Recollections of Military Service in 1813, 1814, and 1815, through Germany, Holland, and France

This account of military service during the Peninsular War penned by the late sergeant of the 2nd Battalion of the 73rd Regiment of Foot, Thomas Morris, who was not even born by the time of the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. At the tender age of 16 in 1812 he became a substitute volunteer in the British Army, enticed by the tales of derring-do and the £60 bounty paid to each man. Even at that young age he had a fine eye for detail and anecdote which he took to Belgium to join the forces pressing Napoleon back into France. He served at the battle of Waterloo in which his regiment was heavily engaged in some of the fiercest fighting charged by French Cavalry no less than 11 times during the battle and bombarded by French artillery. It remained in square without breaking. The 2nd/73rd lost 6 officers and 225 men killed and wounded, the second heaviest casualties suffered by a line infantry regiment.