Wellington’s Rifles: The Origins, Development and Battles of the Rifle Regiments in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo

Until now there has not been a serious study of the rifle-armed regiments of the British Army that earned such renown in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. Compiled by a former rifleman, Ray Cusick, who has written extensively on the subject, Wellington’s Rifles examines the new rifle regiments, how they came about, their development and their actions.

The author also investigates the introduction of rifled muskets into the British Army in the French and Indian wars of the eighteenth century, where they were shunned by the military establishment, to their transition into a key element in Wellington’s extraordinarily successful Peninsular army.

The training and tactics of the riflemen are explained and each significant engagement in which they were involved is explored in thrilling detail. It was the riflemen of the 95th Regiment that inspired the series of Sharpe books and films. That was the fiction; this is the reality.

The publication will be introduced by the renowned Napoleonic historian Ian Fletcher.

Ray Cusick served in the Rifle Brigade and later in the King's Royal Rifle Corps with active service spent in the Middle East, principally in Palestine. After the Army, Ray taught art and history. An interest in writing came about whilst writing short plays for the BBC's training department, the writing increased over the years, in particular in the form form of articles for various magazines including The Age of Napoleon, First Empire, Journal of the Waterloo Association and the journal of The King's Royal Rifle Corps. Since moving near Horsham, he began research on its military past, Horsham barracks and the Experimental Corps of Riflemen who first mustered there in 1800. The outcome of such output was that Ray was invited to become a Fellow of the International Napoleonic Society.