The Autobiography of Sergeant William Lawrence / A Hero of the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns

A veteran soldier recounts enlistment, overseas expeditions in the River Plate region, and extensive service during the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, narrating skirmishes, sieges, major engagements, wounds, promotions, and periods of invaliding. The narrative blends frontline detail—marches, camp life, supply shortages, foraging, and anecdotes about boots and provisions—with reflective camp gossip and informal judgments on commanders and logistics. Delivered in a plain, orally dictated voice preserved with idiosyncratic phrasing, the account moves chronologically through notable battles and sieges to the war's end, concluding with the author's personal impressions of hardship, duty, and the soldier's lot.