The Light Division is rightly regarded as the most famous force within Wellington's army in the Peninsular War. Often the first into every battle and the last to withdraw, the men of the Light Division were trained to act independently and think for themselves as well as operating in their battalion formations. The regiments which comprised the Light Division were present at almost every battle, large or small, throughout the Peninsular War. Many people, however, associate the Light Division with the men of the 95th Rifles, wearing in the distinctive green uniforms made famous in the Sharpe novels. What is less understood is that the majority of the Light Division actually consisted of troops dressed in the traditional red uniforms. These were men who, although equally capable of skirmishing as light infantry, actually spent the vast majority of their time formed as regular infantry, fighting in line, column or square. The 95th Rifles has literally a dozen or more memorialists including many famous ones such as Kincaid, Harry Smith, Harris, Costello, Leach, Simmons and others, who have been published and republished countless times. But the 52nd Foot - the first of the regiments of the Light Division to be trained as light infantry - has, until now, been largely unrepresented. After decades of research, Gareth Glover has unearthed a collection of short memoirs from soldiers of the 52nd (Oxfordshire) Regiment which have never been published before and one previously published, but now virtually unobtainable. This collection will undoubtedly add an essential element to our understanding of the role of the Light Division both in battle and on campaign. AUTHOR: Gareth Glover is an ex-Royal Navy officer who has made a study of the Napoleonic Wars for over forty years. In the last two decades, Gareth has made it his mission to uncover unknown or rare memoirs and correspondence from participants in these wars and his discoveries have changed our understanding of many aspects of the history of the period. To date he has produced over 100 books or monographs and has plans to publish many more in the next decade. Among these works, are the critically acclaimed fourteen-volume Waterloo Archive series (with a separate Atlas), with three more planned, which has become a 'must' for any serious student of the Waterloo campaign and four further volumes are planned. He is now regarded as the foremost expert on the archival records of the British military in the Napoleonic wars. 16 b/w illustrations
