Narrative of the Peninsular War, from 1808 to 1813

 Charles William Vane (Stewart)

London, H. Colburn, 1828

[Napoleonic Wars: First Hand Narrative of the Peninsular war in Spain] 2nd edition, printed the same year as the first.  Quarto, 28 cm. Bound in modern cloth, with tooling and lettering to spine.  Dampstain, mostly to rearmost pages, rear plates. Some toning/staining.  XVI, 648, (46) p.  Front folding map, with hand colored outline.  Folding map has some loss at the outer corner margin.  6 battle-plans (Coruna, River Douro, Talavera, Fuentes and Villa Formosa, Badajoz, Cuidad Rodrigo).  Armorial book plate of James Thomson. 

The author Charles Steward (later Vane) was an Irish solider in the British army.  After serving the French Revolutionary Wars, and the suppression of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, he served as a cavalry commander in the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic wars.  Stewart served in the hussar brigade under Sir John Moore and played a prominent role in the battle of Benavente.  He served as adjutant-general under Wellington throughout the campaigns of 1810 and 1811. After his war service he became the British ambassador to Metternich's Austria.  He wrote this book in 1828 on his Napoleonic war service "based upon letters written by him to Castlereagh during the war, and combines freshness of style with much exact information. It did not include the campaigns of 1812 and 1813." -DNB.  He was the governor of Londonderry and one of the wealthiest men in the United Kingdom.