GLEIG, George R.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A Narrative of the Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans, Second edition, following the first of 1821. This copy was owned by the Peninsular War veteran Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer (1775-1850), aide-de-camp to King George III (1810-12) and future Governor General of British North America, and has his signature dated 1827 on the title page and his bookplate.Gleig's famous Narrative reviews the British army's victories and defeats in America, with his philosophical conclusions about war, politics and society. It was praised for its balanced treatment of the war: "On the English side... there are accounts by participants, the best of which is the Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans. The Rev. George Robert Gleig, the author, served in the British army (subsequently chaplain of H. M. Forces), and his narrative of the Washington campaign, based upon his journal, is exceedingly temperate and valuable. Although not without inaccuracies, its tone is judicial, and the author evidently intends to be fair" (Winsor, p. 435).

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