Historical Record of the Fifty-Third, or the Shropshire Regiment of Foot

Cannon, Richard, 1779-1865Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0

Word count: 163K words
Chapters: 17

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Historical Record of the Fifty-Third, or the Shropshire Regiment of Foot by CannonAuthor: Cannon, Richard, 1779-1865,Language: English, Class: UA: Military science: Armies: Organization, distribution, military situation, Release Date: Mar 25, 2018

Editor's review

This book is a regimental history of a British infantry regiment compiled by Richard Cannon in the nineteenth century, a primary source at the intersection of military and institutional history. Its value lies not in literary style but in its archival record of the Fifty-Third (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot during a specific period, traced through organization, regimental number, garrison postings, campaigns, and personnel changes. It is an indispensable reference for readers studying the evolution of the British Army's organization, colonial garrisons, and modern military administration. As a public-domain eBook, it is easy to search and cite, making it suitable as a source for footnotes or as a base text for local military history research. It should be read as historical source material rather than popular history; its full outline emerges only when cross-checked against maps, chronologies, and other regimental histories. Readers seeking battle scenes and personal stories may find its entry-style format dry, but those seeking institutional detail in primary sources will find it a desk reference to consult repeatedly and excerpt passage by passage.

Who it's for

A good fit for

History students researching modern British military institutions and army organization
Local history enthusiasts interested in regimental histories, county records, and military archives
Master's and doctoral researchers needing public-domain primary sources for citation
Military buffs interested in nineteenth-century army administration and garrison records

Not a good fit for

General history readers expecting continuous battle narratives and personal stories
Readers who want a quick overview of campaigns without consulting archival formats
Readers who prefer original Chinese military history and avoid English primary sources

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and preface to clarify the regiment's numbering changes and time span, then decide which chapters to read closely.
Keep a map of English counties and a chronology of army organization at hand to check place names and ranks as you read.
Excerpt personnel and garrison entries into tables for comparison with other regimental histories.
There is no need to read the whole book; select relevant years and chapters according to your research question.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this a complete regimental history or a record of a certain period?

Judging from the title and compilation format, it is one volume in Cannon's series of regimental histories, recording the organization, garrisons, and campaigns of the Fifty-Third (Shropshire) Regiment of Foot for a specific period rather than covering its entire history. Readers should first confirm the period covered to avoid treating it as a complete history.

Is the English archival style too difficult for non-specialist readers?

The book consists mainly of entry-style records with repetitive sentence patterns and concentrated terminology, which non-specialist readers may find dry at first. It is advisable to become familiar with ranks, regimental numbers, and place names first, and to build background with an overview of Chinese military history; the reading difficulty will then drop noticeably.

Is the public-domain electronic edition suitable for direct citation?

As a public-domain document it can be used for research and citation, but electronic editions may differ in layout and OCR. For formal citation, check page numbers or chapter locations and cross-check against the print or other editions to ensure accuracy.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Cannon, Richard, 1779-1865 Author

Richard Cannon (1779–1865) was a British military historian. Public information about him is limited, and few details of his life are systematically recorded. The library holds twenty-eight of his works, almost all of them historical records of British Army regiments, including the Historical Record of the Seventeenth, or the Leicestershire Regiment of Foot; the Historical Record of the Seventh, or the Queen's Own Regiment of Hussars; the Historical Record of the Fourth, or the King's Own Regiment of Foot; the Historical Record of the First, or Royal Regiment of Foot; the Historical Record of the Sixth, or Royal First Warwickshire Regiment of Foot; the Historical Record of the Sixth, or Inniskilling Regiment of Dragoons; the Historical record of the Seventh Regiment, or the Royal Fusiliers; and the Historical Record of the Twelfth, or the Prince of Wales's Royal Regiment. These works trace regimental lineage, campaigns and organizational change in a well-ordered format with substantial documentation, typical of nineteenth-century British military histories, and remain useful references for the study of British Army regimental history.