This is an immensely long, detailed - but an anecdotal and far-from-dry military manual telling a young Redcoat officer all that he needed to know about soldiering in 1776, the time of the American War of Independence. The range is huge, moving from detailed orders on dress and dressage, to notes on the formation of a staff, how to defend a fortress, quell a fire down to what sort of buttons are permitted on waistcoats, to an alphabetical glossary of military terms. This book would have been an indispensible addition to the library of any serving soldier in the late 18th century, and it is...