A Regimental history of a British Army unit, originally called the 54th, then the 43rd Regiment, (Monmouthshire Light Infantry), later incorporated into the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. Formed in 1741, the Regiment's first action came during the War of Austrian Succession when it defended the island of Minorca. The writer gives vivid and humane accounts of regimental life in its early years - including a fearsome punishment for cowardice known as 'riding the horse'. The 43rd were present at Wolfe's great victory at Quebec, and the author gives a colourful account of the battle, and of its next engagement in the American War of Independence, in which it fought at Lexington, Bunker Hill and finally Yorktown. During the Napoleonic Wars, the regiment was present at Sir John Moore's retreat to Corunna, the disastrous Walcheren expedition, and the Peninsular war in which it fought at the battles of Busaco, Fuentes d'Onoro, the storming of Ciudad Roderigo and Badajoz, the battles of Vittoria and Salamanca, the Nive and Toulouse. It was back in North America in the War of 1812, and was present at the battle of New Orleans.