Search results for ""author stephen manning""

It may come as some surprise that in such a popular area of military history there is no book that focuses on the experience of the Victorian soldier - from recruitment to embarkation, fighting and perhaps returning, perhaps dying - in his own words. Dr Manning's meticulous research in primary sources gives the lie to the received image of the disciplined, redcoated campaigner of Victorian art and literature: for one thing, by the time he arrived at his destination, the coat would have been in rags. The distances covered on march were unbelievable, through desert and disease-ravaged swamp. Lavishly illustrated throughout, all the major Colonial campaigns and most of the minor ones are featured. To understand how what was in reality a tiny standing army controlled the largest empire the world has ever seen, this book is a must.

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Field Marshal Lord Wolseley was an eminent Victorian, one of a handful of late nineteenth-century military men whose reputation transcends his age. He served the British empire in Burma, India, China, the Crimea, Canada, Asante, Egypt, South Africa and the Sudan. He excelled as a regimental soldier, staff officer, army commander and reformer and eventually commander-in-chief. Yet there has been no substantial work on Wolseley for a generation and a reassessment based upon a fresh look at the man and his achievements is long overdue. That is why Stephen Manning’s perceptive military biography, which sets Wolseley firmly in the context of his period and seeks to strip away the legend that developed during his lifetime, is so timely and important. Each of Wolseley’s campaigns is examined in vivid detail and there are graphic descriptions of the major battles in which he took part, either as an officer or a general. His performance as a commander, from his great success during the expedition against the Asante to his failure to rescue Gordon from Khartoum, is critically assessed to see if he deserves his brilliant reputation. His efforts as an army reformer are examined too, in particular whether he could have done more to prepare Britain for war against the Boers. Stephen Manning’s incisive account of Wolseley’s career will be fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in the British army in the nineteenth century, in colonial warfare and in the exploits of one of Queen Victoria’s most admired generals.

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Britain's war against the Zulu people of southern Africa in the late nineteenth century is one of the most famous clashes in the history of the British empire, but her earlier wars against the Xhosa, also in southern Africa, are far less well known. And, although the role Lord Chelmsford played in the Anglo-Zulu War has been recounted in exhaustive detail, his earlier experience against the Xhosa has rarely been explored in the same intensive way. That is why Stephen Manning's absorbing study of these colonial campaigns and Chelmsford's part in them is so timely and valuable. Chelmsford's military career and Britain's troubled relationship with the Xhosa people came together in 1878 with the conclusion of the 9th Frontier War, in which Chelmsford commanded the victorious British forces. This conflict is vividly described here. Perhaps Chelmsford learned the wrong lessons from his struggle with the Xhosa because his initial handling of British forces during the Anglo-Zulu War resulted in disaster at the Battle of Isandlwana. Although Chelmsford regained the initiative and his forces defeated the Zulus at Gingindlovu and Ulundi, his reputation never recovered. Stephen Manning's account of Chelmsford's South African campaigns gives us a fascinating insight into the military and political history of southern Africa in the period and provides a fresh view of Chelmsford himself - as a man of his time and as a military commander.

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How did technical advances in weaponry alter the battlefield during the reign of Queen Victoria? In 1845, in the first Anglo-Sikh War, the outcome was decided by the bayonet; just over fifty years later, in the second Boer War, the combatants were many miles apart. How did this transformation come about, and what impact did it have on the experience of the soldiers of the period? Stephen Manning, in this meticulously researched and vividly written study, describes the developments in firepower and, using the first-hand accounts of the soldiers, shows how their perception of battle changed. Innovations like the percussion and breech-loading rifle influenced the fighting in the Crimean War of the 1850s and the colonial campaigns of the 1870s and 1880s, in particular in the Anglo-Zulu War and the wars in Egypt and Sudan. The machine gun was used to deadly effect at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, and equally dramatic advances in artillery took warfare into a new era of tactics and organisation. Stephen Manning's work provides the reader with an accurate and fascinating insight into a key aspect of nineteenth-century military history.

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Britain fought three major wars, and two minor ones, with the Asante people of West Africa in the nineteenth century. Only the Sudanese and Zulu campaigns saw a greater loss of life, both for the British and the indigenous population. Like the Zulus, the Asante were a warrior nation who offered a tough adversary for the British regulars - they were respected for their martial skills and bravery. And yet these wars have rarely been written about and are little understood. That is why Stephen Manning's vivid, detailed new history of this neglected colonial conflict is of such value. In the war of 1823-6 the British were defeated - the British governor's head was severed and his skull was taken to the Asante king who made a cast of gold and this trophy was paraded once a year during an Asante ceremony. The years 1873-4 witnessed the brilliance of Sir Garnet Wolseley in overcoming the logistical problems of sending a large British expedition deep into the jungle where it faced not only a formidable foe but a climate so unforgiving that the region became known as 'The White Man's Grave'. Finally, the 1900 campaign culminated in the epic siege of the British fort in Kumasi which must rank as one of the great Victorian escapades alongside the more famous sieges of Peking and Mafikeng. Stephen Manning's account, which is based on Asante as well as British sources, offers a fascinating view from both sides of one of the most remarkable and protracted struggles of the colonial era.

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