author

James Campbell

1787–1858

A British officer turned colonial official, he wrote from direct experience about warfare, military reform, and life across the British Empire. His work offers a blunt, firsthand view of the army in the age of the Napoleonic Wars.

1 Audiobook

A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be : illustrated by examples during the Peninsular War; with observations upon India; the United States of America; Canada; the boundary line; the navy; steam warfare, &c.

A British army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be : illustrated by examples during the Peninsular War; with observations upon India; the United States of America; Canada; the boundary line; the navy; steam warfare, &c.

by James Campbell

About the author

Born in 1787, James Campbell served as a lieutenant-colonel in the British Army and was noted for his service during the Peninsular War. He later settled in New Zealand, where he was appointed a land commissioner and then Registrar of Deeds in Canterbury.

Campbell is also remembered as the author of A British Army, as it was,--is,--and ought to be, a forceful 1840 book shaped by his own military experience. The work reflects his interest in how armies were led, organized, and reformed, and it remains a useful firsthand window into British military thinking in the early nineteenth century.

He died on July 7, 1858. While detailed biographical information is limited in the sources consulted, the surviving record presents him as both a career officer and a practical observer who wrote with strong opinions about the institutions he knew best.