19th Century Military Illustrations
Trafalgar 1805
Royal Marines fought both above deck with small arms and below on designated guns. When the battle was in the balance and Marines had to be forced to leave their guns to fight deck it was not because of reluctance to leave a place of safety - there was nowhere safe on a fighting man-of-war - but due to their loyalty to the cannon and their awareness of the havoc they were wreaking.
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Trafalgar 1805
Royal Marines fought both above deck with small arms and below on designated guns. When the battle was in the balance and Marines had to be forced to leave their guns to fight deck it was not because of reluctance to leave a place of safety - there was nowhere safe on a fighting man-of-war - but their loyalty to the cannon and their awareness of the havoc they were wreaking.
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After the Battle, Trafalgar 1805
The British Fleet suffered heavily during the Battle and with loses through death and injury the exhausted crews had to make their ships sea worthy, take in tow those which could not make their own way and man the French and Spanish prizes. And a fierce storm was looming.
© Aonix Ltd -
Corunna, 1809
The retreat to Corunna was conducted through snow covered mountains and in a devastating storm. Men with tattered and inadequate clothing fought rearguard actions, marched and laid down and died. The Royal Welsh Fusilier shown here was a member of the newly raised 2nd Battalion which was the last corps to evacuate the town.
Private collection -
Retreat from Moscow 1812
The enemy of the Russian winter reduced even the elite of Napoleon's Army to frozen, starving scarecrows. Continually harassed they fought with what they could find and died in the snow.
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San Sebastion 1813
Private William McCallion, 3rd Battalion 1st Foot was 26 when he took part in the costly attack on the fortress of San Sebastian. The following year he was discharged from the Army due to his having a "...disabled left arm by gunshot wound at San Sebastian 31st August 1813." This successful storming was the second to be attempted with the whole operation resulting in casualties of 2000 men.
Private collection -
Quatre Bras 1815
Marching in haste on a hot summer day British troops were fed in to support the hard pressed Dutch and Nassauer units as they arrived. Already fatigued they faced repeated attacks by infantry and cavalry, at times unable, even, to form squares. The Allies suffered 4,800 casualties.
Private collection -
Hougoumont, 1815
Kings German Legion troops were brought to the hollow way beside the farm to repulse the French. Napoleon saw Hougoumont as a key element in the battle. It was late afternoon and it had been a long, hard day.
Private collection -
Marie-Louise, 1815
Not all Napoleon's troops were elite. The Marie-Louise were ill equipped and ill trained. They fought as best they could.
Private collection -
Burma, 1842
In a humid and disease ridden environment British troops - such as these Light Company men of the 38th Foot - fought in uniforms which were no different from the summer review order of England. Rangoon became "one vast hospital ... it was as gloomy a scene as could be conceived, to see our soldiers crawling about on all sides, in their hospital clothing, ghastly as ghosts."
In the collection of 3rd Battalion The Mercian Regiment (Staffords) -
The Alma, 1854
Even before the fighting the Light Division struggled, under fire, through orchards, vineyards, over stone walls and felled trees before they waded a river and began the final assault. They still had to climb the rocky slopes, the battalions hopelessly intermingled to attack the Russian defenders who poured fire down upon them.
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Gettysburg, 1863
An Assistant Surgeon of the Union Army contemplates the continuing stream of wounded. It is the second day of the battle and his supplies are diminishing, his saws more blunt. There is no sign of an end and he is tired.
