D.G. Chandler (ed.)

A Journal of Marlborough's Campaigns
During the War of the Spanish Succession 1704-1711
by John Marshall Deane
Private Sentinel in Queen Anne's First Regiment of Foot Guards
 

Contemporary accounts by Other Ranks are rare for any period before the 20th Century. [...] First-hand sources in English by serving soldiers of any rank that have survived and are known (although who can estimate how many more may still lie concealed or ignored?) cannot number more than a dozen and a half. [...] Works by NCOs and Other Ranks [...] include Sergeant John Millner's Compendious Journal (1733) [...] and [...] Private John Marshall Deane, of Her Majesty Queen Anne's First Regiment of Footguards, whose short Journal of the Campaign in Flanders AD MDCCVIII has been known since 1846 – but whose almost full narrative of Marlborough's major campaigns is only now being published for the first time. [...] Although much that he has written has been long known from other sources and therefore has only corroborative value, and enfuriatingly omits matters of minor everyday detail of a soldier's life which he takes for granted, there are several points of significant detail concerning military operations that emerge. [...] One example is his definite identification of certain regiments as fighting in Blenheim village on 2/13 August 1703 – where certain scholars have thrown doubt upon their presence. Another is the detailed specifications he gives of the Lines of Brabant and the full descriptions of the great sieges of Lille, Tournai, Douai and Aire. [...]

There is one more aspect of this chronicle that merits attention. By reading between the lines it is often possible to observe Deane's development as man and soldier. In 1704 he marches to the Danube almost as a tourist [...] but later, as one long campaign merges into another, and yet another, there are traces of war-weariness detectable. [...] His end of campaign summations become ever more fervent in their heart-felt prayers to the Lord for the rapid conclusion of a just peace.

From the Introduction

Total Evaluation
Contents
Science
Maps
Illustrations
Remarks	The editing is fantastic; if Deane's memoirs were of more interest for social history, this publication would be a 'very good'.

Published by Society for Army Historical Research, [London] 1984
Special Publication No. 12
160 pages with 15 black-and-white illustrations and 9 maps (2 folding), out of print

Text and Illustration © 1984 Society for Army Historical Research
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