yikes. Didn't realize life had gotten so busy that I was unable to post here for a month. Sorry. But here is a little something, regarding the recent death of the brilliant Sir John Keegan, which I only learned about tonight.
I wrote this as a post on Facebook, but here's a version for anyone that stumbles on this blog and doesn't know me:
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Here's another bit about Keegan. This one gives a better feel for what he wrote about.
The story that most sticks in my mind was from something I read-"The Face of Battle", perhaps, though I think not- in which he tells of visiting a (The?) royal museum of military medicine.
At any rate, he toured it with the physician who was the director. Keegan casually mentioned at one point that in the days of Waterloo and other battles of the era, a common wound was for a soldier to be hit with fragments of bone and teeth from the men next to him- a danger quite possible in the days when large, soft lead rounds whacked into men who were standing shoulder to shoulder and nearly front to back.
To his surprise, the director was unaware of that factoid, and apparently was quite skeptical. Though given Keegan's expertise (this was after "Battle" was released) I don't know why he would have been. Sir John made us all aware of what it was like to stand in the ranks at Agincourt or Waterloo, where one would have no idea what was happening mere yards away... Even as the tide of history ebbed and flowed.
RIP Sir John. Wish I had made more effort to read your work at the Telegraph.
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