The Recollections of Rifleman Harris

Benjamin Harris (1781-1858) was a rifleman in the English army, fighting against Napoleon in the European wars that culminated with Napoleon's loss at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. By the time of Waterloo, Harris had endured many campaigns and had been forced by illness to leave the Army and return to England to ply his trade as a shoemaker. He had joined the 95th Regiment of Foot in 1803, serving first in Denmark and then in 1808-09 in Portugal and Spain. Back in England, Harris encountered a former British Army officer and prolific novelist named Henry Curling (1803-64), who recorded Harris' memories of his life as a soldier and created this unique text from those accounts.