If you search hard enough there’s quite a lot of anecdotal info on how horses were fed during the Peninsular War. One thing that surprised me was the reluctance of some officers to allow horses to graze, something that we’d consider essential today. Perhaps it was because they were so poorly fed at times that they would gorge themselves on any fresh forage.
Here’s one example of the importance of grazing. Esskay seems to have put back the weight he lost last autumn when the grass went off. I try to keep his condition on the light side given his historic leg issues, his age (23), and the fact he’s a decent-sized warmblood – they tend to be prone to arthritic changes. And although he’s been having extra rations over the winter, he moved to fresh grazing a couple of weeks ago. Which just goes to show that Doctor Green is the best medicine.
Novel pic just to show him as a cover-model!
Hand of the Baptist is out on Amazon Kindle TODAY! You can click the picture for a link to the Amazon UK page, or HERE for Amazon.com
When I start writing a story, despite all the planning involved I never quite know when it’ll be completed. This one took 15 months, a lot better than the 11 years from beginning to completion for Dog Watch!
So why a March 1st launch date?
Well, there’s a Welsh character – Sergeant Bevan Morgan of the 14th Light Dragoons – who appears for a short time. And a Saint.
Oh, and a dragon. Sort of.
In advance of Hand of the Baptist‘s release on 1st March, the first Cavalry Tale is a 99p deal on Kindle (or FREE if you’re a KU subscriber).
I’m pleased to announce that Hand of the Baptist, the fourth Cavalry Tale, is now available to pre-order on Amazon Kindle.
I was excited about this story even before I started to plan the book itself. The action is centred around the Battle of Talavera and its controversial cavalry charge, the still-debated fallout from which was one reason I began researching the Duke of Wellington’s cavalry in the first place. I hope you’ll enjoy reading my fiction as much as I enjoyed the writing.
And the title? No spoilers from me, sorry – you’ll have to read the book to find out!
I spent time this week with excellent writer and all round tidy bloke* Rob McLaren, discussing novels, marketing and other literary stuff.
Oh, and Napoleonic cavalry, of course.
Rob’s interest in Napoleon’s horsemen grew from following reenactment events and his great enthusiasm for tabletop wargamimg, something you might expect of a former Tactical Officer in the military. His series of books featuring Dragoon officer Andre Jobert’s career in the French revolutionary army have now reached 1802, when the short-lived Peace of Amiens was signed with Britain. Hence his research trip visiting the UK, France and Germany, though he wouldn’t divulge details of his latest plot!
An Australian army Armoured Cavalry veteran who has ridden since childhood and keeps native Stock horses at home, it would have been remiss of me not to offer Rob a ride out while he visited, to take a quick peek at the Vale of Glamorgan over the hedge-tops on my Westphalian warmblood Esskay. Many thanks to Ann for her kind loan of Freddie as escort because I didn’t much fancy having to walk.
If you already follow the adventures of my British cavalrymen Joshua Lock and John Killen you’ll find Rob’s series an exciting addition to Napoleonic period fiction. Looking at the wars from a (rare) French perspective, I guarantee you’ll love these gritty, action-packed adventures as much as I have. Click on the link below for the whole story so far!
*Note: For the uninitiated, the term ‘tidy bloke‘ is colloquial South Walian for ‘jolly decent fellow.’
I originally posted this article in 2010 when British Forces were embroiled in the latest conflict in Afghanistan, graveyard of many hopes, and servicemen’s lives, in earlier centuries, too. But with no apparent reduction in wars around the globe I thought it still relevant today.
Christmas Eve, 1808.
Even though the Victorian celebration of Christmas Day was still some years in the future, at home in Britain hands were being warmed in front of roaring fires and the smells of cooking filled kitchens great and small. All in gleeful anticipation of a feast-day on the morrow, if perhaps not, for most, a day off work.
Meanwhile, however, the British army marching through Northern Spain had that morning received disastrous news – Napoleon himself was hurrying toward them from Madrid, at the head of 40,000 veterans of his Grande Armée.
To the 30,000 of Sir John Moore’s force, shivering in six inches of snow which, mixed with rain, had fallen almost continually through the previous week, this meant only one thing. They must retreat, and quickly, before the Emperor was able to join with Marshal Soult’s nearby army of 20,000 and destroy the outnumbered Britons.
By now, the British looked decidedly ragged. Having already marched from Lisbon in Portugal and half-way across Spain, Moore’s supply lines were at breaking point. Troops constantly on duty, with cavalry and artillery horses not being unsaddled or unharnessed for days at a time, meant essentials like clothing and boots – and animals – were simply wearing out. And to make matters worse food, and forage for the horses, was in so short a supply the men had been on half-rations for more than a week. With the impoverished Spaniards unable to feed both themselves and the British in the midst of winter, a retreat might have seemed a sensible option, given the circumstances.
Instead, it would turn into a deadly, 300 mile dash to the coast; a race, against the French and freezing winter blizzards; against hunger and fatigue. And not across the gently rolling Spanish plains, but struggling over some of the most ferocious country in the world – the Cantabrian mountains.
So that Christmas Eve, as the army marched slowly out of the small town of Sahagun, scene of one of the British cavalry’s greatest escapades, perhaps it was just as well few men realised the enormity of what lay ahead.
Five thousand of them would not survive the journey home.
Christmas Eve, 2010.
The Victorians’ Christmas is still with us as, sadly, is a British army once again fighting on foreign soil. This time, however, circumstances are slightly different.
Heat is the killer in Afghanistan, rather than freezing temperatures. Thanks to modern-day logistics, food ought not to be a problem, though in a largely arid country, water often is. Armoured vehicles need no forage, (though I gather there has been some use of local horses by Special Forces personnel) and if we are to believe what the MOD tells us, the army receives all necessary equipment as it is requested. Hmm…
But the powers-that-be can’t supply courage; our servicemen and women must provide that themselves. It can’t be particularly pleasant to live in a constant state of alert; in constant fear, I’d say, because that’s how I imagine I would feel. Scared. All the time. And however you feel about the army’s presence in Afghanistan, those men and women deserve and need your support.
It doesn’t matter how you give it. There are plenty of service charities or benevolent funds if you want to give money. You can pray for their safe return, whatever religion you follow. Even if you have none.
Or, as you sit round the table before tucking into your Christmas meal, simply give them a thought.
That’s enough, you see. Because to be forgotten by your country is worse than being injured, even killed, in its service. In our service.
But to be remembered? Remembrance…means no sacrifice will be in vain.
A final thought. While watching the disembarkation of a cavalry regiment, returning from Spain in January 1809, uniforms in rags and with no surviving horses at all, one observer remarked, “There are horses enough in Yorkshire to re-mount them, but thank God the brave men have been saved.”
Amen to that.
Best wishes to you all for a happy Christmas and peaceful New Year,
Jonathan
Sir John Moore’s campaign in Spain and the retreat to Corunna features in Leopardkill, book 2 in the series.
It’s taken 11 years to complete but Dog Watch, the third Cavalry Tale, is now available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
Please click here for Amazon in the UK, or here for Amazon.com countries.
There will be a paperback version released soon, once I’ve seen and checked a proof copy.
To check out an excerpt, please click HERE
Thanks for reading!
FREE on KINDLE UNLIMITED!
In advance of a new Cavalry Tale to be published next month, the first two stories ‘Walls of Jericho’ and ‘Leopardkill’ are currently FREE if your’e a Kindle Unlimited subscriber.
With lightly edited text and refreshed covers, you can find them on a new Amazon series page: https://shorturl.at/i8hpX