Historical Record of the Seventeenth, or the Leicestershire Regiment of Foot

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

Rating 3.5

Word count: 138K words
Chapters: 14

Summary

This is the Project Gutenberg electronic edition of Richard Cannon's historical record of the Seventeenth (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot, a typical example of the nineteenth-century British regimental history. Its value lies not in narrative style but in its arrangement of the regiment's formation, numbering changes, garrison postings, and campaigns in chronological order as an archive-like text, offering primary material for the study of British Army organizational history, regimental tradition, and colonial military operations. Regimental histories of this kind were usually compiled from regimental archives and officer rolls; they are dense with entries and thick with names and places, reading more like a reference compilation than popular history. They suit consultation on specific questions rather than continuous reading. The electronic edition allows full-text search, letting readers quickly locate campaigns, stations, and personnel changes by keyword. Begin with the table of contents and chronological structure, then turn to topics of interest; readers unfamiliar with the British military system should first understand the relationship between regiment and battalion, or they will be tangled in numbers and titles.

Editor's review

This book is the Project Gutenberg electronic edition of Richard Cannon's historical record of the Seventeenth (Leicestershire) Regiment of Foot of the British Army, a typical work in the nineteenth-century genre of British military regimental history. Its value lies not in narrative flair but in arranging the regiment's formation, changes in numbering and title, garrison movements, and campaigns in chronological order into an archive-like text that can be consulted, providing primary material for studying the organizational history of the British Army, regimental traditions, and colonial military operations. Regimental histories of Cannon's kind were usually written from regimental archives and officer rolls; the entries are dense and the names of people and places numerous, so it reads more like a compilation of materials than popular history. It is suited to consultation with specific questions in mind rather than reading straight through. The electronic edition allows full-text searching, so readers can quickly locate battles, stations, and personnel changes by keyword. When reading, it is best to look first at the table of contents and the chronological structure, then enter according to interest; readers unfamiliar with the British military system are advised to first understand the relationship between the regiment and its battalions, or they may easily be confused by regimental numbers and titles.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students of military history researching the British Army and its regimental tradition
Genealogists and local historians who need to consult the records of the Leicestershire Regiment
Readers interested in British overseas garrisons around the Napoleonic era
Reference-oriented readers accustomed to searching historical sources in electronic text

Not a good fit for

General readers expecting a continuous narrative with character-driven stories
Beginners without a grounding in British military organization who may be overwhelmed by names and regimental numbers
Casual readers looking only for short, light articles

Reading tips

Read the contents and preface first to grasp the chronological format and the clues to changes in regimental designation, then decide which chapters to read closely.
Use the full-text search of the electronic edition to locate entries by place name, battle name, or officer's surname, and read thematically.
Keep a brief table of British Army ranks and regimental/battalion organization at hand for ready reference.
Take excerpt notes on key entries, recording dates and source page numbers for later verification.

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 book a general history or a compilation of sources?

It is closer to a compilation of sources. It records the regiment's formation, designations, garrisons, and campaigns in chronological order, with dense entries dominated by names, places, and dates; it is weakly narrative and suited to consultation rather than cover-to-cover reading.

Can I read it without knowing British military organization?

You can, but not efficiently. It is advisable first to learn the basics of regimental and battalion organization, rank titles, and the purchase system; otherwise you may be confused by designations and job titles and find it hard to judge which entries matter.

What are the reading advantages of the electronic edition?

The Project Gutenberg edition is a plain-text e-book with full-text search. Readers can jump quickly by campaign name, garrison, or officer's surname, making it better suited than a print book to thematic reference and note-taking.

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.