed by new recruits, and the number of recruits per year in the British army.
He also examines the theft and pillaging by army regular in Portugal and Spain--along with punishments as ordered by Wellington, and the fact that officers could usually purchase supplies with their own money. The commissary was largely unable to provide the rankers with their standard rations--and with the men not being paid their wages, the men were largely unable to eat at all but for theft. A nutritional analysis looks at their supposed rations vs their caloric expenditures, and estimates weight lost and nutritional deficiencies.
I might have given this book 4 stars, as it is fascinating and well done, but for two items: Chapter 5, Ordeal by Fire, deviates from the social analysis of the rankers, and becomes a typical analysis of military tactics. It does not fit in to the rest of the book.
And then in Chapter 7, Into Hell Before Daylight, in which he describes the sieges of various Spanish fortified towns, Coss becomes a bit of an apologist. Did the British rankers pillage, rape, and murder, or did they not? With admittedly flimsy evidence either way, he comes down on the very vague "oh some did" side of the fence. I found it especially interesting that he did not look at how the huge casualty numbers would seem to a ranker who might have lost all of his messmates. He also, after two chapters discussing basic needs and Wellington's punishments, does not look deeply into the fact that Wellington PERMITTED the plunder, and almost blows of his own statement that these fortified towns were permitted to surrender and face no plunder before a breach. And he does not spend, in my opinion, enough time evaluating the drunkenness of men who had not been getting their rations, and what they might do after seeing their messmates kill, surviving the siege and breach, and then getting drunk asap. By this point in the book, Coss seems to desperately want the rankers to be overall good guys who would do nothing horrible, even while drunk after a siege battle.
Overall, though, this is a fascintating social history examining the origins of the bulk of Wellington's very sucessful Peninsular army.
Because of this statement, which historians over the years have taken at face value, many books/movies/articles of the period portray the rankers as criminals and psychopaths--many of whom chose the army over prison.
Coss looks at Wellington's statement in light of class issues (Wellington and many officers were, if not peers of the realm, then merchants and the like with personal means); the economic issues of the time; the British army's inability to pay or feed its peninsular troops the pay and rations promised; the "families" created by messmates to mutually support each other; and the siege attacks of the time.
In a fascinating and well-analyzed way (with tables and regression analysis explanation in appendices), Coss examines the effects of the first decade of the Industrial Revolution on the textile industry, the French blockade on imports, and repeated crop failures on bread prices. He then compares these different factors to the the trades listed by new recruits, and the number of recruits per year in the British army.
He also examines the theft and pillaging by army regular in Portugal and Spain--along with punishments as ordered by Wellington, and the fact that officers could usually purchase supplies with their own money. The commissary was largely unable to provide the rankers with their standard rations--and with the men not being paid their wages, the men were largely unable to eat at all but for theft. A nutritional analysis looks at their supposed rations vs their caloric expenditures, and estimates weight lost and nutritional deficiencies.
I might have given this book 4 stars, as it is fascinating and well done, but for two items: Chapter 5, Ordeal by Fire, deviates from the social analysis of the rankers, and becomes a typical analysis of military tactics. It does not fit in to the rest of the book.
And then in Chapter 7, Into Hell Before Daylight, in which he describes the sieges of various Spanish fortified towns, Coss becomes a bit of an apologist. Did the British rankers pillage, rape, and murder, or did they not? With admittedly flimsy evidence either way, he comes down on the very vague "oh some did" side of the fence. I found it especially interesting that he did not look at how the huge casualty numbers would seem to a ranker who might have lost all of his messmates. He also, after two chapters discussing basic needs and Wellington's punishments, does not look deeply into the fact that Wellington PERMITTED the plunder, and almost blows of his own statement that these fortified towns were permitted to surrender and face no plunder before a breach. And he does not spend, in my opinion, enough time evaluating the drunkenness of men who had not been getting their rations, and what they might do after seeing their messmates kill, surviving the siege and breach, and then getting drunk asap. By this point in the book, Coss seems to desperately want the rankers to be overall good guys who would do nothing horrible, even while drunk after a siege battle.
Overall, though, this is a fascintating social history examining the origins of the bulk of Wellington's very sucessful Peninsular army.
September 18, 2020
Excellent book and social study of the British troops who fought in the Peninsular Campaign. Using a database of several thousand enlistees drawn from regimental records, the work provides a fascinating statistical examination of the economic backgrounds of the men in the ranks, challenging traditional assumptions of them being "the scum of the earth." Book also does an excellent job showing the failures of the British logistical system in Spain and Portugal. Great work to have on the shelf.
September 19, 2017
Certainly fails to cover the topic that the title suggest. Actually has a few narrow ideas which are good and original. It is an apology for the scum of the earth - overdue and valid.
May 10, 2014
Very well researched although the subject matter with respect to the the titled British soldier is pretty narrow. Excellent source for someone with an existing familiarity with the topic. The end notes are a gold mine of additional information and I had fun reading them on their own.
There are a couple negatives to the book. It paints an unbelievably pleasant portrait of several unpleasant events (for instance, the sacking of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz) presenting, but not effectively challenging, several of the justifications for the British behavior. Also, the book suggests that the British soldier was always in a state of wasting starvation (to the point that they would be dead in a few months) due to poor logistics, yet did not pillage the surrounding countryside for food--impossible. Asside from these instances, the book is excellent.
There are a couple negatives to the book. It paints an unbelievably pleasant portrait of several unpleasant events (for instance, the sacking of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz) presenting, but not effectively challenging, several of the justifications for the British behavior. Also, the book suggests that the British soldier was always in a state of wasting starvation (to the point that they would be dead in a few months) due to poor logistics, yet did not pillage the surrounding countryside for food--impossible. Asside from these instances, the book is excellent.
September 18, 2024
A history book that crunches data - how cool is that? Wellington's army has been an interest of mine on and off since primary school and, having read quite a lot on the subject, I don't think I've ever bought Wellington's 'scum of the earth' verdict. Harris, Costello, Wheeler etc. were not the sweepings of the gutter or the gaol, but it's good to have Wellington's view challenged by solid data. On top of that what is new, I think, is the analysis of the calorific value of the rations and the needs of the men, which shows why plundering was so widespread. It was not a question of criminality - by and large - but a necessity to keep body and soul together. That, and the examination of small unit cohesion, makes this a fascinating read.
February 27, 2011
I found the first chapter a bit dense, but the book was fascinating. Dr. Coss successfully deconstructs the British ranker-as-scum myth and does so convincingly. The amount of evidence he presents is impressive. Contrary to a previous review, I thought that the chapters on combat and soldier motivation were the heart of the book, as what made the British soldier important was his ability on the battlefield. Coss presents a measured argument and does address the role of alcohol on the men's actions, particulary after successful siege attacks.
All in all, I enjoyed Coss analysis. The book makes me want to delve, again, into the Sharpe series.
All in all, I enjoyed Coss analysis. The book makes me want to delve, again, into the Sharpe series.
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