Lieutenant Swabey's personal diary is a unique account of day-to-day events during the Peninsula War and the epic battles that marked this defiant campaign against Napoleon. The volume also includes Swabey's retrospective reminiscences of the war—an addition of amusing anecdotes which complement the diary. Witnessing the fierce cruelty of the Spaniards, encountering hunger and sickness, Swabey's account takes us from July 1811 to August 1813 when he was invalided home, and includes The Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, The Siege and Storm of Badajoz, The Battle of Salamanca, The Battle of Vitoria and The Siege of St. Sebastian.