The Language of War

This chapter provides an account of how Peninsular War memoir-writers depicted being a soldier in the early nineteenth century. It considers both positive and negative representations of the experience of war, covering themes such as daily life on campaign, comradeship, ideas of martial masculinity, the role of women, and descriptions of violence both on and off the battlefield. In doing so, it highlights the ways in which Napoleonic veterans innovated on previous war writing and contradicted broader, patriotic narratives of the conflict. In the last part of the chapter, the concept of the veteran as active, politicised author is introduced, with examples of soldiers who used their published memoirs to change or challenge national military policy.