WARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

£850 · Offered by Peter Harrington

A sammelband of military treatises. First editions, including a detailed examination of cavalry strategy illustrated with many battle diagrams. The bookplate and stamps are of Francis Charles Hastings Russell, the son of Lord George William Russell, an aide-de-camp to Ludlow, Graham, and Wellington. Hamilton Smith's work is inscribed by the author; Wiffen's work is one of only 30 copies and is signed by Lord Hastings Russell.Hastings Russell (1819-1891) served in the Scots Fusilier Guards from 1838 to 1844, before turning to politics. However, his father boasted the stronger military connection, having fought at the battles of Copenhagen, Talavera, and Barossa. His career started in the 1st Dragoon Guards, where he was promoted to lieutenant, before he transferred to the Canadian Fencibles, the 23rd Light Dragoons, and the 8th Dragoons (now the 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars).Smith's Secret Strategical Instructions details over 30 cavalry manoeuvres and positions developed by Frederick the Great as he expanded Prussia through the mid-18th century. The German editors wrote, "Here Frederic fully displays the art, by which he was so constantly victorious... By these principles, peculiarly his own, he was enabled often to accomplish great actions with small comparative means" (p. xiii).

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