Recollections of a Peninsular Veteran

Lt. Col, Anderson wrote his memoirs as for his own family not suspecting their interest to the larger reading public. As such they hold a charm of their own apart from a number of the more swashbuckling accounts of soldier’s adventures in the British army during the Napoleonic and Victorian periods. That is not to say that they are staid in any way but written from a more modest view-point than some.

Joining the British army at the tender age of fifteen as an ensign in the 78th Regiment of Foot, he took part on the clash at Maida in which an out-numbered British force decisively defeated the French division of General Reynier. Posted to the main Peninsular theatre of war, he took part on the battles of Talavera, Busaco and Fuentes d’Oñoro.

A humane and reasonable man capable of great bravery, such as going into French lines to recover the body of his dead friend, Anderson’s memoirs have deserved a greater audience than the circle of his family and were duly published after his death.

Text taken, whole and complete, from the 1913 edition published in London by Edward Arnold, Original 330 pages.

Author – Lt.-Col Joseph Anderson C.B. K.H. 01/06/1790 – ??/01/1877

Foreword – Captain Acland Anderson ????-????