Featured battle : Civitate

Part of Norman Conqest of Southern Italy

Date : 18 June 1053

The Pope's army was waiting for a link up with the Byzantine army. The Normans, who were almost all cavalry, split into three divisions. The Pope's army was arranged in two wings. The first division drove off the left wing of their opponents and the other two divisions engaged the right wing [a much stronger group]. The first division returned to take the Pope's men in the rear. A crushing and significant Norman victory.

Blood, Guts and Gore.

John Gordon Smith
This book is to be enjoyed as a novel although it is so much more than that. The true adventure of John Gordon Smith, an Assistant Surgeon with the 12th Light Dragoons, from pre-Waterloo, through the battle to the end of the occupation of France. Previously published in 1830 and now resurrected by Gareth Glover whose introduction and footnotes enhance the text.
This book is little more than a fascinating insight into one man’s experiences and thereby to an understanding of soldiering in that time. One can learn How to persuade a young man to have his shattered arm amputated. That the French did not serve horseradish, considered a necessity, with roast beef but it could be obtained from the apothecaries. How you find your regiment again after you’ve been left behind for three days caring for wounded. All this and much more is in John Gordon Smith’s reality and he tells it well.
We warmly recommend it to a wide range of readership.

Pen & Sword History, 2022