LETTERS of COLONEL SIR AUGUSTUS SIMON FRAZER KCB COMMANDING THE ROYAL HORSE ARTILLERY DURING THE PENINSULAR AND WATERLOO CAMPAIGNS

The writer of these letters, Colonel Sir Augustus Simon Frazer, K.C.B, was born in September 1776 and a month before his fourteenth birthday he was admitted as a Gentleman Cadet into the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. In September 1793 he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery and in December he joined the army in Flanders, then under the command of HRH the Duke of York. He was promoted Lieutenant in January 1794 and saw action in the Flanders campaign, returning to England with the army in May 1795 when he was appointed to the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA). In September 1799, now a Captain-Lieutenant, he again went on active service, to North Holland, returning to England in November. He became a captain in 1803 and was given command of a troop of RHA which, in 1807 he took to South America where he commanded the Artillery of the expedition against Buenos Aires. Promoted Major in June 1811 he went to the Peninsula in November 1812, and it is from this date that the letters begin. In April 1813 Frazer was appointed to command the Horse Artillery of the army and as such saw action at Salamanca, Osma, Vitoria, St Sebastian, the crossings of the Bidassoa, Nive and Adour. He was severely wounded at the siege of Bayonne on 27 February 1814 but was back for the final battle of Toulouse in April which brought hostilities against the French to a close. He then returned to England, receiving the Peninsular Medal with two clasps and KCB, and appointed to command of the Artillery in the eastern district. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in December 1814. When war with France broke out again on Napoleon’s escape from Elba Sir Augustus joined the allied army in Flanders, under the Duke of Wellington, in March 1815 and resumed command of the Horse Artillery, the post he held during the battle of Waterloo. On return to England he was appointed commander HQ RHA, Woolwich until promoted Colonel in January 1825. Subsequently he was Assistant Inspector of the Ordnancer Carriage Department, and finally Director of the Royal Laboratory. a positon he held till his death on 1 June 1835 in his fifty-ninth year.
Frazer was a prolific letter writer and the letters contained in this book were written to his wife, Lady Emma Frazer (whom he married in 1809) and to his wife’s sister and her husband, Major and Mrs Moore. They give a fascinating account of the stirring events of the time. 140 of them were written during the Peninsular campaign and a further 41 during the Waterloo campaign. They describe events literally as they occurred