Recollections Of The Eventful Life Of A Soldier : By The Late Joseph Donaldson, Sergeant In The Ninety-Fourth Scots Brigade

Donaldson "was born in Glasgow, where his father was employed by a mercantile house. With some school companions he ran away to sea and made a voyage to the West Indies, which disenchanted him of a sea life, and he returned home and was sent back to school by his father. Early in 1809 he again ran away, and without communicating with his friends enlisted in the old 94th (Scotch, or Scots, brigade). He accompanied the regiment to Jersey, then to Spain, where it took part in the desperate defence of Fort Matagorda during the siege of Cadiz, and afterwards was with Picton's division in the principal battles and sieges in the Peninsula from 1811 to 1814" (Oxford DNB). He "was an intelligent man, and possessed a wider set of interests than was common in the ranks, so that it is always worthwhile to look up his notes and observations. His description of the horrors of Masséna's retreat from Portugal in 1811 is a very striking piece of lurid writing . . . The Eventful Life of a Soldier is well worth reading" (Oman, Wellington's army p. 30). Author — Sergeant Joseph Donaldson (1793-1830) Text taken, whole and complete, from the edition published in Philadelphia, G. B. Zieber & co., 1845. Original Page Count – vii, and 231 p. Illustrations — 9 maps and plans. Donaldson "was born in Glasgow, where his father was employed by a mercantile house. With some school companions he ran away to sea and made a voyage to the West Indies, which disenchanted him of a sea life, and he returned home and was sent back to school by his father. Early in 1809 he again ran away, and without communicating with his friends enlisted in the old 94th (Scotch, or Scots, brigade). He accompanied the regiment to Jersey, then to Spain, where it took part in the desperate defence of Fort Matagorda during the siege of Cadiz, and afterwards was with Picton's division in the principal battles and sieges in the Peninsula from 1811 to 1814" (Oxford DNB). He "was an intelligent man, and possessed a wider set of interests than was common in the ranks, so that it is always worthwhile to look up his notes and observations. His description of the horrors of Massňa's retreat from Portugal in 1811 is a very striking piece of lurid writing ... The Eventful Life of a Soldier is well worth reading" (Oman, Wellington's army p. 30)