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Sergeant Lamb #2
Proceed, Sergeant Lamb
The author of Sergeant Lamb’s America continues the fictionalized account of an Irish soldier fighting for the British during the Revolutionary War. This is the second in a two-book series telling the story of Sgt. Roger Lamb, a non-commissioned officer in the British Army, who served in America during the American War of Independence. Captured with Gen. Johnny Burgoyne after the Battle of Saratoga, he made a daring escape and later served under General Cornwallis. Following closely to Sergeant Lamb’s personal memoirs, renowned poet, classicist, and novelist Robert Graves traces the sergeant’s harrowing time in the service, providing a compelling, only barely fictionalized eyewitness account of a crucial point in American history.
316 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1941
15 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Robert Graves
639 books2,059 followersRobert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. Born in Wimbledon, he received his early education at King's College School and Copthorne Prep School, Wimbledon & Charterhouse School and won a scholarship to St John's College, Oxford. While at Charterhouse in 1912, he fell in love with G.H. Johnstone, a boy of fourteen ("Dick" in Goodbye to All That) When challenged by the headmaster he defended himself by citing Plato, Greek poets, Michelangelo & Shakespeare, "who had felt as I did".
At the outbreak of WWI, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about his experience of front line conflict. In later years he omitted war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom". At the Battle of the Somme he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die, and indeed was officially reported as 'died of wounds'. He gradually recovered. Apart from a brief spell back in France, he spent the rest of the war in England.
One of Graves's closest friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was also an officer in the RWF. In 1917 Sassoon tried to rebel against the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves, who feared Sassoon could face a court martial, intervened with the military authorities and persuaded them that he was suffering from shell shock, and to treat him accordingly. Graves also suffered from shell shock, or neurasthenia as it is sometimes called, although he was never hospitalised for it.
Biographers document the story well. It is fictionalised in Pat Barker's novel Regeneration. The intensity of their early relationship is nowhere demonstrated more clearly than in Graves's collection Fairies & Fusiliers (1917), which contains a plethora of poems celebrating their friendship. Through Sassoon, he also became friends with Wilfred Owen, whose talent he recognised. Owen attended Graves's wedding to Nancy Nicholson in 1918, presenting him with, as Graves recalled, "a set of 12 Apostle spoons".
Following his marriage and the end of the war, Graves belatedly took up his place at St John's College, Oxford. He later attempted to make a living by running a small shop, but the business failed. In 1926 he took up a post at Cairo University, accompanied by his wife, their children and the poet Laura Riding. He returned to London briefly, where he split with his wife under highly emotional circumstances before leaving to live with Riding in Deià, Majorca. There they continued to publish letterpress books under the rubric of the Seizin Press, founded and edited the literary journal Epilogue, and wrote two successful academic books together: A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) and A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928).
In 1927, he published Lawrence and the Arabs, a commercially successful biography of T.E. Lawrence. Good-bye to All That (1929, revised and republished in 1957) proved a success but cost him many of his friends, notably Sassoon. In 1934 he published his most commercially successful work, I, Claudius. Using classical sources he constructed a complexly compelling tale of the life of the Roman emperor Claudius, a tale extended in Claudius the God (1935). Another historical novel by Graves, Count Belisarius (1938), recounts the career of the Byzantine general Belisarius.
During the early 1970s Graves began to suffer from increasingly severe memory loss, and by his eightieth birthday in 1975 he had come to the end of his working life. By 1975 he had published more than 140 works. He survived for ten more years in an increasingly dependent condition until he died from heart
At the outbreak of WWI, Graves enlisted almost immediately, taking a commission in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He published his first volume of poems, Over the Brazier, in 1916. He developed an early reputation as a war poet and was one of the first to write realistic poems about his experience of front line conflict. In later years he omitted war poems from his collections, on the grounds that they were too obviously "part of the war poetry boom". At the Battle of the Somme he was so badly wounded by a shell-fragment through the lung that he was expected to die, and indeed was officially reported as 'died of wounds'. He gradually recovered. Apart from a brief spell back in France, he spent the rest of the war in England.
One of Graves's closest friends at this time was the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who was also an officer in the RWF. In 1917 Sassoon tried to rebel against the war by making a public anti-war statement. Graves, who feared Sassoon could face a court martial, intervened with the military authorities and persuaded them that he was suffering from shell shock, and to treat him accordingly. Graves also suffered from shell shock, or neurasthenia as it is sometimes called, although he was never hospitalised for it.
Biographers document the story well. It is fictionalised in Pat Barker's novel Regeneration. The intensity of their early relationship is nowhere demonstrated more clearly than in Graves's collection Fairies & Fusiliers (1917), which contains a plethora of poems celebrating their friendship. Through Sassoon, he also became friends with Wilfred Owen, whose talent he recognised. Owen attended Graves's wedding to Nancy Nicholson in 1918, presenting him with, as Graves recalled, "a set of 12 Apostle spoons".
Following his marriage and the end of the war, Graves belatedly took up his place at St John's College, Oxford. He later attempted to make a living by running a small shop, but the business failed. In 1926 he took up a post at Cairo University, accompanied by his wife, their children and the poet Laura Riding. He returned to London briefly, where he split with his wife under highly emotional circumstances before leaving to live with Riding in Deià, Majorca. There they continued to publish letterpress books under the rubric of the Seizin Press, founded and edited the literary journal Epilogue, and wrote two successful academic books together: A Survey of Modernist Poetry (1927) and A Pamphlet Against Anthologies (1928).
In 1927, he published Lawrence and the Arabs, a commercially successful biography of T.E. Lawrence. Good-bye to All That (1929, revised and republished in 1957) proved a success but cost him many of his friends, notably Sassoon. In 1934 he published his most commercially successful work, I, Claudius. Using classical sources he constructed a complexly compelling tale of the life of the Roman emperor Claudius, a tale extended in Claudius the God (1935). Another historical novel by Graves, Count Belisarius (1938), recounts the career of the Byzantine general Belisarius.
During the early 1970s Graves began to suffer from increasingly severe memory loss, and by his eightieth birthday in 1975 he had come to the end of his working life. By 1975 he had published more than 140 works. He survived for ten more years in an increasingly dependent condition until he died from heart
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 2, 2019
There’s really no reason to see this and its predecessor, Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth, as two separate books, as opposed to two halves of the same work. I liked the portrait of Major André, and Lamb’s praise of Benedict Arnold—who, he tells us, sought only to end the war at a stroke without further bloodshed—is a unique take. Over half the length of this second volume is given over to chronicling Lamb’s two separate escapes from being held as a prisoner of war by the Americans (he was in the defeated British armies at both Saratoga and Yorktown), which I would accuse of being repetitive were it not historically accurate.
April 3, 2019
This is the second half of a story that I did not read the first half of. However, it still worked as he gave a summary of the first half in the second half.
It is the story of a Irish soldier in the British army during the American Revolution. This was an interesting perspective for me. I would like to read the first half now.
It is the story of a Irish soldier in the British army during the American Revolution. This was an interesting perspective for me. I would like to read the first half now.
July 31, 2022
The continuation of the story. I found myself becoming engrossed in the adventures of Sgt. Lamb and it helped me to understand the AWI is far more depth than previously. As with Graves’s other historical novels, he managed to bring the era alive.
May 3, 2025
TOP RECOMMENDATION!
I've listened to over 400 audiobooks. Maybe 1 in 50 transcends the medium to become an emotional experience in which the narrator is excellent, the writing superior, and the production perfect. This is one of those rare audiobooks, simply top notch in every respect.
Written in the first person, Sergeant Lamb is a loyal Irish Redcoat, fighting against the American Revolution in service to the King. He is brave, a natural leader, schooled in his letters and accounts, friend to the Mohawks, and with a degree of skill in the healing arts. For the British reader, Lamb points out the many surprises he observes in American geography, politics, and behavior, with ample supplies of good nature and humour. At the same time, he recounts the top line history of the American Revolution following The Battle of Saratoga (September 1777) as well as his own personal adventure having been captured in that battle.
The writing is clever, blunt at times, subtle at times, and sweet at times. It's impossible not to root for Lamb and his comrades, even though they are, in theory, the enemy; sneaky Graves. The adventures are original, unlike anything I've read in any other book. Graves description of the details of the Colonies are surprising and insightful. Although I think of myself as a student of history, I learned many interesting facts. The Mohawks kept black slaves, for instance; how POWs were handled; how loyalists behaved; differences between American and British beasts and fowl, foods, and fighting styles.
Excellent narration. Just terrific. I may send the narrator a fan letter.
I've listened to over 400 audiobooks. Maybe 1 in 50 transcends the medium to become an emotional experience in which the narrator is excellent, the writing superior, and the production perfect. This is one of those rare audiobooks, simply top notch in every respect.
Written in the first person, Sergeant Lamb is a loyal Irish Redcoat, fighting against the American Revolution in service to the King. He is brave, a natural leader, schooled in his letters and accounts, friend to the Mohawks, and with a degree of skill in the healing arts. For the British reader, Lamb points out the many surprises he observes in American geography, politics, and behavior, with ample supplies of good nature and humour. At the same time, he recounts the top line history of the American Revolution following The Battle of Saratoga (September 1777) as well as his own personal adventure having been captured in that battle.
The writing is clever, blunt at times, subtle at times, and sweet at times. It's impossible not to root for Lamb and his comrades, even though they are, in theory, the enemy; sneaky Graves. The adventures are original, unlike anything I've read in any other book. Graves description of the details of the Colonies are surprising and insightful. Although I think of myself as a student of history, I learned many interesting facts. The Mohawks kept black slaves, for instance; how POWs were handled; how loyalists behaved; differences between American and British beasts and fowl, foods, and fighting styles.
Excellent narration. Just terrific. I may send the narrator a fan letter.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews