Download or read book Highlander written by Tim Newark and published by Constable. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Highlanders have long been among the most feared soldiers in the world and Tim Newark's book admirably tells their stirring tale. A great read!' Bernard Cornwell On the fields of Waterloo, the deserts of Sudan, the Plains of Abraham and the mountains of Dargai, the trenches of Flanders and the jungles of Burma - the great Highland regiments made their mark. The brave kilted troops with their pipes and drums were legendary, whether leading the charge into the thick of battle or standing fast, the last to leave or fall, fighting against the odds. Acclaimed historian Tim Newark tells the story of the Highlanders through the words of the soldiers themselves, from diaries, letters and journals uncovered from archives in Scotland and around the world. At the Battle of Quebec in 1759, only a few years after their defeat at Culloden, the 78th Highlanders faced down the French guns and turned the battle. At Waterloo, Highlanders memorably fought alongside the Scots Greys against Napoleon's feared Old Guard. In the Crimea, the thin red line stood firm against the charging Russian Hussars and saved the day at Balaclava. Yet the story is also one of betrayal. At Quebec, General Wolfe remarked that, despite the Highlanders' courage, it was 'no great mischief if they fall'. At Dunkirk in May 1940, the 51st Regiment was left to defend the SOE evacuation at St Valery; though following D-Day the Highlanders were at the forefront of the fighting through France. It is all history: over the last decade the historic regiments have been dismantled, despite widespread protest. Praise for The Mafia at War: An engrossing history that reads like a thriller. 'The Godfather' meets 'Band of Brothers'. Andrew Roberts An engrossing account that has the read-on factor of the finest thriller. James Holland Newark tells an extraordinary tale with pace and conviction, and impressively unravels what really happened from the pervasive myths. History Today

Download or read book Rescued by Her Highland Soldier written by Sarah Mallory and published by Harlequin. This book was released on 2021-04-27 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Her rugged Highlander Is the gallant son of a laird! Traveling alone through the treacherous Scottish Highlands, Madeleine d’Evremont is saved by rough-looking soldier Grant Rathmore. Attraction flares between them as he escorts Madeleine on her perilous escape to France, until she discovers he’s the heir of a respected laird! Madeleine knows she must let him go. Surely the daughter of a humble adventurer could never be a suitable match for him now… From Harlequin Historical: Your romantic escape to the past. Lairds of Ardvarrick Book 1: Forbidden to the Highland Laird Book 2: Rescued by Her Highland Soldier

Download or read book The Fatal Land written by Matthew P. Dziennik and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-28 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 12,000 soldiers from the Highlands of Scotland were recruited to serve in Great Britain’s colonies in the Americas in the middle to the late decades of the eighteenth century. In this compelling history, Matthew P. Dziennik corrects the mythologized image of the Highland soldier as a noble savage, a primitive if courageous relic of clanship, revealing instead how the Gaels used their military service to further their own interests and, in doing so, transformed the most maligned region of the British Isles into an important center of the British Empire.

Download or read book Those Bloody Kilts written by Thomas Greenshields and published by Helion. This book was released on 2022-04-15 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is the first to examine comprehensively the experience of the Highland soldier in the Great War, seeking the truth behind the myths. It does not deal with the operational history, but with the life and character of the Highland soldier. It involves a far more comprehensive search of the original sources than previously attempted, being based on the original letters, diaries and accounts of serving soldiers and officers, principally from the Imperial War Museum, the Liddle Collection, the National Library of Scotland and the Regimental Museums, which together provide great richness of personal detail. Much work on Highland soldiers, and almost all popular work, has perpetuated myths about their unique character and martial spirit. This book critically examines such mythology and offers new insights into the practicality of the kilt, the use of the pipes, identity and morale, and frank revelations about courage, nerves, shell-shock and failure and the ruthless use of the bayonet. The whole is evidence based and scholastically sound, but nevertheless thoroughly readable and accessible to the general reader. The book reviews the Highland regiments before the declaration of war in 1914, including the kilted regiments not only of Scotland, but of England and the Empire. This includes an examination of their nature, composition, recent battle experience in South Africa and the Empire, sense of identity, public image and reputation. It then reviews the Highland battalions which actually went to war, including not only the pre-war Regular and Territorial battalions, but also the additional Territorial, Service, Garrison and Reserve battalions raised in the United Kingdom, together with the battalions raised for war service in Canada and South Africa. Specifically, it examines their composition, including Gaelic speakers, non-Highland Scots, recruits from the other home countries, including England, from the Empire and from foreign countries. It examines how composition varied between Regular, Territorial and Kitchener battalions etc, and how it changed with huge losses, replacement drafts and the introduction of conscription. It further examines the background of both officers and men and the reasons why they specifically joined Highland regiments. The book briefly describes the evolution of the Highland uniform during the war. More particularly, it examines the experience of the Highland soldier wearing the kilt, including its attraction for recruits, their first introduction to the kilt, regulations, custom and tradition for wearing the kilt, delays in issuing the kilt, the issue of khaki kilts, opinions of the kilt, self-image, pride and identity. It also considers its attractiveness to the ladies, the French and others, and the practicalities, risks and challenges of wearing it at home and behind the lines. It goes on to consider the practicality of the kilt at war, including exposure to cold, wet and mud, and the problems of lice, mosquitoes, barbed wire, easy recognition and mustard gas. It also considers attempts to alleviate these difficulties, for example through the temporary issue of trousers, or through proposals for abolishing the kilt in the trenches. In addition, it investigates soldiers'' opinions of the kilt at war. One chapter considers how the pipes were actually used in training, in battle and behind the lines. It demonstrates how, while on occasion the pipes were still used to pipe troops into battle, increasingly they were held back from the battle itself and used principally to boost morale behind the lines. It also investigates what the soldiers actually thought of the pipes, and the ways in which they contributed to morale, including both the reinforcement of identity and the emotional and stirring impact of the music itself. The book examines the way that discipline and inter-personal relations actually worked in the Highland battalions. It examines the exercise of discipline, and the relationships between officers, N.C.O.''s and men to see if there is any evidence at all for a more informal style of discipline and a distinctive ''family character'' in the Highland battalions, as frequently claimed. It also examines the personal relationships between the men, formed amongst small units (sections), groups of pals and between particular pals, identifying the support mechanisms used to maintain morale in the face of adversity. It relates these ''low level'' support mechanisms to support from home, the hierarchical relationships discussed above, and the overarching support provided by the battalion and regiment, to build a model of the way in which mutually reinforcing support mechanisms contributed to the maintenance of morale. It also considers identity and self-image, including identity as Highland soldiers, as members of individual regiments and battalions, and as Scots, and relates these elements to a model of the way morale worked. It includes a consideration of the extent to which specific customs and traditions were observed in the Highland battalions. The book considers the behaviour of the Highland soldier in battle, looking at their reputation for ferocity, the cult of the bayonet, their attitude towards the Germans, the taking or otherwise of prisoners and evidence for their treatment. It also looks at their reputation for courage, considering examples of courage alongside other examples of nerves, shell-shock and, on occasion, failure. The final chapter brings together the strands discussed in the preceding chapters, and seeks to identify what, if anything, truly made the Highland soldier unique, and to what extent his experience was simply the same as that of the ordinary Tommy.

Download or read book Highland Soldier written by Diana M. Henderson and published by John Donald. This book was released on 1989 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book With Wellington in the Peninsula written by Paul Cowan and published by Frontline Books. This book was released on 2015-02-28 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few men from the 71st Highland Light Infantry who sailed from Cork with Wellington to Portugal in 1808 returned to the Irish port six years later. The author of Vicissitudes in the Life of a Scottish Soldier was one of the survivors and claims only four other men from his company came through the entire six years with him. As one of Wellington's elite Light Infantry units the 71st were in the fore of the fighting in some of the hardest fought battles of the Peninsular War. The book was controversial on its release in 1827 for its unvarnished and unsentimental account of the grim war against the French in Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and France itself. A cynic with a highly developed sense of humour, the author was not afraid to criticise his superiors, be they thieving sergeants or officers who were far from gentlemen. Editor Paul Cowan draws on little known diaries and other accounts written by the author's contemporaries to corroborate and expand on this frank but all too long neglected first-hand picture of the war in the Peninsula as it was really fought.

Download or read book Sons of the Mountains written by Ian McCulloch and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An informative history of early Highland regiments of the British army in North America. It collects essays on Highland weapons, uniforms, equipment, bagpipes and specialist soldiers, with a biographical register of various officers that served in the three regiments, including regimental muster rolls and returns.

Download or read book Highland Heritage written by Celeste Ray and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year, tens of thousands of people flock to Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, and to more than two hundred other locations across the country to attend Scottish Highland Games and Gatherings. There, kilt-wearing participants compete in athletics, Highland dancing, and bagpiping, while others join clan societies in celebration of a Scottish heritage. As Celeste Ray notes, however, the Scottish affiliation that Americans claim today is a Highland Gaelic identity that did not come to characterize that nation until long after the ancestors of many Scottish Americans had left Scotland. Ray explores how Highland Scottish themes and lore merge with southern regional myths and identities to produce a unique style of commemoration and a complex sense of identity for Scottish Americans in the South. Blending the objectivity of the anthropologist with respect for the people she studies, she asks how and why we use memories of our ancestral pasts to provide a sense of identity and community in the present. In so doing, she offers an original and insightful examination of what it means to be Scottish in America.

Download or read book The Scottish Jacobite Army 1745 46 written by Stuart Reid and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-05-20 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most celebrated moments in Scottish history, the Jacobite Rising of 1745 is often romanticized. Drawing on the work of historians and a wide range of contemporary sources, Culloden expert Stuart Reid strips away the myths surrounding the events of the campaign, revealing some of the lesser known and fascinating truths about the Rising. Illustrated with contemporary sketches and meticulous full-colour reconstructions of dress and equipment, the raising of Prince Charles Edward Stuart's army is examined in detail from its organization in regiments and their command system, to its weapons, tactical strengths and weaknesses.

Download or read book A History of the Scottish Highlands written by Thomas Maclauchlan and published by . This book was released on 1875 with total page 1196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Echoes of Success Identity and the Highland Regiments written by Ian Stuart Kelly and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Echoes of Success, Ian Stuart Kelly uses new information about late Victorian Scottish Highland battalions to provide new insights into how groups identify themselves, and pass that sense on to successive generations of soldiers. Kelly applies concepts from organisational theory (the study of how organisations function) to demonstrate how soldiers’ experiences create a ‘blueprint’ of expected behaviours and thought patterns that contribute to their battalion’s continued success. This model manages the interplay between public perception and actual life experiences more effectively than current approaches to understanding identity. Also, Kelly’s primary research offers a more certain description of soldiers’ life, faith, education, and discipline than has previously been available.

Download or read book Sketches of the character manners and present state of the Highlanders of Scotland with details of the military service of the Highland regiments written by David Stewart and published by . This book was released on 1822 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Scottish Military Disasters written by Paul Cowan and published by Neil Wilson Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2008 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compilation of Scotland's failures on the battlefields of the world from Mons Graupius to Korea.

Download or read book The Story of the Highland Regiments written by Frederick Watson and published by . This book was released on 1915 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A History of the Highlands and of the Highland Clans written by James Browne and published by . This book was released on 1851 with total page 600 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book History of the Highlands and the Highland Clans written by James Browne and published by . This book was released on 1838 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Highland Brigade written by Samuel Mackenzie Elliott and published by Gale Cengage Learning. This book was released on 1861 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: