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The Adjutant General’s Department

The Adjutant General’s Department

The Adjutant General's Department

By Robert Burnham & Gareth Glover

The Adjutant General’s Department was responsible for unit returns, discipline, correspondence, and the transmittal of orders and communications. The army would have an adjutant general, a deputy adjutant general, assistant adjutant generals, and deputy assistant adjutant generals.

Anonymous. Letters from Germany and Holland, during the Years 1813 – 15; with a detailed account of the operations of the British Army in Those Countries, and of the Attacks upon Antwerp and Bergen-op-Zoom, by the Troops under the Command of Gen. Sir. T. Graham. London: Thomas & George Underwood, 1820. 206 pages.

Notes: the author is unknown. He served on the staff of both General Graham and General Gibbs during the campaign. He was with the Guards Column commanded by General Cooke during the assault on Bergen-op-Zoom. Based on his descriptions, he was most likely serving in the Adjutant General Department.

Browne, Thomas H. The Napoleonic War Journal of Captain Thomas Henry Browne: 1807-1816. Roger N. Buckley (ed.). London: Army Records Society; 1987. 388 pages

Notes: 23rd Fusiliers until 1812; served in Adjutant General’s Office, attached to 4th Division.

Bunbury, Henry. Narratives of Some Passages in the Great War with France: 1799-1810, London: Peter Davies; 1927. 324 pages.

Notes: Served in Holland and in the Mediterranean; never in the Peninsula; great detail on the Egypt Campaign — where he never served.

Elley, John. “Letter # 4” in Letters from the Battle of Waterloo: Unpublished Correspondence by Allied Officers from the Siborne Papers. Gareth Glover (ed.). London: Greenhill; 2004. Pages 30 -31

Notes: was a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Horse Guards and a Deputy Adjutant General at Waterloo.

Elley, John. “Letter to Lieutenant Colonel Hawkshaw” in Gareth Glover (ed.). The Waterloo Archive Volume VI: British Sources. Barnsley: Frontline, 2014. Pages 11 – 12.

Notes: was a lieutenant colonel in the Royal Horse Guards and a Deputy Adjutant General at Waterloo. Covers French cavalry charge, especially Wellington’s thoughts about preparing for it. Letter was based on “notes by Dr Jebb, Bishop of Limerick who had them direct from Sir John Elley.”

Gomm, William. “Letters to Sophia dated 19 June 1815” in Gareth Glover (ed.). The Waterloo Archive Volume VI: British Sources. Barnsley: Frontline, 2014. Page 15.

Notes: was a lieutenant colonel in the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards and an Assistant Quartermaster General in the 5th Division. Had two horses wounded at Waterloo.

Letters and Journals of Field-Marshal Sir William Maynard Gomm from 1799 to Waterloo 1815 by Francis C Carr-Gomm London, Murray 1881 378 pages.

Pakenham Letters 1800 to 1815. Godmanchester: Ken Trotman, 2009. 261 pages.

Notes: Many letters from Hercules Robert Pakenham who was a Deputy Assistant Adjutant General in the Peninsula from October 1809 – January 1810; Assistant Adjutant General of the 3rd Division from April 1810 – June 1812. First letter is dated November 1809 and last is 3 April 1812; he was severely wounded at Badajoz.

Rooke, Henry W. “Letter # 95, dated 1 December 1835” in Letters from the Battle of Waterloo: Unpublished Correspondence by Allied Officers from the Siborne Papers. Gareth Glover (ed.). London: Greenhill; 2004. Pages 157 – 158

Notes: Was in 2nd Battalion 3rd Foot Guards; served as Assistant Adjutant General on General Cooke’s staff.

Rooke, Henry W. “Waterloo Letter” in Gareth Glover (ed.). The Waterloo Archive Volume I: British Sources. Barnsley: Frontline, 2010. Pages 1- 4

Notes: Was in 2nd Battalion 3rd Foot Guards; served as Assistant Adjutant General on General Cooke’s staff.

Shaw-Kennedy, James. “Letters to Lieutenant Colonel Henry Rooke dated 19 December 1863 and 24 December 1865” in Gareth Glover (ed.). The Waterloo Archive Volume VI: British Sources. Barnsley: Frontline, 2014. Pages 13 – 15

Notes: was a captain in the 43rd Foot and an Assistant Quartermaster General at Waterloo. Discusses Wellington’s treatment of General Count Kielmansegge after Waterloo.” Also went by James Shaw until 1820.

Stanhope. James H. A Staff Officer in the Peninsula and at Waterloo: the Letters of the Honourable Lieutenant Colonel James Stanhope 1st Foot Guards 1809-15. Gareth Glover (ed.) Godmanchester: Ken Trotman, 2007. 44 pages.

Stanhope. James H. Eyewitness ot the Peninsular War and the Battle of Waterloo: the Letters and Journals of Lieutenant Colonel the Honourable James Stanhope 1803 to 1825. Gareth Glover (ed.) Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2010. 258 pages.

Notes: Was in 1st Foot Guards; ADC to Sir John Moore in Corunna Campaign, General Thomas Graham at Cadiz; possibly Wellington at Ciudad Rodrigo; left Peninsula in the early summer of 1812, but returned in fall as the ADC to General Paget; was a DAQG and was serverely wounded during the siege of San Sebastian. Returned back to England in summer of 1813, was an ADC to the Duke of York and then served with General Graham in Holland in 1813 and 1814. Was with his regiment at Waterloo.

Walsh, Thomas. “Day after Day Adds to Our Miseries: the Private Diary of a Staff Officer on the Walcheren Expedition”. Part 1.. Jacueline Reiter (ed.). Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. Autumn 2018 (Vol. 96, # 386). Pages 131 – 151

Notes: was a major in the 56th Foot, but a brevet lieutenant colonel on the staff of General Eyre Coote during the Walcheren Expedition in 1809. First part covers 25 July to 6 August 1809.