There is no shortage of officers’ published memoirs and papers from this period, particularly when it comes to the Napoleonic Wars. All of them provide a certain insight into various different aspects of the life, activities and attitudes of Georgian officers, but three in particular stand out. For the early part of the period there is Colonel Samuel Bagshawe and the Army of George II edited by Alan J. Guy (London, 1990), a collection of papers which is particularly useful for the business side of running an infantry battalion. For the American Revolutionary War – and indeed for the period as a whole – John Peebles’ American War 1776–1782 edited by Ira Gruber (London 1997) is an extremely detailed diary which provides the most complete picture of everyday life in an infantry battalion. In the Service of the King; The Letters of William Thornton Keep edited by Ian Fletcher (Staplehurst 1997) does a similar, albeit much thinner, job for the early 1800s.
Other contemporary material of particular interest includes Humphrey Bland’s Treatise of Military Discipline – first published in 1727 and still going strong 40 years later; Captain Thomas Simes’ Military Medley (1768) and the anonymously edited General Wolfe’s Instructions to Young Officers recently republished by the Canadian Museums Service. The anonymous (and hilarious) Advice to the Officers of the British Army was reprinted in 1946 and may still be found cheaply in second-hand book dealers. More officially the Rules and Regulations for the Formations, Field Exercise and Movements of his Majesty’s Forces (1792) are essential reading, together with the formidably titled A Collection of Orders, Regulations and Instructions for the Army on matters of Finance and Points of Discipline immediately connected therewith (1807).
More modern works of some importance include Alan J. Guy’s Economy and Discipline; Officership and Administration in the British Army 1714–1763 (Manchester 1985), John A. Houlding’s Fit for Service; The Training of the British Army 1715–1795 (Oxford 1981), and John A. Hall’s Biographical Dictionary of British Officers Killed and Wounded 1808–1814 (London 1998).