Corporal Brown’s Campaigns in the Low Countries

A new version of a very rare text of the Coldstream Guards at WarThe Campaign in the Low Countries is rarely covered in books concerning the experiences of the British Army. It was fought against the armies of Revolutionary France at a time when Napoleon was still a junior officer. It has been overshadowed by the war in Spain and the Waterloo Campaign-probably because it was a military disaster for the allied armies-and popular history is inclined to dwell on the victories of Wellington that followed. Many a soldier would look back upon this campaign as ’the one that taught us what NOT to do’. Nevertheless, it remains a fascinating episode in British military history and this book-written by a very active participant-brings it vibrantly to life. Robert Brown was a highly literate other rank in the Coldstream Guards. He recorded his experiences in riveting detail and left us with a view of warfare in the late eighteenth century which is both entertaining and essential as a prelude to the experiences of soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars which would shortly follow. Brown’s text, originally presented in the archaic style of 1795, has been substantially reworked by Frederick Llewellyn making it easily accessible for the contemporary reader for the first time. A short summary of the campaign is also included to give Brown’s narrative context.