Eyewitness Accounts from the Napoleonic Wars: Spain and Portugal 1808-1814

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In 1808, Napoleon launched a war against Spain, sparking a savage conflict that lasted nearly six years, cost half a million lives, and helped to bring down his empire.

We tell the story of this war through more than a dozen dramatic accounts from Spanish, French, British, German and Polish participants. Together, they provide a raw and unflinching perspective of Napoleon's doomed attempt to conquer the Iberian peninsula.

For the Spanish, it was their ‘War of Independence’ – for their British allies, ‘the Peninsular War’. These are the voices of witnesses to those momentous days.

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Thank you to Osprey Publishing for kind permission to use several of their images in this video. They have many excellent books covering the Peninsular War such as:

Spanish Guerrillas in the Peninsular War 1808–14:
Corunna 1809:
Badajoz 1812:
Salamanca 1812:
Vittoria 1813:

📚 Reading list:
‘Memoirs of a French Napoleonic Officer’ by Jean-Baptiste Barres
US:
UK:

‘Peninsular Eyewitnesses: The Experience of War in Spain and Portugal 1808-1813’ by Charles J. Esdaille
UK:

‘The Recollections of Rifleman Harris’ by Benjamin Randell Harris
US:
UK:

‘Adventures in the Rifle Brigade: In the Peninsula, France and the Netherlands from 1809 to 1815’ by John Kincaid
US:
UK:

‘The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence: A Hero of the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns’ by William Lawrence
US:
UK:

‘Der Nassauer Johann Biersack: Sein Leben Als Soldat von 1806 Bis 1814’ compiled by Dr Reinhard Münch (translated by Mo-Chueh for the Weltseele Project: )

‘With Napoleon's Guns: The Military Memoirs of an Officer of the First Empire’ by Jean-Nicolas-Auguste Noël
US:
UK:

‘A British Rifle Man: The Journals & Correspondence of Major George Simmons, Rifle Brigade during the Peninsular War & Campaign of Waterloo’ by George Simmons
US:

You can visit our online bookshop to find great books on the Peninsular War and other Epic History topics:
UK site -
US site -
As a bookshop.org affiliate we earn from qualifying purchases, while donating 10% of sales to support independent bookshops!

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