The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Land Warfare: An Illustrated World View

Rating:
Summary: A Most Bellicose Century
Review: By John McCaughey

One comes away from Byron Farwell's huge book on 19th century warfare* with the rather dismal reflection that there was not one single day in those one hundred years when wars small or large were not being waged somewhere on the globe and thousands of people were being killed daily--often with barbarism. The soldiers, naturally, did the rough work, but civilian inventors and technicians toiled tirelessly behind the scenes to invent and manufacture ever more efficient and cost-effective ways to kill people. Far from the firing lines, politicians fomented wars. Very many of those wars were instigated for asinine reasons.

Ambitiously, Farwell paints his huge canvas for both the scholar and the general reader of military history. It is, he says, a tale of wars, revolutions, battles, sieges, spies, soldiers, technical military terms, weapons, armies, military awards, camp followers and other aspects of 19th century wars and military life. Nor does he neglect that other factor that caused more deaths than all the weapons combined: diseases, including venereal disease which filled the military hospitals.

The book takes us into a far different world to today's high-tech warfare, sketching feats of almost unbelievable courage, stoicism and unshakeable devotion to duty. There was, for example, Henry Havelock (1795-1857) who, learning of the massacre of the garrison at Cawnpore in India led 2,000 infantry, some volunteer cavalry and six guns to defeat the rebels. By forced marches at the hottest time of the year he traversed 126 miles in nine days (14 miles a day through rough country for redcoats carrying heavy kit).

Defeating a rebel force, he entered Cawnpore and then--despite dwindling ammunition and supplies and a plague of cholera and dysentery that was killing off many of his men--he marched on to try to relieve the beseiged Lucknow, defeating two forces of mutineers on the way.

In an armchair, it is comfortable to read about all this, but it requires little imagination to envision what Havelock and his soldiers must have endured--driven on by their sense of duty, their faith in the British Raj and the iron discipline of the army.

Farwell (sadly, he died several years ago) was a veteran military historian, author of more than a dozen histories and a notable biography of Stonewall Jackson. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is one of his many fans. Much of his success is due to his eye for the odd or quixotic, which makes this book more readable than most other encyclopedias.

At random, then, we learn that:

#A U.S. marine called Jonathan Goble, stationed in China, in 1855 invented the rickshaw;
#The British office of "Gold Stick in Waiting" goes back to 1678 (the author is adept at describing orders of chivalry and ceremonial posts);
#The notorious Nazi "Goose Step" straight-legged, stiff-kneed march (George Orwell called it "one of the most horrible sights in the world") derived from a drill in which recruits were taught balance by standing on one leg and swinging the other backward and forward;

A thousand other such intriguing factoids sprinkle this book like confetti. Farwell's disquisition, for example, on the somewhat odd preoccupation of all armies throughout history with the hairstyles of soldiers and officers alike is a masterpiece of dry humor.

Nor does Farwell shrink from the ugly side of war--noting, for example, with considerable imagery, that at the conclusion of the Siege of Verona in the Peninsular War on 11 December 1809 "some 3,000 walking skeletons surrendered."

The real joy of this book, though, is in the arcania. How the dickens did Farwell find out so much about the Ghost Dance of the Oglala Sioux? Or the story of Rollo Gillespie, a small man who assailed in his quarters one night in the West Indies by a gang of desperados grabbed his sword and killed six of them. Word of the feat preceded him to England, where, some years later, upon being presented to King George III at a levee, the royal personage remarked: "Eh, eh? What, what! Is this the little man that killed the brigands?" One might almost be in the room with the dotty monarch and the little man.

And always, like the sun about to break through the thunderclouds of war, lurks Farwell's characteristic dry humor. Of one British officer he writes: "He was a decisive man, perhaps too decisive. One of his colleagues spoke of 'One of those long conferences he held on grave issues. They generally lasted from two to five minutes'."

Lord knows how long it is, but at 900 pages the encyclopedia can scarcely be less than half a million words. Such books are not intended for narrative reading, but a daily dip into this one will invariably reward the readers with some quixotic, historical or amusing anecdote. The U.S. military could do a lot worse than to issue a copy to all ranks.

All in all, the book is an extraordinary display of erudition and of awesome industry. In no small way, it is Byron Farwell's monument.

But this reviewer's favorite entry is on the "Gunner's Chant." Explains Farwell:

"Sometimes called the gunner's doxology. Before watches became common, this was a chant used by artillery noncommissioned officers when firing salutes in order to time the intervals between rounds and keep them uniform. It began:

"Fire!
If I had good sense I wouldn't be here.
Fire!
I'd like to slip off for a pail of beer.
Fire!"

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*The Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Land Warfare by Byron Farwell. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-393-04770-9. [$]

Rating:
Summary: An Inexhaustable Treasure Trove of 19th Century History.
Review: I came to this book as a retired lawyer with a life long interest in history, particularly as to its military aspects. No longer required by profession to spend most of my reading time in case books, I realized that compromised health has at least one benefit, namely to pursue knowledge for its own sake. I have always believed that next to reading and basic math, the most important subject in our schools should be history, but as my sons wended their way through the educational process, I realized that this wasn't so. And where history was offered, it became disassociated with the truth, largely because of academic championing of plain wrong philosophies such as political correctness, multiculturalsim and nonjudgmental ethics. This, I found, was most concentrated at the college level. So what has that got to do with whether or not you should buy this book? A lot. If you do no more than accept what occurs on the world stage as a spectator, then pass on. But if you, like me, frequently wonder, "why?", then I recommend this very comprehensive book without reservation. For example, do you think that the extremely militant form of Islam called "Wahhabianism" is a recent thing? Farwell shows that it was the cause of the Arabian Wars of 1801 -1842. Vietnam a 1960's thing? The French waged war there about the same time that America was engaged in its Civil War. Afghanistan a today event? The British fought two wars there. War dominated the 19th Century, and a reading of this book makes it clear that the fallout from those wars are with us yet. If the French saying (translated) that, "The more things change, the more they remain the same." has any truth to it, it is exemplified time and again in this excellent work. Yes, it's big and costs a bit, but it was worth every dollar to me. It's accurate, and in being so, it is very judgmental on such matters as how the Americans dealt with the "Indian Issue", British, French and US colonialism, centuries old Islamic militarism and the frequent failure of the use of force to solve political issues. As I noted in another review, as we continue as a nation to wage war on terrorism, there is a growing need for informed Americans, both in the positions of leadership, and of those who elect them. There is much to be learned from this excellent work, and it is beautifully well-organized to permit quick access to subject matter. Of course, Farwell's writing skill is outstanding. And just think of the questions that your friends may be hesitant to ask when they see THIS book on the coffee table!

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: The magnum opus of the late Byron Farwell, a retired British officer and historian. If you want to know anything about land nineteenth century land warfare, this is the book for you. Written in an unadorned flowing style the book is a pleasure to read and not simply to use as a reference work. A valuable work that should serve to give background information in the development of the military art in the nineteenth cenury for the student of any particular conflict, be it the Napoleonic Wars, the Civil War, etc. The production quality of the book is quite high, with the pages being printed on heavy, high quality paper and with an excellent binding. In an age of shoddy publishing I was pleasantly surprised by this book.