Walls of Jericho: A Cavalry Tale
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About this ebook
In the early years of the 19th century, historians would have us believe that British dragoons were an untrained and uncontrollable rabble - a liability wherever they were posted. In the Duke of Wellington's words, merely 'galloping at everything.' And perhaps that view of the cavalry is true.
Or...maybe not.
In the freezing February of 1805, deep in a Gloucestershire woodland, two young men met by accident.
This is their story.
Jonathan Hopkins
When my father died, one of the things he left me was a box of Bernard Cornwell’s ‘Sharpe’ novels. I’d watched the TV series, of course, but never read any of the books. And much to my surprise, not being a history buff, I enjoyed them.But one thing grated. Sharpe was very critical of his British cavalry comrades; something that didn’t sit well with one who’s been involved with horses for much of his life. They could not have been that inept, could they? So I started to read more about horsemen in the Duke of Wellington’s day; contemporary and modern histories, diaries, newspaper and magazine articles, anything relevant I could find, in fact. And what I mostly found was the same old disparaging attitude.In the meantime, fed up with typical wife-grumbles (‘you’re not romantic anymore/never buy me flowers/we don’t do anything different etc, etc.) I decided the most effective riposte would be to deliver flowers, on our anniversary, on horseback, dressed as a 19th century hussar, followed by a carriage drive to lunch. This entailed making a full set of reproduction period horse-tack, a job I thought would not be too difficult for someone who works with leather. However, I soon discovered that patterns for equipment available in the early 1800’s were non-existent, forcing me to work from period illustrations and paintings. A useful knock-on effect of this turned out to be requests from historical re-enactors for other reproduction leather items – my latest project is a crupper (strap to stop the saddle sliding forward) to fit an 1805 pattern hussar saddle.All the extra research I’d done to enable me to make a Napoleonic hussar’s equipment convinced me I was right: that historians’ attitudes to the cavalry of the time were grossly unfair. And because I’m no historian, but have always believed I can tell a good story, I thought I must write something to challenge the Duke of Wellington’s often-quoted view that his cavalry were an uncontrolled rabble who merely resorted to ‘charging at everything’.Unfair comment based on misinformation, and widely reported: that is the reason I started to write what became ‘Walls of Jericho.’And I'm still writing. See the second book in the series (published by Bretwalda Books) here:https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/343318
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Reviews for Walls of Jericho
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hopkins has set out to tell a tale that is epic in scope.The Napoleonic Wars were perhaps the first World War since Alexander set out on his conquests, or the Mongols began their generational devouring of the world. Certainly since the Seven Years War.Here Hopkins takes us through, often with great attention to detail, the life of a young ensign and lieutenant in a cavalry regiment about to join with Arthur Wellesley and start fighting the French. It also deals with this heroes great friend, a natural with horses, but the son of a blacksmith.Society would keep such a person away from the Ton, but Hopkins seems to want our hero to not recognize the class society of the times, or thinks that there can be two heroes that can rise up and that we can follow.That is one thing that makes the telling difficult. Another is that we dwell a great deal on what happens before the action of war. There are many books where that backstory is told effectively, but here a few too many pages are devoted to the development of the heroes friendship and interaction with each other.Should getting through that very long beginning you arrive at Portugal, then the pace picks up. Perhaps the interlude amongst the Portugeese and the intrigue that takes place is unnecessary, but we get into the battle and here we have a feel for combat that brings an even better feeling than we ever had with Cornwell's Sharpe. Their the sparseness of the 95th and Sharpe's interactions as he rose through the ranks are no comparison to Hopkins sweeping portrayal of the battlefield.