Frederick Sleigh Roberts (1832–1914)

One wishes all of history's winners could write similarly illuminating accounts. Robert's autobiography tells a very partial history of the Raj, but offers great insight on how campaigns were conducted and won. The mutiny and the second Afghan war receive much of the focus (also: Abyssinia, Bangladesh).

Things I learned:
-In the 1850s, regulations required that recruits served a decade in India before becoming eligible for leave
-The new cartridges really were made with pig and cow grease, something Roberts excoriates as infuriating incompetence
-Roberts' two preoccupations: logistics, and keeping the initiative. (and selection of his officers, I should add)
-On the former, his constant attention to the procurement, treatment, and loading of pack animals.
-On the latter, it's remarkable how frequently he chooses to attack against superior numbers in order to retain initiative and break the morale of the opposition -- the attack on the Afghan position on the was to Kabul as an example
-Most of his attacks employed some form of indirection
-His advice on the Burma expedition that it's fruitless for any column to go after dacoits unless they are provisioned the march 10 days or more
-The camaraderie between the highlanders and the ghurkas
-The quality of English education -- Roberts' prose style is superb
-Small insane details: hiking to his snowed in house in tibet, his son's nanny trying to murder her charge to get out of the job (her husband wouldn't let her leave because of the wages), carrion birds too fat to fly in the aftermath of the capture of Delhi, the native soldier losing a hand propping open the door of a fortified position which they then storm, overwhelming the defenders, the man who blew the gates of delhi being killed later by a misjudging a delayed low fuse.… (plus d'informations)

The first thing that struck me on reading this first volume of Lord Robert's memoirs,was that while they were written in 1897,the writing was absolutely modern.In the course of the book he tells in great detail the story of the Indian Mutiny
including the Siege of Delhi and The Relief of Lucknow.
He writes regarding the latter event ,'The Relief of the Lucknow garrison was now accomplished-a grand achievement indeed,of which any Commander might well be proud,carried out as it had been in every particular as originally planned,thus demonstrating with what care each detail had been thought out,and how admirably movement after movement had been executed.'
For anyone wanting a detailed description of the happenings at that time in India,albeit from the British point of view,one cannot do better than to read these two volumes and to consult the maps which accompany the text.… (plus d'informations)