ABSTRACT
The Subaltern Officer was reportedly written several years before it appeared in print, but it still cannot be said to have been recorded concurrent with the events it described, nor did George Wood use a journal to aid his memory. He declined to include dates in the book for this very reason. Despite these admissions, Wood, an ensign at the opening of the book, nevertheless professed to “lay claim to truth and accuracy” (vi). He also declared that one of his main aims was to correct a misperception he believed to exist among readers who consumed the growing body of published memoirs of men in the ranks “that the sufferings and hardships of war are almost exclusively the lot of the private soldier” (vii). He was not entirely silent on the latter, however. The first excerpt described families’ and sweethearts’ sorrow at the regiment’s orders from Uxbridge for Derby, and the second excerpt illustrated the perils of campaign journeys for camp-following families. Wood was promoted to Lieutenant in 1807, shortly before service in Gibraltar and the Mediterranean, followed by participation in various campaigns in the Iberian Peninsula.
