Book Review: Feeding Wellington’s army In The Peninsular

Author: Gareth Glover / Tupper Carey Genre: Biography

Published: November 2023 by Pen and Sword Military Review by: Jack Nicole

First and foremost, this is an excellent book. By turns engaging, informative and amusing, it manages to combine insight into the life and work of a Commissary officer on campaign with acute observations of what is going on around him, and occasional ‘battle pieces’ written from an unusual viewpoint.

The introduction tells us that Tupper Carey kept detailed journals, effectively a daily diary, so we have every reason to believe that these memoirs were compiled from contemporary records rather than from memory many years later. His clerical role therefore sets his memoirs apart from the great flood of reportage by soldiers after the war.

We meet him as a 16-year-old in 1804; by the time his real service begins he is 19, and at the end of this book he has just turned 25.

Carey fills in the detail glossed over by contemporaries. Where soldiers comment on how well the French adapted to temporary occupations, Carey describes the French method of converting a damaged house into a fireplace and chimney. Where soldiers complain about the design and squealing of Portuguese oxcarts, Carey produces a line drawing of one that shows why the design is so poor, explaining that the oxen are reluctant to pull the cart unless it squeals.

Similarly, Carey’s battle pieces contain nuggets of pure gold. At Salamanca he took up a viewing position on the Lesser Arapile, from which he clearly saw the French right (the last to arrive on the ridge) encamping before the battle had started, something I cannot recall ever seeing mentioned by another account of the battle. I should also mention that Carey took a particular interest in Le Marchant’s newly-arrived brigade of heavy cavalry, not surprising since they were both Guernseymen with many mutual acquaintances. Carey is one of the very few authors to point out that this brigade – which performed so spectacularly at Salamanca – “had no experience in the field and as yet had never seen an enemy”.

The words we read are those of Tupper Carey but the book has two authors. The introduction and especially the footnotes by Gareth Glover are so authoritative that the book carries complete conviction in its account of the times. The only thing lacking here is some maps.