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by Gareth Glover (Author)
The 4th Dragoons' Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns reveal a costly, intimate portrait of cavalry life.
The 4th Dragoons were present at virtually every battle in the Peninsular War from 1809 to 1814. It was a family regiment, with John and George Luard, Charles and George Dalbiac, Tom Fenton, Norcliffe
Norcliffe, and John Dalton all related and serving at the same time. They left journals and letters that describe the life of a cavalry regiment in the Peninsular and that detail the many actions they endured.
But what makes With Wellington's Cavalry exceptional is that John Luard was also an accomplished artist, and he produced numerous sketches of the places they visited as they travelled the peninsula, the people they met and the battles they fought. These are all included, providing a vivid image of life in a cavalry regiment.
By the time of Waterloo, the Luard brothers were serving in other cavalry regiments, but both survived unscathed and left splendid descriptions of their part in this momentous battle.
The level of detail covered, along with the many images throughout, makes With Wellington's Cavalry a fascinating study of the cost of such an extended conflict on relationships, presenting the reader with an in-depth understanding of what it was really like to be there.
