Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Apocalypse 1692
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Santiago
STATE:
COUNTRY: Chile
NATIONALITY: British
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2010137879
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2010137879
HEADING: Hughes, Ben
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670 __ |a Conquer or die!, 2010: |b t.p. (Ben Hughes) bk. jkt. (Ben Hughes holds a degree from Leeds Univ. After graduating in 1997, he spent several years teaching and travelling throughout South America. Ben is now a lecturer and lives in North London with his Columbian wife)
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:University of Leeds, graduate, 1997.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, historian, teacher. ESOL and EFL Lecturer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
British author Ben Hughes focuses his writing on South American military history as well as the Napoleonic Wars in his nonfiction works. A graduate of Leeds University, he travelled for a number of years in South America, where he met his future wife. He also works as an English as Foreign Language teacher. Among his publications are Conquer or Die!: Wellington’s Veterans and the Liberation of the New World; They Shall Not Pass!: The British Battalion at Jarama: The Spanish Civil War; The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier; In Pursuit of the Essex: A Tale of Heroism and Hubris in the War of 1812; and Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and the Great Port Royal Earthquake.
Conquer or Die!
Hughes’ first book, Conquer or Die!, tells the little-known story of the British Legion of about six thousand volunteers and veterans of the Napoleonic Wars who played a significant part in the wars of South American liberation. While histories of that time between 1808 and 1826 generally focus on the achievements of Simon Bolivar, who freed six South American countries from Spanish dominion, Hughes examines the contribution of the British Legion to this effort between 1817 and 1821. He follows the action of this campaign from the inception, raising and equipping the Legion, and then sailing across the Atlantic to take part in various battles and campaigns. However, the expedition had trouble from the outset, with one ship sinking just out of Portsmouth and the subsequent loss of 200 men. Nor was life any easier once in South America, with diseases decimating the Legion, and pay, food, and supplies often insufficient. In the event, though, the Legion did have some major successes in Bolivar’s support.
Hughes employs newspaper accounts as well as personal writings of the volunteers, from diaries to letters and journals, to create a “fast pace” in Conquer or Die!, according to Library Journal reviewer David Lee Poremba, who further termed this an “important addition to the literature of both South America and post-Napoleonic Britain.” Writing in History Today, Kate Williams also had praise, calling this a “fine book,” and adding: “Hughes has a great passion for South America and deep sympathy for the men who fought. His attention to detail yields rich rewards and the battle descriptions are at once lucid and vivid. Conquer or Die! is a meticulously researched and fluently written account of an often forgotten British contribution to Bolivar’s great campaign.”
They Shall Not Pass!
In They Shall Not Pass!, Hughes again tells a lesser-known historical tale. Here he looks at the Spanish Civil War when, in 1937, a group of British volunteers headed to Spain to fight for the Republic against fascism. The idealistic members of the British Battalion who subsequently fought in the olive groves of Jarama, which is located near Madrid, actually managed to hand the Nationalist forces of Francisco Franco its first defeat. Hughes gives a detailed account of this ferocious three-day battle and the outsized casualties the British volunteers suffered.
“Hughes fleshes out the individual combatants while placing their sacrifices in the strategic and historical context … [in this] incredible story of the unlikely triumph of a heroic British battalion in the Spanish Civil War,” commented a Publishers Weekly contributor of They Shall Not Pass!. A Bookwatch reviewer also had praise, noting: “[M]ilitary history collections must have They Shall Not Pass!, an outstanding and detailed account of a little-known conflict.”
The Siege of Fort William Henry
Hughes takes readers back to the Seven Years’ War in America–the French and Indian War as it is popularly called–in his 2011 work, The Siege of Fort William Henry. Immortalized in The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, the siege too place in 1757 when the French surrounded the British fort at the south end of Lake George in northern New York. The fort was occupied the 35th Regiment of Foot under Lt. Col. George Monro and on August 3, the French under General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm besieged Fort William Henry. Less than a week later, Monro agreed to terms of surrender which would give his men safe passage to nearby Fort Edward. However, the American Indians who were fighting with Montcalm were disappointed at this, denied their spoils war. They subsequently attacked the retreating British in a slaughter that altered thereafter the tactics of war and besmirched Montcalm’s reputation. Hughes draws on newspaper reports, letters, memoirs, and diaries of men on both sides to create a dramatic offering.
Reviewing The Siege of Fort William Henry in Military History, Jon Guttman noted: “In this comprehensively researched book Ben Hughes re-creates the events leading up to and following the
siege …[to present] an eye-opening drama of differing societies and codes of honor on a collision course toward a bloody, tragic climax.” Writing in the Journal of Military History, Scott E. Belliveau was also impressed, observing that the author provides “vivid descriptions of the campaign’s various players,” and also noting that Hughes manages to capture the “sense of foreboding that steadily grew throughout the summer among the 2,500-man garrison as the 8,000-strong French and Indian force advanced on the fort and British attempts to halt it failed.” Belliveau also felt that Hughes’ “handling of the campaign’s best-known episode—the ‘massacre’ of British
and American soldiers and camp followers—is admirable.”
In Pursuit of the Essex and Apocalypse 1692
Hughes takes a page out of the War of 1812 in his In Pursuit of the Essex, recounting the adventures of the USS Essex as it destroyed the British South Seas whaling fleet while war continued between the United States and Britain. The Royal Navy retaliated, dispatching HMS Phoebe to deal with the Essex, and this set off a momentous naval chase ending in a bloody finale in Valparaiso Bay. Hughes tells this story from various points of view of those aboard both the Phoebe and the Essex. An online History of War reviewer noted: “Hughes takes a nice approach to the topic, following the two ships all the way from home waters to the final battle, rather than just focusing on the eventual dual itself. This takes us into unfamiliar areas–the scattered outposts of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires at a time when both countries were allied with Britain, at war with France, but neutral in the War of 1812.”
In Apocalypse 1692, Hughes provides a narrative history of Port Royal, Jamaica, in the years leading up to and including the devastating earthquake of 1692. In Hughes’s telling, Port Royal was a licentious and debauched outpost of the British Empire, with a population of merchants, privateers, slaves, sailors, and military personnel. “Though Hughes presents little new historical information, this work provides an entertaining and substantial account of an under-discussed era,” noted a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Similarly, Wall Street Journal Online contributor Fergus M. Bordewich called this a “rousing, colorful and deeply researched account of Port Royal’s last wild years and sudden death.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Bookwatch, October, 2011, review of They Shall Not Pass!: The British Battalion at Jarama: The Spanish Civil War.
History Today, August, 2011, Kate Williams, review of Conquer or Die!: Wellington’s Veterans & the Liberation of the New World, p. 55.
Journal of Military History, October, 2012, Scott E. Belliveau, review of The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier, p. 1242.
Library Journal, July, 2010, David Lee Poremba, review of Conquer or Die!, p. 96.
Military History, July, 2012, Jon Guttman, review of The Siege of Fort William Henry, p. 74.
Publishers Weekly, May 16, 2011, review of They Shall Not Pass!: The British Battalion at Jarama, p. 66; October 23, 2017, review of Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and the Great Port Royal Earthquake, p. 74.
ONLINE
Historic Naval Fiction, https://www.historicnavalfiction.com/ (February 13, 2018), “Ben Hughes.”
Richard Baxell Blog, http://www.richardbaxell.info/ (October 13, 2011), Richard Baxell, review of They Shall Not Pass!.
Wall Street Journal Online, https://www.wsj.com/ (November 24, 2017), Fergus M. Bordewich, review of Apocalypse 1692.*
Ben Hughes
Ben Hughes is a teacher and lecturer. He has spent many years living and travelling in South America and exploring its colonial history and he has a special interest in the Napoleonic Wars.
AOS Naval Non Fiction
Series: n/a
Year Book Comment
In Pursuit of the Essex Heroism and Hubris on the High Seas in the War of 1812
AOS Naval Non Fiction Author Ben Hughes
QUOTE:
Though Hughes presents little new historical information, this work
provides an entertaining and substantial account of an underdiscussed era.
Print Marked Items
Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and
the Great Port Royal Earthquake
Publishers Weekly.
264.43 (Oct. 23, 2017): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and the Great Port Royal Earthquake
Ben Hughes. Westholme, $28 (265p) ISBN 978-1-59416-287-9
Hughes (The Siege of Fort William Henry) wittily portrays the grittiness and debauchery of late-17thcentury
Jamaica in this well-crafted narrative history, focusing on the city of Port Royal in the years
preceding the devastating earthquake of 1692. As the heart of the British Empire in the Caribbean, Port
Royal was bustling with commercial activity, military craft, markets, and attractions; it was also home to an
eclectic mix of merchants, slaves, indentured servants, banished minorities, sailors, and privateers. Hughes
entertainingly illustrates the character of this "peculiarly debauched society," which was rife with
alcoholism, gluttony, corruption, loose sexual morals, disease, and "a self-indulgent attitude toward sin,"
within a broader "climate of gross brutality. " He situates this "wickedest town in the English Empire" in the
larger contexts of Jamaican, Caribbean, and Atlantic history while touching on various interrelated topics:
the sugar-fueled and slave-operated plantation economy of the island, slave resistance and maroon
communities, imperial rivalry and buccaneering, and the barbarity of the slave trade. The calamitous
earthquake of 1692, around which the narrative is framed, sent much of the city tumbling into the ocean and
is depicted in the last few-dozen pages. Though Hughes presents little new historical information, this work
provides an entertaining and substantial account of an underdiscussed era. (Dec.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Apocalypse 1692: Empire, Slavery, and the Great Port Royal Earthquake." Publishers Weekly, 23 Oct.
2017, p. 74. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512184208/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=693b9adb. Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512184208
QUOTE:
In this comprehensively researched book Ben Hughes re-creates the events leading up to and following the
siege, presents an eye-opening drama of differing societies and codes of honor on a collision course
toward a bloody, tragic climax.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A322330032
The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year
on the Northeastern Frontier
Jon Guttman
Military History.
29.2 (July 2012): p74.
COPYRIGHT 2012 World History Group, LLC
http://www.historynet.com/magazines/military_history
Full Text:
The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier, by Ben Hughes, Westholme
Publishing, Yardley, Pa., 2011, $28
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
On March 29, 1757, amid a power struggle for North America that had been going poorly for Britain for
almost three years, inexperienced soldiers of the 35th Regiment of Foot under Lt. Col. George Monro
arrived at Fort William Henry in upstate New York. From there, ostensibly supported by the garrison at Fort
Edward, they engaged in a war of raid and counterraid with French soldiers, Canadian colonials and their
Indian allies. Then, on August 3, General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm arrived with an army to besiege the
fort. Denied assistance from Fort Edward, Monro agreed six days later to Montcalm's surrender terms,
which permitted the British troops and colonial civilians to withdraw honorably to Fort Edward. As the
evacuation got under way the next day, however, Montcalm's Indians, bitter at being denied the spoils of
victory to which they considered themselves entitled, brutally took matters into their own hands in a
slaughter that tainted Montcalm's honor and became one of the darkest incidents of the French and Indian
War--as well as a backdrop for James Fennimore Coopers novel The Last of the Mohicans (see related story,
P. 9).
In this comprehensively researched book Ben Hughes re-creates the events leading up to and following the
siege, using a wealth of firsthand accounts by participants from both warring powers, the colonials caught
up in the struggle and the American Indians involved. Alternating his chapters to focus on the opposing
camps, he presents an eye-opening drama of differing societies and codes of honor on a collision course
toward a bloody, tragic climax.
Guttman, Jon
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Guttman, Jon. "The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier." Military History,
July 2012, p. 74. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A293666092/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2777cf76. Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A293666092
Osprey Publishing
QUOTE:
military history collections must have
THEY SHALL NOT PASS, an outstanding and detailed account of a little-known conflict.
The Bookwatch.
(Oct. 2011):
COPYRIGHT 2011 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com/bw/index.htm
Full Text:
Osprey Publishing
4402-23rd Street, Suite 219
Long Island City, NY 11101-5058
www.ospreypublishing.com
Richard Brooks's WALCHEREN 1944: STORMING HITLER'S ISLAND FORTRESS tells of 1944
(9781849083652, $24.95) when the Allies captured the port city of Antwerp. In order to have access to the
city they needed to clear German outposts, including the island of Walcheren, the most fortified stretch of
coastline in the world. This reveals the history of one of the last major amphibious operations of the war,
offering insights into strategies, challenges, and statistics of the conflicts. Ben Hughes' THEY SHALL NOT
PASS! THE BRITISH BATTALION AT JARAMA --THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR (9781849085496,
$25.95) tells of how in 1937 a group of idealistic British volunteers sailed from England to battle the
Spanish. They achieved the first victory against Franco's army in a battle which proved the must important
of the 20th century and which is nearly forgotten today. That's why military history collections must have
THEY SHALL NOT PASS, an outstanding and detailed account of a little-known conflict. Gordon L.
Rottman's VIETNAM INFANTRY TACTICS (9781849085052, $18.95) comes from an infantry veteran of
Vietnam and provides a fine survey of small-unit tactics of the conflict. Photos and color diagrams illustrate
coverage of the solutions adopted by the U.S. armed forces during Vietnam and makes for a fine in-depth
coverage for any Vietnam history collection. ENDURING FREEDOM: AFGHANISTAN 2001-2010
(9781849085328, $24.95) offers a fine companion volume for FORCE ON FORCE, where players have all
the in-depth details needed to recreate the battles in specific areas of the world. From scenarios and mission
objectives to combat in Afghanistan and background information, this is intended for military Force on
Force players who want the details necessary to re-create actual military scenarios. Highly recommended!
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Osprey Publishing." The Bookwatch, Oct. 2011. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A270152270/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3bfe0f0f.
Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A270152270
QUOTE:
incredible story of the unlikely triumph of a heroic British battalion in the Spanish Civil War.
Hughes fleshes out the individual combatants while placing their sacrifices in the strategic and historical
context
They Shall Not Pass: The British
Battalion at Jarama
Publishers Weekly.
258.20 (May 16, 2011): p66.
COPYRIGHT 2011 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
They Shall Not Pass: The British Battalion at Jarama
Ben Hughes. Osprey, $25.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-84908-549-6
Hughes (Conquer or Die/ Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World) ably narrates the
incredible story of the unlikely triumph of a heroic British battalion in the Spanish Civil War. The outlook
for the Spanish Republic early in 1937 was not good. Madrid managed to hold out against the Nationalist
forces of Francisco Franco, but its only lifeline was a single road that ran to the coast through the olive
groves by the Jarama River. That February, the International Brigades, motley formations consisting of
assorted antifascists and adventurers, were brought up for a long-awaited offensive to secure that road. But
Franco's forces struck first, with the brunt following on a battalion of British volunteers. In three days of
ferocious combat, the Brits took horrendous casualties as a result of ill discipline, poor training, cowardly
and incompetent leadership, and political interference. By the third night, the Brits had had enough and
launched a night counterattack that gave the Republicans a much needed tactical and propaganda victory,
and Hughes fleshes out the individual combatants while placing their sacrifices in the strategic and historical
context, although not without a tendency to engage in pro-Republican hagiography. 36 color and b&w illus.;
maps. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"They Shall Not Pass: The British Battalion at Jarama." Publishers Weekly, 16 May 2011, p. 66. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A256863684/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=80373b91. Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A256863684
QUOTE:
important addition to the
literature of both South America and post-Napoleonic Britain.
Hughes, Ben. Conquer or Die!:
Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation
of the New World
David Lee Poremba
Library Journal.
135.12 (July 2010): p96.
COPYRIGHT 2010 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
Hughes, Ben. Conquer or Die!: Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World. Osprey. Aug.
2010. c.392p, illus. maps. bibliog, index. ISBN 978-1-84908-1832. $25.95. HIST
The wars of South American liberation (1808-26) were led mostly by Simon Bolivar, who liberated no
fewer than six South American countries from Spanish domination. This is covered most admirably in John
Lynch's Simon Bolivar: A Life and John Charles Chasteen's Americanos: Latin America's Struggle for
Independence. One important aspect of this conflict that hasn't been chronicled in decades is the contribution
of the British Legion, a collection of over 6000 volunteers, mostly Napoleonic veterans, who fought
between 1817 and 1821 in South America. Utilizing contemporary sources from both sides of the Atlantic,
Hughes sets a fast pace, beginning with the struggle to raise regiments, equip them, and sail them safely
across the ocean; moving on to the campaigns and battles themselves; and ending with the legion's defant
stand and victory at the Battle of Carabobo in June 1821. VERDICT Told through the volunteers' diaries,
letters, and journals and supported by contemporary newspaper accounts, this is an important addition to the
literature of both South America and post-Napoleonic Britain. Strongly recommended to all seeking this
useful additional coverage of the era.
(Illustrations not seen.)--David Lee Poremba, Keiser Univ., Orlando, FL
Poremba, David Lee
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Poremba, David Lee. "Hughes, Ben. Conquer or Die!: Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New
World." Library Journal, July 2010, p. 96. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A231088027/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=2801139f.
Accessed 5 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A231088027
QUOTE:
vivid descriptions of the
campaign’s various players,
sense of foreboding that steadily grew throughout the
summer among the 2,500-man garrison as the 8,000-strong French and Indian
force advanced on the fort and British attempts to halt it failed. In his well-executed
account of the siege itself, he shows how effectively French irregular forces
isolated the garrison at Fort William Henry from either retreat or rescue and how
efficiently regular French forces,
is handling of the campaign’s best-known episode—the “massacre” of British
and American soldiers and camp followers—is admirable.
Belliveau, Scott E. Journal of Military History. Oct2012, Vol. 76 Issue 4, p1242-1244. 3p.
Subjects: NONFICTION; FORT William Henry (N.Y.) -- Capture, 1757; SIEGE of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier,
The Siege of Fort William Henry: A Year on the Northeastern Frontier. By Ben
Hughes. Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing, 2011. ISBN 978-1-59416-416-9.
Maps. Illustrations. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 337. $28.00.
Given that popular awareness of the French and Indian War is limited largely
to its status as the precursor to the American Revolution, outside of Braddock’s
Defeat (at which George Washington was present), most people would be hardpressed
to name one of its battles.
The sole exception to this rule might be the August 1757 siege of Fort William
Henry. Almost certainly, it owes it place in popular imagination to the “massacre”
that occurred after the British surrender and, even more so, to its colorful
treatment in The Last of the Mohicans and later film and television adaptations of
the novel. It’s not just screenwriters who have been attracted to this story, however.
It features in many accounts of the French and Indian War, and some historians,
such as Ian K. Steele, have written books focused on it.
Ben Hughes opens by setting the strategic stage for the 1757 campaign.
While useful overall, this effort stretches too far back into history and lacks a
detailed explanation of the strategic water route that stretched from the Hudson
River northward to the Richelieu River, and, thus, the importance of Fort William
Henry in British and French strategy.
Hughes remedies those deficiencies, however, with vivid descriptions of the
campaign’s various players, starting with the 35th Foot, a British regiment that
provided the bulk of regular forces at Fort William Henry and the fort’s commander,
Lieutenant Colonel William Monro. Hughes also depicts American
provincial troops, often chafing under British command; French regulars, often
exasperated by local officials; and French militia, experts in the patrols, skirmishes,
and raids that characterized frontier warfare. Throughout, he provides glimpses
into each side’s high command and the often-testy relationships within them. The
most compelling chapter in this category concerns France’s Indian allies in which
Hughes explains how the French managed to maintain alliances with numerous
tribes that yielded almost 2,000 warriors for the 1757 campaign.
As the subtitle suggests, Hughes begins his narrative of the campaign in 1756,
when the French commander, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, devised his plan to take
the fort. Hughes shows how French raiding parties roved around Lake George,
gathering intelligence and keeping the British off-balance. Their seemingly constant
presence pushed Major General David Webb, the British commander based
at Fort Edward at the Hudson River’s headwaters, into the defensive mindset he
kept throughout the campaign.
Hughes captures the sense of foreboding that steadily grew throughout the
summer among the 2,500-man garrison as the 8,000-strong French and Indian
force advanced on the fort and British attempts to halt it failed. In his well-executed
account of the siege itself, he shows how effectively French irregular forces
isolated the garrison at Fort William Henry from either retreat or rescue and how
efficiently regular French forces, especially engineers and gunners, forced the British
surrender within six days.
His handling of the campaign’s best-known episode—the “massacre” of British
and American soldiers and camp followers—is admirable. While he forthrightly
describes the Indians’ depredations and some French officers’ failure to intervene,
he doesn’t linger over lurid details. He also describes the courageous actions of
French officers and priests that prevented killings and persuaded Indians to release
hundreds of their captives, and which limited the number of dead and captives to
about 200 each.
The author concludes with chapters that cover the plight of those captives
taken to Canada or enslaved by Indians, the outcome of the French and Indian
War, the lives of the surviving participants, the almost immediate use of the “massacre”
as wartime propaganda, and how that propaganda formed the basis of a
mythology that profoundly affected American popular and historical attitudes
1244 ★ THE JOURNAL OF
Book Reviews
toward Indians. These chapters are executed well, but, as with the introductory
matter, they tend toward flabbiness.
Hughes came to this book with no experience writing about the French and
Indian War (his previous books concern British participation in Latin American
independence struggles and the Spanish Civil War). Nevertheless, he has produced
a well-paced and well-researched popular history that specialist readers might
eschew but general readers new to the topic of the French and Indian War or
looking for an easily accessible factual account of an event they might know only
from fiction, will find appealing.
Scott E. Belliveau VMI Foundation
Lexington, Virginia
QUOTE:
fine book
Hughes has a great passion for South America and deep sympathy for the men who fought. His attention to detail yields rich rewards and the battle descriptions are at once lucid and vivid. Conquer or Die is a meticulously researched and fluently written account of an often forgotten British contribution to Bolivar's great campaign.
WILLIAMS, KATE. History Today. Aug2011, Vol. 61 Issue 8, p55-56. 2p.
Subjects: NONFICTION; TO War With Wellington: From the Peninsula to Waterloo (Book); CONQUER or Die! Wellington's Veterans & the Liberation of the New World (Book); SNOW, Peter; HUGHES, Ben
To War with Wellington From the Peninsula to Waterloo Peter Snow John Murray 384pp £25 ISBN 978 1848541030
Conquer or Die! Wellington's Veterans and the Liberation of the New World Ben Hughes Osprey 376pp £20 ISBN 978 1849081832
In late March 1815 William Hay and his fellow 12th Light Dragoons were in a public house, resting from some crowd control work in London, when a man burst through the door. 'Old Boney has broken out again and got to Paris', he cried. For the commanders, such as Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the news of Napoleon's escape from Elba put an end to his efforts in diplomacy at the Congress of Vienna. Humble soldiers, like Hay, anticipated a return to the dangers and privations of the battlefield. Nevertheless, he was eager, declaring 'no liking for the life of a soldier in idleness'.
In this fine book Peter Snow explores the Peninsular Wars and the Battle of Waterloo by paying particular attention to the men who served under Wellington. He has scoured the many accounts by soldiers and weaves them impeccably into a wider narrative. We read about actors, shepherds and ploughboys as well as the sons of landowners and earls, stumbling and fighting their way through Portugal, Spain and France. Snow is particularly good on the preparations for battle and the marches through unforgiving terrain and he gives space to the accompanying women who had to prove themselves as resilient as the men.
Snow keeps his quotations short and produces a splendidly concise and fast-paced narrative. To War With Wellington is also an excellent, clear account of the conflicts themselves, with confident handling of both individual skirmishes and the wider battle plans. Rich with colour and pathos, written with wit and grace, this is marvellous history.
Many veterans of Wellington's campaigns returned to their previous lives in Britain. Others sought further adventure. Ben Hughes, in this, his first book, tells the fascinating story of how nearly 7,000 British volunteers set off in the years after 1815 to support Simón Bolivar in his quest to liberate Gran Colombia from the Spanish.
The mission seemed doomed from the beginning. Two hundred men drowned off the coast of Britain, many fled on arrival in Trinidad, while others fell victim to disease, attacks by alligators and raids by locals. Those who survived to fight in the Venezuelan interior found themselves in frequently horrifying battles in which the code of honour that had generally prevailed in Wellington's campaigns no longer existed. Bolivar had vowed 'War to the Death' in 1813 and captured men were often brutally slaughtered.
There were conmen and cheats in the ranks, but most of the men were brave soldiers, keen to help the cause. Their contribution was crucial, most notably at the Battle of Carabobo in June 1821, after which Spanish control of Colombia and Venezuela collapsed. Bolivar himself congratulated those British who fought with him as Salvalvadores dimiPatria.
Hughes has a great passion for South America and deep sympathy for the men who fought. His attention to detail yields rich rewards and the battle descriptions are at once lucid and vivid. Conquer or Die is a meticulously researched and fluently written account of an often forgotten British contribution to Bolivar's great campaign.
'I should have given more praise', said Wellington at the end of his life. His men went largely unrewarded. Pensions remained low and there was no Peninsular War medal until 1847, by which time many of those who had fought were dead. Of Bolivar's British soldiers, only about 1,000 returned home. Around 300 settled in South America, but the rest are buried in unmarked or neglected graves. As both of these books about the glories and horrors of war show so well, great victories are built on the sacrifices of the ordinary soldier.
~~~~~~~~
By KATE WILLIAMS
Richard Baxell
Historian, lecturer, author
Blog posts
Galleries
Portfolio
Review of Ben Hughes’ They Shall Not Pass! The British Battalion at Jarama
The Battle of Jarama in February 1937, the first action of the British Battalion in the Spanish Civil War, provided a brutal wake-up call for both the volunteers themselves and the British Communist Party, which had recruited them. During three days of bitter and sustained fighting, the six hundred poorly-trained, ill-equipped ‘city-bred young men’ were attacked by an overwhelming force, comprising the cream of Franco’s professional army, backed up by German armour. That the British Battalion managed to hold the line – just – was a feat of both stubborn defiance and astonishing bravery. But the cost was substantial. After the three days of fighting of 12-14 February, less than half the Battalion remained; Suicide Hill was not named in vain. As the Scottish Political Commissar, Peter Kerrigan, later stated, ‘this battle has been reported on many occasions. Suffice it to say that it was the bloodiest of all the battles that the British Battalion was involved in, in Spain. There was none as deadly.’
Ben Hughes new study places the battle of Jarama at the centre of the story of the British and Irish in Spain. Drawing on the numerous memoirs, both published and held in archives around the world, They Shall Not Pass! successfully weaves the volunteers’ accounts together, contextualising them within a clear narrative. This is a satisfyingly well-written account which tells the, often horrifying, story with both verve and understanding.
Divided into three parts, the book’s scope actually extends beyond Jarama, though the main focus of the book is, of course, the battle itself. Part one begins with a chapter to set the scene, before two chapters briefly sketch out the volunteers’ journeys to Spain and the hurried and limited attempts to transform the volunteers’ political will into military skill. Hughes then returns to the Jarama Valley, concluding his first section at lunchtime on 12 February 1937, with the battalion under attack, but dug in, still determined that that the fascists will not pass.
In the second and crucial section of the book, Hughes reveals how the naïve optimism of the novice volunteer soldiers was violently shattered by the terrifying onslaught of Franco’s elite troops of the Army of Africa. Ten graphic chapters provide ‘a micro history’ of the battle, almost forensic in the attention to detail. Hughes has clearly spent considerable time on his primary research here and the work certainly pays off. The events are recounted from, in Hughes words, ‘a worm’s eye point of view,’ which provides the reader with an understanding of how shocking the experiences of the Jarama battle – and the war in Spain for that matter – really were for the volunteers.
The third and final part of the book provides an account of the experiences of the British and Irish volunteers from the battle of Brunete of July 1937, through to their return to Britain at the end of 1938. Unfortunately, this section is somewhat of a disappointment, perhaps because the previous sections have set such a high standard. Increasingly reliant on secondary sources, it offers nothing like the level of detail of the earlier chapters and is correspondingly less original and informative.
Interest picks up again in the epilogue, which brings the account up to the present day, revealing what happened to the veterans of Jarama during the Second World War and thereafter. For example, the later lives of the three commanders of the battalion at Jarama, Tom Wintringham, Jock Cunningham and Fred Copeman, certainly make interesting reading.
The book also benefits from two useful appendices, including directions to help locate the actual site of the February battle, which I’m sure a number of IBMT members will find beneficial. There is a thorough index and copious footnotes, both of which should prove valuable for students and researchers. All the maps are very clear and other good touches are the brief biographies of the dramatis personae and the numerous photographs, including a number of colour pictures of Jarama features such as the sunken road and ‘the knoll’ in the present day.
There are, of course, a few areas where the reader may disagree with Hughes’ approach or conclusions – I think that he overestimates the casualty rates at Jarama, for example – and there are a number of oversights and little errors, inevitable in a book of this scope and probably only apparent or of interest to the specialist. Most, though, do not detract from what, I think, is one of the best recent additions to the collection of studies on the brave group of British and Irish volunteers, who fought in the Spanish Civil War.
QUOTE:
Hughes takes a nice approach to the topic, following the two ships all the way from home waters to the final battle, rather than just focusing on the eventual dual itself. This takes us into unfamiliar areas - the scattered outposts of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires at a time when both countries were allied with Britain, at war with France, but neutral in the War of 1812.
In Pursuit of the Essex - Heroism and Hubris on the High Seas in the War of 1812, Ben Hughes
One of the best known features of the War of 1812 was the series of duals between individual British and American naval vessels. These began with a series of famous American victories, but by the end of the war most of the US Navy had either been eliminated or blockaded. The dual between USS Essex and HMS Hillyar was one of the last to involve a US frigate, but was unusual in that it took place on the Pacific coast of Chile, well away from the scene of most other battles, and for ending one of the most unusual cruises of the war.
Captain Porter, the commander of the Essex, seems to have put to sea with every intention of moving into the Pacific, despite having orders to join up with other US warships in the South Atlantic. His Pacific voyage started well - he captured a number of British whalers, but he was obsessed with the idea of a duel with a British warship, and he ended up blockaded in Valparaiso, before eventually having to surrender after an attempt to escape past the British blockade failed. Very few of his prices successfully reached US waters, and his cruise ended up as something of a failure. However in the post-war period President Madison needed to restore his reputation, and so Porter's cruiser was 'spun' into a great US naval triumph, part of a general effort to rewrite the history of the War of 1812.
On occasions Porter does emerge as a bit of a prat - he took sides in a dispute on the South Seas island, and ended up taking one side in a fairly major war. Later he became obsessed with the idea of a 'fair fight' between the Essex and the Phoebe - a one-on-one formal dual that would have greatly favoured his ship, which had a broadside of 676lb, mainly made up of forty 32pdr carronades, compared to the Phoebe, which had a broadside of 502lb with twenty-six long 18-pounders and twelve 32pdr carronades. Unsurprising Captain Hillyar had no interest whatsoever in such a quixotic fight, while Porter appears to have been attempting to compensate for the unbalanced nature of his armament. The battle was eventually decided by Porter's poor tactics on the day, which played into Hillyar's hands, even though his second ship was barely involved in the fight.
Hughes takes a nice approach to the topic, following the two ships all the way from home waters to the final battle, rather than just focusing on the eventual dual itself. This takes us into unfamiliar areas - the scattered outposts of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires at a time when both countries were allied with Britain, at war with France, but neutral in the War of 1812. The voyage of the Essex later became the inspiration for Patrick O'Brian's The Far Side of the World, part of the Aubrey-Maturin series of Napoleonic naval novels, and the story does read almost like fiction (as do so many naval voyages of the age of sail).
Chapters
1 - 'Yankee Warriors True': Captain David Porter and the Essex, 1 September 1812-25 January 1813
2 - The South Atlantic: USS Essex, 27 November 1812-25 January 1813
3 - 'A finer set of fellows': Captain James Hillyar and the Right Revered HMS Phoebe, 27 December 1812-11 April 1813
4 - Into the Pacific: USS Essex, 26 January 1813-11 April 1813
5 - From Tenerife to Rio: HMS Phoebe, 12 April 1813-9 July 1813
6 - The Galapagos Islands: USS Essex, 11 April 1813-9 July 1813
7 - In the Footsteps of Robinson Crusoe: HMS Phoebe, 10 July 1813-6 October 1813
8 - A Matter of Honour: USS Essex, 9 July 1813-2 October 1813
9 - Tragedy at Tumbez: HMS Phoebe, 3 October 1813-10 December 1813
10 - Death in Paradise: USS Essex, 4 October 1813-13 December 1813
11 - The Valley of the Unknown God: HMS Phoebe, 24 November 1813-8 February 1814
12 - The Standoff, 13 December 1813-28 March 1814
13 - The Battle, 27-28 March 1814
14 - The Aftermath, 29 March 1814-25 December 1814
Epilogue: Loose Ends, 7 July 1814-14 August 1870
Author: Ben Hughes
Edition: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Publisher: Pen & Sword Maritime
Year: 2016
QUOTE:
rousing, colorful and deeply researched account of Port Royal's last wild years and sudden death.
By Fergus M. Bordewich
Nov. 24, 2017 4:43 p.m. ET
Nov 24, 2017 - Ben Hughes brings it all to life in “Apocalypse 1692,” a rousing, colorful and deeply researched account of Port Royal's last wild years and sudden death. Captured from the Spanish in 1655, and cocooned in the business of slavery, Jamaica was by far the largest of the British Caribbean islands.